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Rating:  Summary: An attack on Jesus Review: Nowadays, both Christians and non-Christians prefer to sanitize Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was, you see, really a regular guy, with attitudes and values pretty much like yours and mine, the sort of fellow who would be welcome in any Kiwanis group or at any company picnic. After all, didn't Jesus really invent the concept of being a "team player"?
In this book, Shadia Drury offers a loud dissent from this contemporary consensus about Jesus. She insists on looking closely and honestly at the words of Jesus quoted in the New Testament and thinking carefully about their implications.
In short, Drury refuses to turn Jesus into simply one of history's more successful motivational speakers.
Citing chapter and verse in detail from Jesus himself (Luke 11:23 -- "All those who are not with me are against me"; John 14:6 -- "No man cometh unto the Father but by me"; Matthew 25:41 -- "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire"; etc.), Drury declares that Jesus "has all the qualities of a zealot -- immoderate, intransigent, uncompromising and autocratic..." She concludes, "His singular and autocratic character is reflected in the doctrine of sin as unbelief; his vindictive side is reflected in the doctrine of hell and damantion."
Drury similarly condemns Jesus' moral teachings (e.g., Luke 6:29 --"...him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also"; Matthew 5:39 -- "I say unto you, That ye resist not evil..."). She argues that these place an impossibly high standard on human beings, with the result that Christians simply give up on moral behavior altogether and wallow in a state of guilt and sin.
It is, I think, clear enough that Christian teaching can engender moral hypocrisy. Nearly all Christians, if victimized by a thief, ignore Jesus' admonition to offer the thief their cloak also: Christians either resist such evil directly by themselves or call the police.
However, Drury goes beyond demonstrating the hypocrisy and unworkability of the Christian ethic.
She compares the Christian Church, unfavorably, to the great totalitarian movements of the last century: "The totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century were equally preoccupied with the control of thought. But in comparison to their more successful antecedent [i.e., the Church] they were mere amateurs."
Really?
Moderate estimates of the innocent civilians murdered by Marxist governments during the twentieth century exceed one-hundred million souls (see Rummel's "Death by Government"). Does anyone believe that the death toll attributable to the Christian churches in the twentieth century, or indeed for the whole of the last two thousand years, comes anywhere close to that?
In focusing on religion rather than government as the cause of oppression, Drury's perspective seems out of focus. Ancient governments, long before the advent of Christianity, engaged in massive repression and tyranny -- including actual human sacrifice.
Before the Emperor Constantine absorbed Christianity into the structure of the state, Christians were not known for mass murder, systematic repression, etc. But, once the leaders of government became nominal Christians, Christianity was used to justify the murder, thievery, and oppression in which governments had always engaged.
And, as the post-Christian governments of the twentieth century proved, governments freed of the constraints of Christianity are more than capable of engaging in vicious militarism, imperialism, and mass murder of civilians.
The common thread here is not Christianity; it is government.
On her first page, Drury does refer to government as "the incarnation of force and fraud" but ignores her own point in the rest of the book.
In her final chapter, Drury makes clear that her animus against the Christian religion is partially motivated by the Bush Administration's use of Christianity to justify its policy of unbridled American imperialism.
I yield to no one in my opposition to the disastrous foreign policy of the Bush Administration.
(Full disclosure: I myself voted for Bush in 2000 because he promised a more restrained, "humble" foreign policy than that of the Clinton Administration. Bush, obviously, lied.)
But to believe that this horrific foreign policy is due to Christianity is absurd. The architects of the Bush foreign policy, the so-called "neoconservatives," are largely non-religious secularists of Jewish origin. The Vatican, which represents the overwhelmingly largest body of Christians, strongly criticized the American war on Iraq: the war is clearly a violation of Catholic just-war doctrine.
Furthermore, America's liberal secularist Democratic Party largely supported the Iraq invasion (e.g., both John Kerry and Hillary Clinton voted for the enabling resolution).
