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American prophecy : race and redemption in American political culture / George Shulman.

Van Pelt Library JA75.7 .S55 2008
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Format:
Book
Author/Creator:
Shulman, George M.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Bible. Old Testament.
Political culture--United States.
Political culture.
Prophecies.
United States.
Prophecy.
United States--Race relations.
Race relations.
Prophecy in literature.
Bible. Old Testament--Prophecies.
Bible.
Physical Description:
xxi, 315 pages ; 24 cm
Place of Publication:
Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2008]
Summary:
Prophecy is the fundamental idiom of American politics-a biblical rhetoric about redeeming the crimes, suffering, and promise of a special people. Yet American prophecy and its great practitioners-from Frederick Douglass and Henry Thoreau to Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison-are rarely addressed, let alone analyzed, by political theorists.
In the face of religious fundamentalisms that associate prophecy and redemption with dogmatism and domination, American Prophecy finds connections between prophetic language and democratic politics, particularly racial politics. Exploring how American critics of white supremacy have repeatedly reworked biblical prophecy, Shulman demonstrates how these writers and thinkers have transformed prophecy into a political language and given redemption a political meaning.
Contents:
Introducing Jeremiah's legacy : placing prophecy in American politics and political theory
Thoreau, the reluctant prophet : moral witness and poetic vision in politics
Interlude : from Henry Thoreau to Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin : race and prophecy
Martin Luther King Jr.'s theistic prophecy : love, sacrifice, and democratic politics
James Baldwin and the racial state of exception : secularizing prophecy?
Toni Morrison and prophecy : "this is not a story to pass on"
Conclusion : prophecy as vernacular political theology.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-292) and index.
ISBN:
9780816630745
0816630747
9780816630752
0816630755
OCLC:
225852460

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