steven P. Miller, the Age of Evangelicalism : American’s Born-Again Years
Steven P. Miller, The Age of Evangelicalism : American’s Born-Again Years, Call Number 277.3082 Mil 2014, is a political and cultural history of Evangelical Christianity between 1960 and 2012. Unlike Europe, which has become increasingly secularized, radical American Protestants (and Catholics) exercised a surge of influence over political leaders and “pop” culture during the last decades of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. The political influence of “born-again” Christians started with the civil rights crusade and the social liberalism of Jimmy Carter. The evangelicals then shifted to the political right with Ronald Reagan, to the center with the “compassionate conservativism” of George W. Bush, and back to the political left with Barak Obama. Miller believes religious-based policies are endemic to American politics. (Remember the New England puritans, the abolitionists and prohibition). However, he believes that the most recent merger of religion and politics has run its course and secularism will return to national politics in the near future.
Miller’s description of the wild religious expressions in pop culture during the seventies further reminds the reader that superstitious excesses were not unique to the Middle Ages, but continue to fester in the most scientifically advanced societies on earth. This reviewer lived though the 1970s as a young adult. I didn’t remember we were that crazy!
Miller’s description of the wild religious expressions in pop culture during the seventies further reminds the reader that superstitious excesses were not unique to the Middle Ages, but continue to fester in the most scientifically advanced societies on earth. This reviewer lived though the 1970s as a young adult. I didn’t remember we were that crazy!
Sharan Newman, Defending the City of God : a medieval queen, the first Crusades, and the quest for peace in Jerusalem
Sharan Newman, Defending the City of God : a medieval queen, the first Crusades, and the quest for peace in Jerusalem, Call Number 956.9442 New 2014, is a contemporary historian’s view of the 12th century Crusaders’ kingdom in Jerusalem. The author sets out to examine the political power of aristocratic women in the early medieval world, which had not begun to exclude women rulers under the laws of primogeniture. What Newman found was a contentious Middle East society made of Greeks, Jews and Syrians who had inhabited the area for four hundred years (since 700). They lived side by side with newly arrived Egyptians, Arabs, Armenians, Jews, Syrians, Georgians, Persians and Turks. These settlers were joined by nomadic Bedouins and even the mercenary soldiers, the Batini, known in the West as the Assassins. The local population, governed by a few French Catholics, practiced Sunni and Shi’a Islam, Orthodox and Latin Christianity, and Judaism. As she completed her book during the 2012-2014 Syrian civil war, the author discovered that the descendants of these ethnic and cultural groups were still intact after nine hundred years and were still waging war against each other. Sadly, not Islam, Christianity nor Judaism have made any progress in bringing peace to the Middle East.
RSS Feed