Indeed, the famed leftist, anti-imperialist historian Gabriel Kolko, writing in early 2004 in "CounterPunch" magazine, offered an explanation as to "Why Kerry Might be Worse Than Bush." In Kolko's view, the fundamentalist conservatives and the secularist liberals in the American political establishment share a common goal of unchallenged American world hegemony. But the right-wingers are so ham-fisted in their approach that they will probably fail. It is the more subtle imperialism of the American liberals, using the UN, NATO, etc. as clever fig leaves, that has a chance at actually conquering the world.
Drury is too willing to buy the propaganda that portrays the present conflict as a clash between Christendom and Islam. The issue is in fact bipartisan American imperialism versus indigenous populist nationalism.
In "Terror and Civilization," Drury is, as always, readable, insightful, and provocative. Her willingness to directly confront the actual words of Jesus is admirable. But in blaming our own current missteps on Jesus of Nazareth, she over-reaches.
Christianity arose as a protest against an ancient society permeated by slavery, tyranny, brutality, militarism, and corruption.
To blame the militarism, imperialism, and corruption of our own society on Jesus of Nazareth misreads history.
The faults of our own society lie not in Jesus but in our own rapacious political elites, our own governments with their insatiable thirst for power, and, ultimately, in ourselves.
Rating:  Summary: Price makes it unaffordable Review: Drury argues that the relation between terror and civilization has been seriously misconstrued in the history of the West. She maintains that terror is neither the opposite of civilization nor the secret of its success. Rather, the worst atrocities have their source in civilization itself - the pursuit of a sublime ideal that is believed to be so majestic, magnificent, and grand that it is worthy of every sacrifice, hardship, and abomination. Christianity and Islam are examples of such exalted ideals. Drury focuses on Christianity to examine how religious beliefs inspire pernicious and malevolent conduct.In Part I Drury gives a critical account of the religion of Jesus. She argues that from its earliest and supposedly most idealistic beginnings, Christianity betrays a bleak austerity behind the apparently genial personality of Jesus. She focuses on faith, salvation, sin, death, and damnation. She explains why the religion of Jesus is zealous, immoderate, and unwise, and thus why Jesus cannot be totally absolved of the savage history of the Church. In Part II Drury argues against Christianity in politics. She maintains that Christianity cannot be vested with political power without courting disaster. The political success of Christianity invites the worst tyranny - tyranny which seeks dominion not only over the actions of the body, but over the thoughts, dreams, and longings of the mind. Part III is a critical examination of the moral teaching of Jesus, the "ethic of love." In contrast to Nietzsche, Drury argues that the morality of Jesus is rich in tragic gloom. Moreover, far from coming into conflict with what Drury in Part I calls Christianity's "metaphysics of terror," the morality of Jesus is intimately connected with it. In Part IV Drury argues that the ethic of love has unwittingly fostered a conception of conscience as an inner state of siege. She maintains that both psychoanalysis and postmodernism are the heirs of Christianity: both are trapped within the its horizon. Indeed, she argues, Freud has provided Christianity with scientific justification! Likewise, it is alleged that Foucault is not free of the yoke of Christianity. He assumes that there is a deep conflict between human nature and civilization, and that the latter depends for its success on psychic terror. But, Drury contends, this understanding of civilization and terror has the effects of deprecating morality, inviting a Promethean revolt, and romanticizing evil. In Part V Drury pulls her argument about civilization and terror together. She maintains that ideals and their zealous pursuit are at the heart of both the sweetness of civilization and its terror. Christianity and Islam are both examples. What makes the conflict between Islam and the West so deadly is not the radical difference between the antagonists but their similarity: Both live in the shadow of Biblical religion, which accounts for the radical and polarizing nature of the conflict. Transcending the Biblical horizon is, Drury concludes, the first step in the quest for genuine political life, which aims at peace and order in a climate of freedom, and is marked by moderation and an acknowledgment of the plurality of ideals. The book includes extensive endnotes and a richly annotated bibliography. This is an immensely thought-provoking work, especially, for me, the vigorous and informed critique of Christianity in Part I. The book is well-argued throughout and readily encourages sustained reading. It is a necessary antidote to the imprudent, ignorant, and sanctimonious rhetoric surrounding the Bush administration's "war on terror," but Drury's arguments ought to give many critics of Bush pause as well. My only strong complaint about the book is its outrageous price. One hopes the publisher will issue a reasonably priced paperback edition soon, so that this timely and important work will get the wide circulation which it so clearly merits.
