Apocalypse, now? The geopolitics of Left Behind

Dittmer, Jason; Spears, Zeke

doi:10.1007/s10708-008-9219-8

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…may hold the keys to reducing injustice and violence)'. The volume continues critiques of a premillennial Christian eschatology enshrined by the fictional Left Behind series in which the Bible is interpreted to uncritically perpetuate American exceptionalism and orientalism (see also Dittmer, 2008;Dittmer and Spears, 2009). However, as Connolly (2010: xiii) notes in the foreword, there are evangelicals who, while continuing to subscribe to conservative Christian doctrine, do not 'demonize opponents' and seek 'expansive engagements within [their] church' with a 'presumptive generosity' toward the world (see Connolly, 2008).…”

Section: Peaceful Cohabitation: Critical Geopolitics and Lived Grounded Theologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grounded theologies

Tse

2013

Progress in Human Geography

114

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This paper replies to Kong’s (2010) lament that geographers of religion have not sufficiently intervened in religious studies. It advocates ‘grounded theologies’ as a rubric by which to investigate contemporary geographies of religion in a secular age. Arguing that secularization can itself be conceived as a theological process, the paper critiques a religious/secular dichotomy and argues that individualized spiritualities presently prevalent are indicative of Taylor’s (2007) nova effect of proliferating grounded theologies. Case studies are drawn from social and cultural geographies of religious intersectionalities and from critical geopolitics.

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Section: Peaceful Cohabitation: Critical Geopolitics and Lived Grounded Theologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grounded theologies

Tse

2013

Progress in Human Geography

114

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“…It has influenced cataclysmic prophecies of geopolitical events (such as Christian Zionism) and more recently ecological collapse and climate change. [23][24][25][26] Much mainstream, non-fundamentalist Christian approaches have adopted a form of Amillennialism, which takes the millennium to be symbolically, rather than literally, associated with an earthly reign.…”

Section: Box 2 What Is Millennialism?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and apocalyptic faith

Skrimshire

2013

WIREs Climate Change

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For at least as long as the birth of environmentalism, discourses of ecological crisis have adopted, both consciously and unconsciously, themes and concepts derived from Jewish and Christian Apocalypses. These are ancient texts remembered best for their cosmic and spiritual revelations about the world and the world to come. The scope and methods of this adoption have varied widely: from symbolic representation (images of the Four Horsemen, for instance) to the influence of end‐time belief upon environmental policy. More recently, references to apocalypse have accompanied the study of climate change specifically. However, they have tended to do so without more than a superficial engagement with the theological and philosophical underpinnings of apocalyptic faith. This review article addresses this issue by engaging the meanings of apocalyptic faith within four distinct areas in the interdisciplinary study of climate change: (1) Christian ecotheology; (2) critical and social scientific discourse; (3) policy and media communications; and (4) contemporary philosophy and ethics. WIREs Clim Change 2014, 5:233–246. doi: 10.1002/wcc.264 This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Ideas and Knowledge Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Humanities and the Creative Arts

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“…Throughout my research the religious convictions of the staff and volunteers at free clinics was evident. However, my own unease with Christianity, partly a result of narratives about the Christian right (Dittmer and Spears 2009; Gallagher 1997; O’Reilly and Webster 1998), made me hesitant to place it at the center of my research. I caught myself occasionally projecting my own political perspective onto the motivations of free clinic staff and volunteers.…”

Section: Resistance: the Entanglement Of Identities And Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…My research contributes to this discussion by demonstrating the importance of religion, as both a powerful cultural force that produces space and a set of beliefs that informs specific practices aimed at creating more socially just communities. While sympathetic to critical analysis of the connection between religion and conservative politics (Dittmer and Spears 2009; Gallagher 1997; O’Reilly and Webster 1998), this paper illuminates an alternative reading of the political possibilities of religious convictions. This is particularly important for geographers seeking to help transform the world they study, as religious ontologies inform a great deal of social justice activism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Free Health Clinics, Resistance and the Entanglement of Christianity and Commodified Health Care Delivery

Hossler¹

2011

Antipode

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Free clinics are an important part of the US health care safety net and their numbers are rising. This article offers a critical analysis of the politics of free health clinics in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It uses the geographies of resistance literature to assess free clinics as a response to the neoliberalization of health care delivery. It underlines the multiple political spaces free clinics occupy as a result of the entanglements of a diverse range of identities and practices within the clinic space. In Milwaukee, the primary entanglement occurs between the progressive Christian identity inspiring the practices of the free clinic's volunteers and the commodified identity of the corporate non-profit health care systems that dominate health care delivery in the city. This research suggests that understanding the transition from oppositional identities, such as progressive Christianity, to resistance is an important next step in constructing more robust responses to neoliberal capitalism and other exploitive social relations.

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Apocalypse, now? The geopolitics of Left Behind

Abstract: This paper is a reading of the geopolitical scripts, themes, and representations found within the Left Behind series. This best-selling series of twelve books, written by

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

Grounded theologies

Grounded theologies

Climate change and apocalyptic faith

Free Health Clinics, Resistance and the Entanglement of Christianity and Commodified Health Care Delivery

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