The Resource Strange gods : a secular history of conversion, Susan Jacoby
Strange gods : a secular history of conversion, Susan Jacoby
Resource Information
The item Strange gods : a secular history of conversion, Susan Jacoby represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library.This item is available to borrow from 5 library branches. This resource has been enriched with EBSCO NoveList data.
Resource Information
The item Strange gods : a secular history of conversion, Susan Jacoby represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library.
This item is available to borrow from 5 library branches.
This resource has been enriched with EBSCO NoveList data.
- Summary
- In a groundbreaking historical work that addresses religious conversion in the West from an uncompromisingly secular perspective, Susan Jacoby challenges the conventional narrative of conversion as a purely spiritual journey. From the transformation on the road to Damascus of the Jew Saul into the Christian evangelist Paul to a twenty-first-century religious marketplace in which half of Americans have changed faiths at least once, nothing has been more important in the struggle for reason than the right to believe in the God of one s choice or to reject belief in God altogether. Focusing on the long, tense convergence of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each claiming possession of absolute truth Jacoby examines conversions within a social and economic framework that includes theocratic coercion (unto torture and death) and the more friendly persuasion of political advantage, economic opportunism, and interreligious marriage. Moving through time, continents, and cultures the triumph of Christianity over paganism in late antiquity, the Spanish Inquisition, John Calvin's dour theocracy, Southern plantations where African slaves had to accept their masters religion the narrative is punctuated by portraits of individual converts embodying the sacred and profane. The cast includes Augustine of Hippo; John Donne; the German Jew Edith Stein, whose conversion to Catholicism did not save her from Auschwitz; boxing champion Muhammad Ali; and former President George W. Bush. The story also encompasses conversions to rigid secular ideologies, notably Stalinist Communism, with their own truth claims. Finally, Jacoby offers a powerful case for religious choice as a product of the secular Enlightenment. In a forthright and unsettling conclusion linking the present with the most violent parts of the West's religious past, she reminds us that in the absence of Enlightenment values, radical Islamists are persecuting Christians, many other Muslims, and atheists in ways that recall the worst of the Middle Ages
- Language
- eng
- Edition
- First edition
- Extent
- xi, 464 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
- Isbn
- 9780375423758
- Label
- Strange gods : a secular history of conversion
- Title
- Strange gods
- Title remainder
- a secular history of conversion
- Statement of responsibility
- Susan Jacoby
- Language
- eng
- Summary
- In a groundbreaking historical work that addresses religious conversion in the West from an uncompromisingly secular perspective, Susan Jacoby challenges the conventional narrative of conversion as a purely spiritual journey. From the transformation on the road to Damascus of the Jew Saul into the Christian evangelist Paul to a twenty-first-century religious marketplace in which half of Americans have changed faiths at least once, nothing has been more important in the struggle for reason than the right to believe in the God of one s choice or to reject belief in God altogether. Focusing on the long, tense convergence of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each claiming possession of absolute truth Jacoby examines conversions within a social and economic framework that includes theocratic coercion (unto torture and death) and the more friendly persuasion of political advantage, economic opportunism, and interreligious marriage. Moving through time, continents, and cultures the triumph of Christianity over paganism in late antiquity, the Spanish Inquisition, John Calvin's dour theocracy, Southern plantations where African slaves had to accept their masters religion the narrative is punctuated by portraits of individual converts embodying the sacred and profane. The cast includes Augustine of Hippo; John Donne; the German Jew Edith Stein, whose conversion to Catholicism did not save her from Auschwitz; boxing champion Muhammad Ali; and former President George W. Bush. The story also encompasses conversions to rigid secular ideologies, notably Stalinist Communism, with their own truth claims. Finally, Jacoby offers a powerful case for religious choice as a product of the secular Enlightenment. In a forthright and unsettling conclusion linking the present with the most violent parts of the West's religious past, she reminds us that in the absence of Enlightenment values, radical Islamists are persecuting Christians, many other Muslims, and atheists in ways that recall the worst of the Middle Ages
- Summary
- A provocative social history of the secular forces driving conversion in the Western world refutes beliefs about personal reinvention and divine grace to explore such factors as the unifications between church and state, interreligious marriage, faith change in adulthood and the forced conversions of slaves
- http://library.link/vocab/ext/novelist/bookUI
- 10470267
- Cataloging source
- DLC
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
- 1945-
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
- Jacoby, Susan
- Dewey number
- 204/.2
- Illustrations
- illustrations
- Index
- index present
- Literary form
- non fiction
- Nature of contents
- bibliography
- http://library.link/vocab/resourcePreferred
- True
- http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
-
- Conversion
- Conversion
- Target audience
- adult
- http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/titleRemainder
- a secular history of conversion
- Label
- Strange gods : a secular history of conversion, Susan Jacoby
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type code
-
- txt
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Control code
- ocn909925221
- Dimensions
- 24 cm
- Edition
- First edition
- Extent
- xi, 464 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
- Isbn
- 9780375423758
- Isbn Type
- (hardcover)
- Lccn
- 2015019062
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- Other physical details
- illustrations
- System control number
- (OCoLC)909925221
- Label
- Strange gods : a secular history of conversion, Susan Jacoby
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type code
-
- txt
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Control code
- ocn909925221
- Dimensions
- 24 cm
- Edition
- First edition
- Extent
- xi, 464 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
- Isbn
- 9780375423758
- Isbn Type
- (hardcover)
- Lccn
- 2015019062
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- Other physical details
- illustrations
- System control number
- (OCoLC)909925221
Library Locations
-
Central LibraryBorrow it710 W. Cesar Chavez St, Austin, TX, 78701, US30.271302100000 -97.746016800000
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<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.library.austintexas.gov/portal/Strange-gods--a-secular-history-of-conversion/CDwpYjOdIV4/" typeof="Book http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Item"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.library.austintexas.gov/portal/Strange-gods--a-secular-history-of-conversion/CDwpYjOdIV4/">Strange gods : a secular history of conversion, Susan Jacoby</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.library.austintexas.gov/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.library.austintexas.gov/">Austin Public Library</a></span></span></span></span></div>