Rating:  Summary: Immensely thought-provoking Review: Drury argues that the relation between terror and civilization has been seriously misconstrued in the history of the West. She maintains that terror is neither the opposite of civilization nor the secret of its success. Rather, the worst atrocities have their source in civilization itself - the pursuit of a sublime ideal that is believed to be so majestic, magnificent, and grand that it is worthy of every sacrifice, hardship, and abomination. Christianity and Islam are examples of such exalted ideals. Drury focuses on Christianity to examine how religious beliefs inspire pernicious and malevolent conduct. In Part I Drury gives a critical account of the religion of Jesus. She argues that from its earliest and supposedly most idealistic beginnings, Christianity betrays a bleak austerity behind the apparently genial personality of Jesus. She focuses on faith, salvation, sin, death, and damnation. She explains why the religion of Jesus is zealous, immoderate, and unwise, and thus why Jesus cannot be totally absolved of the savage history of the Church. In Part II Drury argues against Christianity in politics. She maintains that Christianity cannot be vested with political power without courting disaster. The political success of Christianity invites the worst tyranny - tyranny which seeks dominion not only over the actions of the body, but over the thoughts, dreams, and longings of the mind. Part III is a critical examination of the moral teaching of Jesus, the "ethic of love." In contrast to Nietzsche, Drury argues that the morality of Jesus is rich in tragic gloom. Moreover, far from coming into conflict with what Drury in Part I calls Christianity's "metaphysics of terror," the morality of Jesus is intimately connected with it. In Part IV Drury argues that the ethic of love has unwittingly fostered a conception of conscience as an inner state of siege. She maintains that both psychoanalysis and postmodernism are the heirs of Christianity: both are trapped within the its horizon. Indeed, she argues, Freud has provided Christianity with scientific justification! Likewise, it is alleged that Foucault is not free of the yoke of Christianity. He assumes that there is a deep conflict between human nature and civilization, and that the latter depends for its success on psychic terror. But, Drury contends, this understanding of civilization and terror has the effects of deprecating morality, inviting a Promethean revolt, and romanticizing evil. In Part V Drury pulls her argument about civilization and terror together. She maintains that ideals and their zealous pursuit are at the heart of both the sweetness of civilization and its terror. Christianity and Islam are both examples. What makes the conflict between Islam and the West so deadly is not the radical difference between the antagonists but their similarity: Both live in the shadow of Biblical religion, which accounts for the radical and polarizing nature of the conflict. Transcending the Biblical horizon is, Drury concludes, the first step in the quest for genuine political life, which aims at peace and order in a climate of freedom, and is marked by moderation and an acknowledgment of the plurality of ideals. The book includes extensive endnotes and a richly annotated bibliography. This is an immensely thought-provoking work, especially, for me, the vigorous and informed critique of Christianity in Part I. The book is well-argued throughout and readily encourages sustained reading. It is a necessary antidote to the imprudent, ignorant, and sanctimonious rhetoric surrounding the Bush administration's "war on terror," but Drury's arguments ought to give many critics of Bush pause as well. My only strong complaint about the book is its outrageous price. One hopes the publisher will issue a reasonably priced paperback edition soon, so that this timely and important work will get the wide circulation which it so clearly merits.
Rating:  Summary: Price makes it unaffordable Review: For a 200+ pages book, the price is exhorbitantly high which will make it unaffordable to the many millions who want to read it, I for one have heard a lot of praise but unable to buy it. There must be somebody out there, who is either very greedy to make money or believes its counter-productive to his interests and therefore deliberately prohibits it's reach to the masses.
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