A Fatal Addiction: War in the Name of God

by Thomas Block

Overview

America, one of the most religious countries in the world, is also the most violent. Do God and war define the American spirit as much as apple pie and baseball?

This unsettling book illustrates how bellicose, war-like language is used to explain the spiritual quest. It explores the "violence of God" tradition as it exists in all religions (including Buddhism), and then examines how this dynamic is flipped, with political leaders using spiritual and religious language to sell war to the general public.

Although God and religion have often been used to sell war in the United States, this has been especially true since 9/11. After surveying the relationship of war and the spiritual quest in the major world religions, this study concludes with an overview of how that dynamic has affected the contemporary American public discourse on war.

Does this intermingling of war and spirituality prepare the population for the coming of war? The institutional blending of the sacred and human aggression appear to be fundamental to human society.

The second section of the book concentrates on the political language and speeches of American politicians since 2002, following the run-up to the Iraq war and its continuation over the past decade, showing how this mystical/war conflation permeates American society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875869322
Publisher:	Algora Publishing
Publication date:	10/15/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Thomas Block is a writer and artist who has exhibited in solo and group shows across the United States and in Spain and Portugal for the last 20 years. He currently has several nonfiction books, a trilogy of plays, and a series of paintings in the works.

Tom published his first nonfiction work, "Shalom/Salaam: A Story of a Mystical Fraternity,cin the United States and in Turkey in 2010. Publishers Weekly said: "Block's evident enthusiasm for the revelation of these common roots as a way forward for Muslim-Jewish relations propels this great read."

Writing about Tom's exhibition of murals and performances of his 2012 play, collectively titled "White Noise," one reviewer said, "there's a lot going on beneath the surface.... [M]ultiple dimensions of faith, theory, and inspiration go into Block's work." [DC Theatre Scene, June 11, 2012]

In 2012 Tom was an invited participant in the Jiwar Artist Residency in Barcelona, Spain, and he has been invited to give an interview with Steven Appel, Assistant Director of the Queens College Center for Ethnic, Racial & Religious Understanding in New York in the fall. His first novel, The Fool Returns, will be published in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2012.