Dreaming of Eden American Religion and Politics in a Wired World

by Thistlethwaite, Susan Brooks

• ISBN13: 9780230107809
• ISBN10: 023010780X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Thistlethwaite offers a new perspective for how Americans can understand themselves as a nation and their roles in their community and the world. Thistlethwaite offers the novel and arresting thesis that the American concept of exceptional innocence, which has dominated the political landscape from the Reagan years forward, is grounded in the deeply engrained narrative of the Garden of Eden. She argues that this mindset has caused no end of trouble, both domestically and internationally. Examples range from Abu Ghraib to our recent economic near-collapse. Cover photography c Candice Wouters / Candinski Photography

Author Biography

The Reverend Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Ph.D., is Professor of Theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. 

From June of 1998 until June of 2008, she served as the 11th President of Chicago Theological Seminary. Prior to the Presidency, she had been a Professor of Theology at CTS for 20 years and director of the Ph.D. Center for five years. She has a Ph.D., from Duke University, a Masters of Divinity (Summa Cum Laude) from Duke Divinity School, and a B.A. from Smith College.

An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, she is the author or editor of six books and has been a translator for two different translations of the Bible.  Thistlethwaite is currently working in a new area she calls “Public Theology.” She writes a weekly column for the Washington Post online edition in the “On Faith” section. 

Some of her previously published works include Adam, Eve and the Genome: The Human Genome Project and Theology (2003), Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States with Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock (1996), and The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Translation (1995). 

Her most recent publication is Interfaith JustPeacemaking: Alternatives to War, edited with Glen Stassen. It was published Oct. 15, 2008 by the United States Institute of Peace.

In addition to her online column, Thistlethwaite is a frequent media commentator on religion and public events. She has had two appearances on ABC News NIGHTLINE, February 28, 2003 and March 4, 2003, and has written more than a dozen newspaper editorials that have appeared in The Chicago Tribune; the Chicago Sun-Times, and Dallas Morning News. She has also been interviewed and quoted on various radio shows in the United States and in the Middle East.

In 1999, the tenth anniversary edition of Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside, a work Thistlethwaite edited with Mary Potter Engel, was published. This is one of the most widely used textbooks in the U.S. to teach theology. Plans are currently underway for the 20th Anniversary edition.

In 1998, Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War, an edited work by Glen Harold Stassen, in which Thistlethwaite contributed the first chapter, was published. In 2002, a revised edition entitled Just Peacemaking: Transforming Initiatives for Justice and Peace was released. Currently, Thistlethwaite, along with an editorial team of Christians, Muslims and Jews, is leading a project to produce an Interfaith Just Peace book.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: Taking a Big Byte out of a Wired World	p. 1
Dreaming of Eden
Adam, Eve, and the Garden	p. 19
Citizens Cain and Abel	p. 35
The Danger of Innocence
Iraq and Torture	p. 57
Financial Meltdown	p. 79
Creation and Climate Change	p. 95
A Better Story
The Practice of Goodness	p. 117
National Security: Wisdom Without Innocence	p. 139
God Doesn't Run Markets, People Do	p. 159
The Millennials: Green Without the Garden?	p. 177
Conclusion: Wisdom Lessons from the "Fall"	p. 199
Notes	p. 221
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