Desirable God?

by Burggraeve, Roger; De Tavernier, Johan; Pollefeyt, Didier; Hanssens, Jo

• ISBN13: 9789042913165
• ISBN10: 9042913169
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: Peeters Pub & Booksellers

Summary

Looks at the human fascination with images, and the idolatry or idolization of images as the source of desire, passion and terror. The first part enters more deeply into religious idolatry, past and present. It treats the biblical, the early-Jewish as well as the Christian views on monotheism and the prohibition against images, as source of authentic humanism or as source of intolerance and violence. In the second part, the focus shifts onto a number of contemporary, profane idols and gods: the nationalist fascination for one's own land and people, and the fear or hate towards foreigners; the rampant preoccupation with health, in a context of body culture and aestheticization, of which the postmodern sport idols have become the great 'icons'; the current image- and screen-culture and all forms of audiovisual exorcisms; and finally the ongoing process of economization and globalization, with an expanding culture of 'branding' logos.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Under the Spell of Images, Idols and New Deities	1	(4)
(Roger Burggraeve, Johan De Tavernier, Didier Pollefeyt and Jo Hanssens)
PART I WHERE YOUR GOD IS, THERE YOUR DESIRE WILL BE ALSO	5	(114)
Forms of Religious Idolatry
1. True Faith in God and Forms of Religious Idolatry	7	(32)
(Roger Burggraeve, Johan De Tavernier, Didier Pollefeyt and Jo Hanssens)
God Is the Only One: Put No One in His Place	10	(5)
Faith in the One as Source of Violence	15	(5)
An Utterly Imageless God	20	(3)
Inaccessible God	23	(3)
No Religion Without Images	26	(5)
Religious Idolatry	31	(7)
Conclusion	38	(1)
2. The Prohibition of Idolatry: Source of Humanity or Source of Violence?	39	(22)
Early Jewish and Christian Perspectives on the Prohibition of Images: A Hermeneutic Approach
(Marcel Poorthuis)
The Biblical Prohibition to Make Images	40	(1)
The Prohibition of Idolatry and Monotheism	41	(1)
Idolatry as Adultery	42	(1)
Idolatry as Impurity	45	(1)
Idolatry in Rabbinic Judaism	47	(1)
Idols as 'Nothing'	51	(1)
The Anthropological Turn in the Prohibition of Idolatry	54	(1)
Beyond Anthropocentrism	57	(1)
Conclusions	59	(2)
3. Humans Created and Called in the Image of God	61	(34)
(Roger Burggraeve)
Created in God's Image and Likeness	61	(3)
Do Humans Depict God by Means of Their Mode of
Being?	64	(4)
A Dynamic Image of God	68	(5)
Christ as Icon of God	73	(3)
God-Human and Not Human-God	76	(3)
God's Ethically Qualified Self-Emptying	79	(7)
An 'Icon' and Not an 'Idol' of God	86	(6)
Conclusion	92	(3)
4. Interruptions. Idolatry from the Perspective of 'Political Theology'	95	(26)
(Jürgen Manemann)
The Challenge of the Theology of Liberation	95	(1)
Ideology and Idolatry	96	(2)
The Destruction of Experience	98	(2)
The Apocalyptical Dimension of the Christian Faith	100	(5)
The Dialectics of Secularization	105	(9)
The Anti-Apocalyptical Temptation in Christianity	114	(3)
Hope For the Sake of the Hopeless	117	(2)
PART II WHERE YOUR DESIRE IS, THERE YOUR GOD WILL BE ALSO	119	(154)
Forms of Profane Idolatry
5. Authentic Humanism and Forms of Profane Idolatry	121	(38)
(Roger Burggraeve, Johan De Tavernier, Didier Pollefeyt and Jo Hanssens)
Idols of the Tribe, the Cave, the Market and the Theatre	122	(3)
Secular Humanism as Radical Anti-Idolatry	125	(4)
Forms of Secular Humanism as Human Idolatry	129	(3)
New Idols After the Death of God	132	(4)
Fascinated by the Image-Culture	136	(4)
When the Image Leaves Nothing to the Imagination	140	(4)
Image-Culture and Stardom	144	(4)
Between Culture Pessimism and Fanatic Passion	148	(2)
The Myth of Health	150	(2)
The Body Between Culture and Cult	152	(2)
Money, Greed and Globalizing Economy	154	(3)
Conclusion	157	(2)
6. Between Idyll and Idol. The Fascination with One's Own Turf and the Violence of Convictions	159	(18)
(Bart Verbesselt)
How Multicultural Is Our Society?	159	(1)
The Idyll of One's 'Own' Turf	160	(2)
The Temptation of Idolization	162	(3)
Multiculture: a Dynamic Event?	165	(1)
The New Elite of Mondialization	166	(2)
Defence of Intolerance	168	(2)
Beyond the Pacific Ocean	170	(2)
The Fascination With 'One's Own Turf' and the Violence of Convictions	172	(3)
Multicultural Coexistence as 'Intercreation'	175	(2)
7. The Ideology of Genetic Health	177	(22)
(Kris Dierickx)
Introduction: Genetics in Our Culture	177	(3)
The Place of Health in Our Culture	180	(3)
Genetic Health and 'Geneticalization'	183	(4)
Eugenics: the Past as Prologue?	187	(2)
Genetic Health: a Problematic Expression	189	(3)
Genetic Health and Theology	192	(4)
Conclusion	196	(3)
8. Elite Sports as a Catwalk. The Culture of the Body and the Normalization of Excess	199	(12)
(Bart Vanreusel)
Elite Sports Idols	199	(3)
The Traditional Sports Idol Versus the Post-Modern Sports Idol	202	(1)
The Traditional Sports Idol	203	(1)
The Post-Modern Sports Idol	204	(3)
On the Catwalk	207	(2)
Conclusion	209	(2)
9. The Idolatry of the Screen	211	(14)
(Sylvain De Bleeckere)
The Audiovisual Civilization	211	(2)
The Image-Culture	213	(1)
Idolatry, Medium and Meaning	214	(2)
The Profane Perspective of Heaven	216	(2)
Idols as Image Products	218	(2)
The Alleged Idolatry - Free Idolatry	220	(5)
10. Glamour, Virtual Violence and Dreams of Happiness. The Audiovisual Allaying of Anxiety	225	(1)
(Bart Pattyn)
Imperialistic Deliverance	225	(3)
Theoretic Foundations	228	(6)
Current Changes in Mentality	234	(3)
The Exorcism of Anxiety	237	(1)
Change	238	(3)
11. "I Had Barbie in My Brain"
(Naomi Klein).
Theological Figures of Globalization	241	(1)
(Yves de Maeseneer)
Idolatry: the Limits of a Classical Marxist Topos	242	(1)
The Logo as Icon: Naomi Klein on Branding Capitalism	245	(1)
The Crucified Seraph: the Christian and the Image	250	(1)
'Nike': a Theological Figure of Branding	253	(1)
The Antichrist and the Cross: the Question of Ideology	255	(1)
Postscript: Moses and the Taliban	259	(2)
12. Afterword
Out of the Abundance of the Heart...The Intimate Bond Between Idolatry and Desire	261	(12)
(Roger Burggraeve, Johan De Tavernier, Didier Pollefeyt and Jo Hanssens)
You Shall not Bow Down to Them	262	(1)
Wounded Desire	263	(1)
Purified Desire	267	(1)
Out of the Abundance of the Heart	269	(4)
List of Contributors	273