1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910789373903321

Autore

Runions Erin

Titolo

The Babylon complex : theopolitical fantasies of war, sex, and sovereignty / / Erin Runions

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Fordham University Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-8232-5736-3

0-8232-5734-7

0-8232-5737-1

0-8232-6136-0

0-8232-5735-5

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (312 p.)

Disciplina

261.0973

Soggetti

Church and state - United States - History - 21st century

Christian sociology - United States - History - 21st century

War - Religious aspects - Christianity

Sex - Religious aspects - Christianity

Sovereignty - Religious aspects - Christianity

Babylon (Extinct city) In the Bible

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Babylon and the Crisis of Sovereignty -- 1. From Babel to Biopolitics: Josephus, Theodemocracy, and the Regulation of Plea sure -- 2. Bellicose Dreams: Babylon and Exception to Law -- 3. Tolerating Babel: Biopolitics, Film, and Family -- 4. Revenge on Babylon: Literalist Allegory, Scripture, Torture -- 5. Who Lives in Babylon? The Gay Antichrist as Political Enemy -- 6. Babelian Scripture: A Queerly Sublime Ethics of Reading -- Postlude: Roads to Babel -- Works Cited -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Babylon is a surprisingly multivalent symbol in U.S. culture and politics. Political citations of Babylon range widely, from torture at Abu Ghraib to depictions of Hollywood glamour and decadence. In political discourse, Babylon appears in conservative ruminations on democratic



law, liberal appeals to unity, Tea Party warnings about equality, and religious advocacy for family values. A composite biblical figure, Babylon is used to celebrate diversity and also to condemn it, to sell sexuality and to regulate it, to galvanize war and to worry about imperialism. Erin Runions explores the significance of these shifts and contradictions, arguing that together they reveal a theopolitics that tries to balance the drive for U.S. dominance with the countervailing ideals and subjectivities of economic globalization. Examining the confluence of cultural formations, biblical interpretations, and (bio)political philosophies, The Babylon Complex shows how theopolitical arguments for war, sexual regulation, and political control both assuage and contribute to anxieties about waning national sovereignty. Theoretically sophisticated and engaging, this remarkable book complicates our understanding of how the Bible affects U.S political ideals and subjectivities.