Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 [Paperback]

Bruce Lincoln (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0226481956 | ISBN-13: 978-0226481951 | Edition: 1

It is tempting to view the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks as evil incarnate. But their motives, as Bruce Lincoln reveals in this insightful offering, were profoundly and intensely religious. What we need now, he argues, is greater clarity about what we take religion to be. With great rigor and incisiveness, Holy Terrors sorts through the details and the religious rhetoric of September 11--in the highjackers' instructions, George W. Bush's national address, Osama bin Laden's videotaped reply, and Pat Robertson's notorious interview with Jerry Falwell-and examines their implications for our understanding of religion and its interrelationships with politics and culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"From time to time there appears a work... that serves to focus the wide-ranging, often contentious discussion of religion's significance within broader cultural dynamics. Bruce Lincoln's Holy Terrors is one such text.... Anyone still struggling toward a more nuanced comprehension of 9/11 would do well to spend time with this book." - Theodore Pulcini, Middle East Journal "Modernity has ended twice: in its Marxist form in 1989 Berlin, and in its liberal form on September 11, 2001. In order to understand such major historical changes we need both large-scale and focused analyses - a combination seldom to be found in one volume. But here Bruce Lincoln... has given us just such a mix of discrete and large-picture analysis." - Stephen Healey, Christian Century" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

It is tempting to view the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks as evil incarnate. But their motives, as Bruce Lincoln reveals in this insightful offering, were profoundly and intensely religious. What we need now, he argues, is greater clarity about what we take religion to be. With great rigor and incisiveness, Holy Terrors sorts through the details and the religious rhetoric of September 11--in the highjackers' instructions, George W. Bush's national address, Osama bin Laden's videotaped reply, and Pat Robertson's notorious interview with Jerry Falwell-and examines their implications for our understanding of religion and its interrelationships with politics and culture.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 185 pages
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press; 1 edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226481956
• ISBN-13: 978-0226481951
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,656,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A provocative analysis of religion in the contemporary world, July 2, 2009

By 

DHW (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holy Terrors, Second Edition: Thinking About Religion After September 11 (Paperback)

This is a wonderful little book that presents a thoughtful and provocative analysis of religion in the contemporary world. One of the writers who posted a review of this book on the Amazon site asserted that Lincoln argues that the rhetoric used by the leaders of Al-Qaeda and the leaders of the United States of America is quite similar. It seems to me that Lincoln actually takes great pains to point out the differences between the rhetoric used by the leaders of Al-Qaeda and the rhetoric used by the leaders of the United States of America.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for the thoughtful American, November 5, 2006

By 

Seth D. Clippard (Taichung, Taiwan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (Paperback)

Lincoln's work is an attempt to formulate a theory of religion. While his success on that front is open to criticism, he gives an impeccable presentation of the religious dimensions of the American/Arab/Christian/Muslim/politics debate. Anyone who wants to hone their understanding of 80% of front page news should read this. Besides it gives documented proof of why Falwell and Robertson should not be listened to...ever...about anything.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A tough slog, November 30, 2003

By 

DTC# "ROP" (ROP) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Holy Terrors, Second Edition: Thinking About Religion After September 11 (Paperback)

This is a difficult book to read because it is suffused with academic references and needlessly complex phrases and jargon. For example, "... a more lattitudinarian position verging even upon antinomianism." (p.84), "... the Manchester school of social antrhopology, and such French semiologists Roland Barthes." (p.78), "These are meant as Weberian ideal-types ..." (p.59). In short, the book targets an academic audience, IMO - not a lay audience.

The author deconstructs speeches of George Bush and Osama bin Laden. The author tries to show that both Bush and bin Laden use the same essential religious themes and rhetorical devices to motivate and sway their target audiences ("Symmetric Dualisms"). IMO, this is sophistry; the same analytical technique could be applied to, say, Churchill and Hitler or Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.

The primary redeeming qualities of the book are brief treatments of Sayyid Qutb and Mohammad Atta, and an even briefer treatment of the insanity following the French Revolution (e.g., "The Cult of Reason").

For the layperson, instead of this book I recommend Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, 3rd Edition (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society, Vol. 13) by Mark Juergensmeyer. It is far more accessible, and IMO, it provides a much more useful analysis and a broader survey. If you're looking to learn more about Sayyid Qutb and his influence on Islamic radicals, turn to Terror and Liberalism by Paul Berman.