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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.48273017671
EAN: 9780802828590
ISBN: 0802828590
Label: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 408
Publication Date: June 14, 2004
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Studio: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Features:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
As immediate and relevant as today's headlines, this book sets forth a bold argument with direct implications for political life in America and around the world. Combining incisive cultural analysis and keen religious insight, Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence maintain that American crusading - so powerfully embodied in popular entertainments - has striking parallels with Islamic jihad and Israeli militancy. According to Jewett and Lawrence, American civil religion has both a humane, constitutional tradition and a violent strand that is now coming to the fore. The crusade to rid the world of evil and "evildoers" derives from the same biblical tradition of zealous warfare and nationalism that spawns Islamic and Israeli radicalism. In America, where this tradition has been popularized by superheroic entertainments, the idea of zealous war is infused with a distinctive sense of mission that draws on secular and religious images. These crusading ideals are visible in such events as the settling of the western frontier, the World Wars, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and America's present war on terrorism. In exploring the tradition of zealous nationalism, which seeks to redeem the world by destroying enemies, the authors provide a fascinating access to the inner workings of the American psyche. They analyze the phenomenon of zeal - the term itself is the biblical and cultural counterpart of the Islamic concept of jihad - and address such consequential topics as the conspiracy theory of evil, the problem of stereotyping enemies, the mystique of violence, the obsession with victory, and the worship of national symbols such as flags. This critical book, however, is also immensely constructive. As Jewett and Lawrence point out, the same biblical tradition that allows for crusading mentalities also contains a critique of zealous warfare and a profound vision of impartial justice. This tradition of prophetic realism deri
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
Taking a critical look at one's self in the mirror can be a difficult task, and yet that is exactly what authors Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence ask the reader to do in their well-written work on the Captain America complex. Human nature has a great tendency to live in the present with a very short attention span. The current "war on terror" is a case in point. Public rhetoric in regards to the current state of affairs leads us to believe that the situation is altogether new and completely ... Read More
Rating: -
This is a book with many important points to make. Other reviewers have done a fine job, so I'll point out just a few.
OK, here's the disclaimer first. I am not saying we should not fight terrorism, nor am I denying that "jihad" is a term usually used in reference with making the "world of war" submit to the "world of Islam". That said, I still find the central points of this book very much worth considering, since it seems our nation's foreign policy is in some ways mirroring the jihadist's ... Read More
Rating:  -
Captain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism; Book Review
Extrapolation
September 22, 2004
No. 3, Vol. 45; Pg. 320; ISSN: 0014-5483
Kapell, Matthew
As I sit writing this, American troops remain in Afghanistan and Iraq, some of those troops have recently been implicated in the possible torture of Iraqi citizens and the President is quite sure that the decision to invade these two countries was the correct ... Read More
Rating: -
These two author's earlier work "The Myth of the American Superhero" explored the presentation of Justice as needing a redeemer figure replete with an arsenal of `righteous' weaponary and how this image has affected the US idea of politics. This earlier book represents the `secular' aspects. In "Captain America and the Crusade against Evil" Jewett and Lawrence show how this mindset coupled with the US's puritan backdrop has made this monomyth into a national obsession bearing all the hallmarks of Civil Religion ... Read More
Rating: -
The idea of this book is that comic book superheros are an ideal character in how America solves its foreign policy crisis. The authors want to show that America feels that it has a do it alone mentality to save the world much like comic books.
The authors do not say that comic books make policy, but that they reflect American thoughts regarding its place in the world.
Overall, the authors present their thesis and give adequate material to back up their ideas. However, it seems at times that the superhero ... Read More
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