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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shulman, George M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political culture--United States.

Political culture.

Prophecy in literature.

Prophecy.

United States--Race relations.

United States.

Bible. Old Testament--Prophecies.

Bible.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (340 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

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. This paradox is at the heart of American Prophecy, a work in which George Shulman unpacks and critiques the political meaning of American prophetic rhetoric. In the face of religious fundamentalisms that associate prophecy and redemption w

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:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-292) and index.

ISBN:

0-8166-6618-0

OCLC:

318216007