A "marvelous" (Economist) account of how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination. Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion-an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus-was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history. Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. As Tom Holland demonstrates, our morals and ethics are not universal but are instead the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the modern world.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." --Genesis 1:24-26 In this crucial passage from the Old Testament, God grants mankind power over animals. But with this privilege comes the grave responsibility to respect life, to treat animals with simple dignity and compassion. Somewhere along the way, something has gone wrong. In Dominion, we witness the annual convention of Safari Club International, an organization whose wealthier members will pay up to $20,000 to hunt an elephant, a lion or another animal, either abroad or in American "safari ranches," where the animals are fenced in pens. We attend the annual International Whaling Commission conference, where the skewed politics of the whaling industry come to light, and the focus is on developing more lethal, but not more merciful, methods of harvesting "living marine resources." And we visit a gargantuan American "factory farm," where animals are treated as mere product and raised in conditions of mass confinement, bred for passivity and bulk, inseminated and fed with machines, kept in tightly confined stalls for the entirety of their lives, and slaughtered in a way that maximizes profits and minimizes decency. Throughout Dominion, Scully counters the hypocritical arguments that attempt to excuse animal abuse: from those who argue that the Bible's message permits mankind to use animals as it pleases, to the hunter's argument that through hunting animal populations are controlled, to the popular and "scientifically proven" notions that animals cannot feel pain, experience no emotions, and are not conscious of their own lives. The result is eye opening, painful and infuriating, insightful and rewarding. Dominion is a plea for human benevolence and mercy, a scathing attack on those who would dismiss animal activists as mere sentimentalists, and a demand for reform from the government down to the individual. Matthew Scully has created a groundbreaking work, a book of lasting power and importance for all of us.
In this incisive work, Sara Diamond expands our understanding of the Christian Right beyond what is commonly known about its electoral clout, shedding light on the rarely seen boundaries and intersections where politics and culture converge. The book examines the web of grassroots cultural institutions, including publishing houses, law firms, broadcast stations, and church-centered community programs, that have helped conservative evangelical groups maintain their influence for over two decades. Highlighting the movement's complex alliance with the Republican Party, Diamond provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at the formation, organizing strategies, and heated internal debates of such powerful national organizations as Focus on the Family and the Christian Coalition. She offers a richly textured analysis of how the rubric of "family values" has been used to infuse evangelical beliefs into local and national discussions around such disparate issues as childrearing, gay rights, abortion, public education, and funding for the arts.
It's a Matter of Dominion by Bishop Roderick L. Hennings provides a road map for readers showing them how to get from where they are today to all God has for them. Domestic dominion-Spiritual dominion-Physical dominion! This book will equip you with the tools, wisdom, strategies and practical applications to walk in the will of God...Roderick Hennings teaches the power of intellect over instinct, to overcome the enemy's distractions and sidetracks and focus on loving God and doing His will for your life. You will never be the same again!Bishop Hennings shares his story of how God took a young man from Ohio, saved him, called him to his service, surrounded him with fathers and mothers in the faith and opened the doors to plant one of the largest churches in the COGIC denomination in the Northeast United States. Next Bishop walks the reader through powerful Christian teaching to prepare God's people for works of service. Major themes that run through the book include the power of love alone, overcoming fear, transforming society by raising men, resisting the enemy, walking in the Spirit not the flesh, the power of relationships and much more. This 16 chapter, 200+ page book is sure to be a blessing to you. Chapters include: Chicken wings and CheeriosA Growing ChurchWalking it OutWho You Walk With Is Who You Talk WithThis Is For Praisers OnlyThe Diary of a Double BlessingAn Enemy Has Done This!The Sound of a Strange PraiseIt's Called RespectYou Have An Appointment with a GiantThe Making of a Manless SocietyThe Danger of Two ResidencesThe Power of TwoConsider the AntWhat the Resurrection MeansFeel the Fear and Do It Anyway!
