Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping Our World

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Overview

It is a myth that only the uninformed masses believe in myths and that power brokers, media moguls, leading scientists, financial tycoons, political luminaries and intellectual elites don't. The myths that the ruling classes believe may be more sophisticated, but they are myths nonetheless.

These public, large-scale narratives engage our imaginations and shape the way we experience the world. They are the stories that tell us what is important to know and how to live.

Subverting Global Myths takes up six areas of contemporary global discourse—terrorism, religious violence, human rights, multiculturalism, science and postcolonialism. Here powerful myths ...

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More About This Book

Overview

It is a myth that only the uninformed masses believe in myths and that power brokers, media moguls, leading scientists, financial tycoons, political luminaries and intellectual elites don't. The myths that the ruling classes believe may be more sophisticated, but they are myths nonetheless.

These public, large-scale narratives engage our imaginations and shape the way we experience the world. They are the stories that tell us what is important to know and how to live.

Subverting Global Myths takes up six areas of contemporary global discourse—terrorism, religious violence, human rights, multiculturalism, science and postcolonialism. Here powerful myths energize and mobilize considerable public funding as well as academic production. This book is not addressed primarily to theological specialists, but to all thoughtful readers who are concerned about the public issues that shape our increasingly interconnected and interdependent world.

Vinoth Ramachandra draws at length on his own experience working among university students and professors against a backdrop of militant religious and secular ideologies in Sri Lanka, a country that has suffered from "terrorism" and a "war on terror" that has claimed over sixty thousand lives since the late 1970s and shows no signs of abating. Reflected as well is his experience of living and traveling extensively not only in the West but in several of the trouble spots of Asia today.

Thoughtful critical readers who care to explore reality rather than flip from one reality show to another will appreciate this invitation to subvert present reality in order to make way for another.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

Freedom requires more than political and economic liberty; it requires, argues lay theologian Ramachandra (Gods That Fail: Modern Idolatry & Christian Mission), "freedom from those definitions of the 'human' which take the form of oppressive world pictures...[i.e.,] images or metaphors that soon come to tyrannize over others." Deeply informed and writing with passion, Ramachandra challenges a number of ill-informed world pictures, commonplace images of science and culture that we often take for granted, while avoiding the American-culture-wars agenda of most evangelical works of this genre. He critiques the myth of terrorism from within the Christian tradition of just war, questions the coherence of the new atheism's characterization of religious violence, and argues that belief in human rights requires grounding in religious commitment. Likewise, he contends that a Christian understanding of multiculturalism is superior to that of political liberalism, that science is wrongly seen as promoting atheism, and that, despite its tendency toward academic elitism, postcolonial theory has important insights for a Christianity that is expanding in the Southern Hemisphere. North American readers, whether Christian or not, will benefit from the author's international perspective, wide reading, and judicious evaluation.
—Steve Young

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780830828852
  • Publisher: InterVarsity Press
  • Publication date: 6/28/2008
  • Pages: 296
  • Sales rank: 638,867
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Vinoth Ramachandra lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He holds both a B.S. (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of London. An Anglican lay-theologian, writer, teacher and human rights advocate, he combines multiple interests in his international work with IFES, a global partnership of over 150 university-level Christian movements.

Table of Contents

Prologue
1. Myths of Terrorism Reaping the Whirlwind The Globalization of Islamist Militancy Deconstructing the "War on Terror"
Applying Just-War Reasoning Needed: Humility and Courageous Imagination
2. Myths of Religious Violence Escaping Parochialism The Complexities of "Religious Violence"
Two Asian Case Studies Atheist Polemics and Collective Deception Recovering Christian Integrity Mutual Criticism
3. Myths of Human Rights The Language of Rights Questioning the Standard Liberal Story Toward an Alternative Story Individual Rights Relationality and Rights Legislating for Rights Recovering a Tradition
4. Myths of Multiculturalism Understanding Cultures Multicultural Nationhood A Defense of Multicultural Society Reconfiguring the Multicultural State Secularist Fundamentalism Rights of Refugees and Asylees Ethics of Freedom
5. Myths of Science Science as Ideology Two Widespread Myths Scientific Research and Moral Responsibility Genetic Engineering The Return of Eugenics Post/Transhumanism Gods or Nothings: The False Choice
6. Myths of Postcolonialism Decentering World History The Colonial Legacy Postcolonialism Toward a More Nuanced Understanding Postcolonialism and Resistance from the Margins Some Theological Reflections Notes Name Index Subject Index

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