Religion and the Domestication of Dissent: Or, How to Live in a Less Than Perfect Nation

by McCutcheon,Russell T.

• ISBN13: 9781845530006
• ISBN10: 1845530004
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-08-14
• Publisher: Acumen Pub Ltd

Summary

In their efforts to apportion balme and channel retaliatory action in the post September II world, scholars and pundits alike have used a series of rhetorical techniques to great effect, manufacturing an image of Islam, the proverbial Other, that is highly conducive to the needs of liberal democracies but hardly a reflection of any one of the many 'authentic' Islams. This inevitably results in caricatures that have many uses, in portraits of dissenting groups it tends towards demonization. In this wide-ranging essay a scholar of religion asks the reader to consider how the classifications we use to name and thereby negotiate our social worlds are implicitly political and are being wielded in the public arena to carry out generally undisclosed/underanalyzed social work.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	x
``Religion'' and the Lust for Dogmatic Rule	1	(15)
Swapping Spit Around the Camp Fire	16	(17)
The Tricks and Treats of Classification	33	(14)
A Little More Authentic than was Really Necessary	47	(17)
Another Reason Why Societies Need Dissent	64	(18)
That Versatile Little Problem-Solver	82	(14)
Afterword	96	(1)
Endnotes	97	(14)
Bibliography	111	(8)
Index	119