Weird John Brown - Divine Violence and the Limits of Ethics (Paperback)

Conventional wisdom holds that attempts to combine religion and politics will produce unlimited violence. Concepts such as jihad, crusade, and sacrifice need to be rooted out, the story goes, for the sake of more bounded and secular understandings of violence. Ted Smith upends this dominant view, drawing on Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, and others to trace the ways that seemingly secular politics produce their own forms of violence without limit. He brings this argument to life--and digs deep into the American political imagination--through a string of surprising reflections on John Brown, the nineteenth-century abolitionist who took up arms against the state in the name of a higher law. Smith argues that the key to limiting violence is not its separation from religion, but its reconnection to richer and more critical modes of religious reflection. Only political theology can keep secular politics secular. A historical and theoretical intervention, "Weird John Brown" is also a constructive theological proposal for rethinking the nature, meaning, and exercise of violence, both human and divine.

General

Imprint:	Stanford University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Encountering Traditions
Release date:	November 2014
First published:	2014
Authors:	Ted A. Smith
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 14mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade / Trade
Pages:	224
ISBN-13:	978-0-8047-9330-8
Categories:	Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > General Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > Practical & applied ethics Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > Practical & applied ethics Books > Religion & Spirituality > General Promotions
LSN:	0-8047-9330-1
Barcode:	9780804793308

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