Religion and Empire: People, Power, and the Life of the Spirit.Religion and Empire: People, Power, and the Life of the Spirit. By Richard A. Horsley. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003. ix and 151 pages. Paper. $6.00. In this short yet fascinating book, Richard Horsley, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts liberal arts, term originally used to designate the arts or studies suited to freemen. It was applied in the Middle Ages to seven branches of learning, the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. and the Study of Religion at the University of Massachusetts The system includes UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth (affiliated with Cape Cod Community College), UMass Lowell, and the UMass Medical School. It also has an online school called UMassOnline. , looks at the relationship between political power and religion. Horsley's intention appears modest--"to raise some theoretical issues in ... relations between imperial power and religion"--yet the cases he examines raise deep and potentially disturbing questions, especially for those of us in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , on the imperial side of power relations. The book is divided into three sections, each of which looks at a "pattern of relations," examining modern and historical examples. 1. "Cultural elites" in the dominant society, suffering from spiritual malaise malaise /mal·aise/ (mal-az´) a vague feeling of discomfort. mal·aise n. A vague feeling of bodily discomfort, as at the beginning of an illness. , adopt and construct a subject people's religion. Here Horsley looks at Buddhism, which, divorced from its ritual aspects, has been widely adopted as a rational philosophy by Western intellectuals. In the ancient world, a similar pattern occurred as Roman elites constructed the cult of Isis from Egyptian religious practices. 2. People subjected to foreign domination renew their own religious traditions as a means of resisting imperial power. Horsley focuses on the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Cutting close to home, he examines the history of the United States' involvement in Iran prior to the 1979 revolution and how resistance to U.S. imperialism imperialism, broadly, the extension of rule or influence by one government, nation, or society over another. Early Empires Evidence of the existence of empires dates back to the dawn of written history in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, where local became centered in a renewed form of Islam. Renewal and resistance movements against Roman power in Judea are the parallel ancient pattern. 3. Those in the dominant society develop an "imperial religion" that comes to characterize those imperial power relations. In this last section, Horsley begins with the Roman emperor cult, then turns to an examination of Christmas, the "festival of consumer capitalism Consumer capitalism describes a theoretical economic and cultural condition in which consumer demand is manipulated, in a deliberate and coordinated way, on a very large scale, through mass-marketing techniques, to the advantage of sellers. The phrase is controversial. ," as the modern example of imperial religion. Horsley's own position shows most clearly in this chapter as he critiques Western consumer culture where capitalism, hiding under a religious facade facade (fəsäd`), exterior face or wall of a building. The term implies ordered placement of its openings and other features and thus seems inapplicable to a wall without design. , has in fact become the new imperial religion being marketed to the world. Whether one agrees with Horsley's critique of the United States and its imperial role in the world, the reader cannot help but be stimulated by this book and its evaluation of the relationship between imperial power and religion. In light of the United States' present involvement in the Middle East, this book is must reading for any thinking American. It would be especially appropriate for adult discussion groups. Elizabeth A. Leeper Wartburg Theological Seminary Wartburg Theological Seminary is a Lutheran (ELCA) seminary located in Dubuque, Iowa. Mission Statement Wartburg Theological Seminary serves the mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by being a worship-centered community of critical theological reflection |
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