For centuries Christians believed that God granted humanity dominion over the animal kingdom, meaning that we had a moral right to kill, manage, and eat animals including wildlife. Recently, however, environmental and animal rights activists have assaulted this traditional perspective. They argue that dominion as expressed in meat eating and hunting has resulted in species extinction and environmental degradation. Christian Animal Rights (CAR) activists suggest that the church must reevaluate its traditional beliefs in light of the fact that God's original creation was free of human on animal violence. God, they argue, did not want man's dominion to be expressed through trapping, killing, and eating of animals. These violent activities only came about after the Fall, as God condescended to our hardness of heart. CAR activists point to Christ's sacrificial work of reconciliation as a model for modern Christian behavior: as Christ sacrificed for us, we should avoid eating meat and hunting as ways we can participate in Christ's non-violent work of reconciling creation to himself. In this book, Stephen Vantassel investigates the biblical, ethical, and scientific arguments employed by the CAR movement concerning human-wildlife relations. In this regard, the book engages in practical theology by addressing several important questions: How should Christians treat our wildlife neighbors? Has the Church been wrong in its understanding of human dominion? Does God want Christians to avoid hunting, trapping, fishing, and adopt a vegetarian lifestyle? This book provides answers to these questions by detailing a theology the author calls, "Shepherdism."
Calvin Baker first entered the literary landscape at the age of twenty-three with the publication of Naming the New World, which Publishers Weekly called brilliant ... Baker] proves himself a powerful new male voice in African American literature. Since his second novel, Once Two Heroes, Baker has continued to be acclaimed by the major media from USA Today to The Village Voice and GQ. And now, with Dominion, Baker has written his most ambitious, important, and timely book yet. Dominion tells the story of Jasper Merian, newly freed from slavery in Virginia at the close of the seventeenth century, who leaves for the uncharted free territory to the west. There, he aims to carve out a utopia in the wilderness of the Carolinas. While grappling with the legacy he has left behind, Jasper must build a home for himself to pass down to his two sons--one enslaved, the other free. Despite the hardships of frontier life and the malignant local spirit Ould Lowe, Jasper and his wife, Sanne, manage to build the thriving estate, Stonehouses. The farm passes through three generations, ministered in turn by Jasper's son Magnus and his grandson Caleum. Their lives bring them up against the natural (and occasionally supernatural) world, colonial politics, the injustices of slavery, the Revolutionary War, and questions of fidelity and the heart. When Caleum, discharged from the colonial army, lingers in New Amsterdam with another woman instead of returning to his family, the threads binding Stonehouses together begin to unravel. Ould Lowe, long restrained, again haunts the land, and, like his grandfather, Caleum must ultimately face the demon. Footed in both myth and modernity, Calvin Baker crafts a rich, intricate, and moving novel, with meditations on God, responsibility, and familial legacies. While masterfully incorporating elements of the world's oldest and greatest stories, the end result is a bold contemplation of the origins of America.
Americans often think of their nation’s history as a movement toward ever-greater democracy, equality, and freedom. Wars in this story are understood both as necessary to defend those values and as exceptions to the rule of peaceful progress. In The Dominion of War, historians Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton boldly reinterpret the development of the United States, arguing instead that war has played a leading role in shaping North America from the sixteenth century to the present. Anderson and Cayton bring their sweeping narrative to life by structuring it around the lives of eight men—Samuel de Champlain, William Penn, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur, and Colin Powell. This approach enables them to describe great events in concrete terms and to illuminate critical connections between often-forgotten imperial conflicts, such as the Seven Years’ War and the Mexican-American War, and better-known events such as the War of Independence and the Civil War. The result is a provocative, highly readable account of the ways in which republic and empire have coexisted in American history as two faces of the same coin. The Dominion of War recasts familiar triumphs as tragedies, proposes an unconventional set of turning points, and depicts imperialism and republicanism as inseparable influences in a pattern of development in which war and freedom have long been intertwined. It offers a new perspective on America’s attempts to define its role in the world at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
Right-wing militias and other antigovernment organizations have received heightened public attention since the Oklahoma City bombing. While such groups are often portrayed as marginal extremists, the values they espouse have influenced mainstream politics and culture far more than most Americans realize. This important volume offers an in-depth look at the historical roots and current landscape of right-wing populism in the United States. Illuminated is the potent combination of anti-elitist rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and ethnic scapegoating that has fueled many political movements from the colonial period to the present day. The book examines the Jacksonians, the Ku Klux Klan, and a host of Cold War nationalist cliques, and relates them to the evolution of contemporary electoral campaigns of Patrick Buchanan, the militancy of the Posse Comitatus and the Christian Identity movement, and an array of millennial sects. Combining vivid description and incisive analysis, Berlet and Lyons show how large numbers of disaffected Americans have embraced right-wing populism in a misguided attempt to challenge power relationships in U.S. society. Highlighted are the dangers these groups pose for the future of our political system and the hope of progressive social change. Winner--Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America