Empire of Sacrifice : The Religious Origins of American Violence

"It is widely recognized that American culture is both exceptionally religious and exceptionally violent. Americans participate in religious communities in high numbers, yet American citizens also own guns at rates far beyond those of citizens in other industrialized nations. Since 9/11, United States scholars have understandably discussed religious violence in terms of terrorist acts, a focus that follows United States policy. Yet, according to Jon Pahl, to identify religious violence only with terrorism fails to address the long history of American violence rooted in religion throughout the country's history. In essence, Americans have found ways to consider blessed some very brutal attitudes and behaviors both domestically and globally." "In Empire of Sacrifice, Pahl explains how both of these distinctive features of American culture work together by exploring how constructions along the lines of age, race, and gender have operated to centralize cultural power across American civil or cultural religions in ways that don't always appear to be "religious" at all. Pahl traces the development of these forms of systemic violence throughout American history, using evidence from popular culture, including movies such as Rebel without a Cause and Reefer Madness and works of literature such as The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Handmaid's Tale, to illuminate historical events. Throughout, Pahl focuses an intense light on the complex and durable interactions between religion and violence in American history, from Puritan Boston to George W. Bush's Baghdad." --Book Jacket

It is widely recognized that American culture is both exceptionally religious and exceptionally violent. Americans participate in religious communities in high numbers, yet American citizens also own guns at rates far beyond those of citizens in other industrialized nations. Since9/11, United States scholars have understandably discussed religious violence in terms of terrorist acts, a focus that follows United States policy. Yet, according to Jon Pahl, to identify religious violence only with terrorism fails to address the long history of American violence rooted in religion throughout the country’s history. In essence, Americans have found ways to consider blessed some very brutal attitudes and behaviors both domestically and globally.

In Empire of Sacrifice, Pahl explains how both of these distinctive features of American culture work together by exploring how constructions along the lines of age, race, and gender have operated to centralize cultural power across American civil or cultural religions in ways that don't always appear to be "religious" at all. Pahl traces the development of these forms of systemic violence throughout American history, using evidence from popular culture, including movies such as Rebel without a Cause and Reefer Madness and works of literature such as The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Handmaid's Tale, to illuminate historical events. Throughout, Pahl focuses an intense light on the complex and durable interactions between religion and violence in American history, from Puritan Boston to George W. Bush's Baghdad.

Publishers Weekly

In this scholarly but generally readable monograph, Lutheran Theological Seminary professor Pahl traces the confluence of violence and religion in the United States. He argues with scholars who situate religious violence largely outside of American borders, claiming instead that it is a “recurrent feature in the formation and development of the United States.” Pahl emphasizes the ways in which, throughout U.S. history, the notion of “sacrifice” has rendered killing justifiable and even holy. Building on the work of theorists like René Girard and Mark Juergensmeyer, Pahl lays out four historical case studies—about youth, race, gender, and capital punishment—to develop his theory: “Americans have found ways to consider blessed some rather brutal attitudes and behaviors... in patterns that are identifiably religious.” His examination, in the epilogue, of the fusion of Christian symbols with military domination in the war on terror, while no longer a unique idea, is more extended and nuanced than most. Particularly helpful is Pahl’s term “innocent domination,” describing a cultural attitude that champions violent systems while remaining convinced of its own virtuous intent. (Feb.)

Contents 6 List of Tables and Figures 8 Preface and Acknowledgments 10 Introduction: Blessed Brutalities 16 1 Rethinking Violence and Religion in America 28 Rethinking “Violence” 30 Rethinking “Religion” 33 Rethinking “Religious Violence” in America 42 2 Sacrificing Youth: From Reefer Madness to Hostel 50 Spectacles of Sacrifice in the Cinema of Adolescence 53 A Theater of Terror, or Innocent Martyrs to the “Beast in the Boudoir” 63 Beyond Hollywood’s Happy Endings 71 3 Sacrificing Race: “The Slaveholding Religion” from Jarena Lee to Spike Lee 78 From Christian Ambivalence to a Total System of Bodily Discipline 83 “A Severe Cross”: Frederick Douglass and a “Religion of Slaveholding” 90 From Jarena Lee to Spike Lee: The (Re)Birth of a Nation? 100 4 Sacrificing Gender: From “Republican Mothers” to Defense of Marriage Acts 118 Asa’s Tale: Patriarchy Lost 124 Abigail’s Tale: Providential Power 133 The Hidden Hand in Handmaids’ Tales 141 5 Sacrificing Humans: An Empire of Sacrifice from Mary Dyer to Dead Man Walking 156 Sacrifice and Empire Building from the Aztecs to Puritan Boston via John Bunyan 157 Mimesis in Massachusetts, 1656–1657 166 Ecstatic Asceticism: The Domination of Discourse and Rhetorical Inversion, 1658–1661 169 Sacrificial Rites and an Imagined Community, 1660–1776 174 Dead Man Walking and an American Empire of Sacrifice 178 Epilogue: Innocent Domination in the “Global War on Terror” 182 Notes 192 Bibliography 236 Index 266 A 266 B 266 C 266 D 267 E 267 F 268 G 268 H 268 I 268 J 268 K 268 L 268 M 269 N 269 O 269 P 269 Q 270 R 270 S 270 T 271 U 271 V 271 W 271 Y 271 About the Author 272