Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism [Hardcover]

Jason C Bivins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 2008

Conservative evangelicalism has transformed American politics, disseminating a sometimes fearful message not just through conventional channels, but through subcultures and alternate modes of communication. Within this world is a "Religion of Fear," a critical impulse that dramatizes cultural and political conflicts and issues in frightening ways that serve to contrast "orthodox" behaviors and beliefs with those linked to darkness, fear, and demonology. Jason Bivins offers close examinations of several popular evangelical cultural creations including the Left Behind novels, church-sponsored Halloween "Hell Houses," sensational comic books, especially those disseminated by Jack Chick, and anti-rock and -rap rhetoric and censorship. Bivins depicts these fascinating and often troubling phenomena in vivid (sometimes lurid) detail and shows how they seek to shape evangelical cultural identity.

As the "Religion of Fear" has developed since the 1960s, Bivins sees its message moving from a place of relative marginality to one of prominence. What does it say about American public life that such ideas of fearful religion and violent politics have become normalized? Addressing this question, Bivins establishes links and resonances between the cultural politics of evangelical pop, the activism of the New Christian Right, and the political exhaustion facing American democracy.

Religion of Fear is a significant contribution to our understanding of the new shapes of political religion in the United States, of American evangelicalism, of the relation of religion and the media, and the link between religious pop culture and politics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jason Bivins takes readers on an engaging but unsettling tour of 'the dark corners and sub-basements of American culture,' from Hell Houses to comic books, and along the way we learn a great deal about religion and politics in the United States. Indispensable for those interested in popular culture and conservative evangelicalism." --Thomas A. Tweed, author of Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion

"In this fine work of critical cultural analysis, Bivins finds the anxious heart of modern conservative evangelicalism in the United States, showing that fear, powerfully nurtured and exacerbated, has been a potent energizer of Christian public activism. This is a dark but necessary story. Democracy always has its demons, and it is best we know their names. This is a sharp work of social and religious analysis that deserves to be widely read." --Robert Orsi, Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies, Northwestern University

"Jason Bivins takes us on a fantastic tour of Christian Right efforts to -- quite literally -- scare the hell out of true believers. Along the way, Religion of Fear reveals edgy new ways of drawing the age-old line between a righteous us and a sinful them. Lucid, graceful, fun, and disquieting." --James Morone, author of Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History and coeditor of Healthy, Wealthy and Fair

"Well-written and clearly argued, Religion of Fear makes a major contribution to the study of religion in American culture. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers." --Choice

"Adroit and theoretically sophisticated... Bivins has offered a theoretically astute interpretive framework that is relevant for the analysis of far more than the particular examples to which he masterfully applies it in this book. Religion of Fear is a persuasive study in its own right, but it also offers critical tools for understanding our contemporary religio-political situation. In addition, it provides a compelling argument for attempting to do so. I recommend this book very highly, and I hope it acquires the rich and idverse readership within the academy and beyond that it clearly deserves." --Journal of the American Academy of Religion

About the Author

Jason C. Bivins is Associate Professor of Religion at North Carolina State University and the author of The Fracture of Good Order: Christian Antiliberalism and the Challenge to American Politics. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195340817
• ISBN-13: 978-0195340815
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #908,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gallery of modern American religious horror, December 5, 2008

By 

Brian Griffith (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism (Hardcover)

Bivins explores a dramatic side of modern American religion, where the emphasis is on winning souls through fear. Rather than just preaching hellfire and Armageddon in church, these Christians engage all the arts of mass media to drive their warnings home across the nation. As Bivins quotes Christian tract cartoonist Jack Chick, "I want to shock people. I want to make them physically sick when they see this".

Bivins points out that the vast majority of conservative Christians in the USA were non-aggressive during the decades of America's world supremacy. But as American dominance waned, many conservatives blamed the forces of sin, and devoted themselves to a victory for God. Bivins details many of their major media efforts such as Christian cartoons, attacks on popular music, "hell house" dramas, and apocalyptic novels. He finds the level of vindictive violence, blood, and horror in these productions almost stupifying. Instead of offending the religious authorities of his day by daring to forgive sinners, Jesus as portrayed in these productions is bound to execute vengeance for sin. As Jesus says in the Left Behind novel Glorious Appearing, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that is justice, and that is your sentence".

The book is good in covering the story plots, knock-out lines, and theatrical methods of fear-mongering Christianity over the past four decades. But the intro. chapter is dense social science talk, and Bivins invites readers to skip this part if inclined. At the end he raises some good questions about how a popular religion of fear is affecting American society.

--author of Correcting Jesus

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Political propaganda, September 28, 2011

By 

Heydekrug (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism (Hardcover)

When I read this, I began to think of the type of misinformation the old Communist and Socialist regimes used against Christians. The hatred in this book is seething. It is clear the author has never truly familiarized himself with Evangelical Christianity or refuses to acknowledge some easily obtained facts. For clarification, all mainline Protestant churches at one time in the last 100 years considered it their responsibility to evangelize and be active in politics - e.g. Abolitionist Movement, Civil Rights Movement and the Resistance in Europe during WW2. One should also note that these churches that are maligned are the largest sources of charity in the US and the largest providers of private overseas aid from the US. The first charities to reach disasters are charities from evangelical churches (Salvation Army, Operation Blessing, World Vision) Hardly a religion of evil.

The conservative evangelical movement is not confined to the USA, but is a movement throughout the English speaking Protestant world. What the author considers Evangelical Christianity is the norm in much of Africa,in Spanish speaking Protestant churches in the Americas and Protestant churches China.

The movement in the industrial world is, in large part,a response to the dying mainline Protestant denomination's weak and ineffective message. This in turn was brought on by an out of touch elitist leadership. Many of the so called mainline denomination's only hope of surviving the next half century, is the remaining orthodox element in their respective denominations. This book has the stench of politics throughout and will surely appeal to those who need reaffirmation of their political and perhaps opposing religious views.

Mr. Bivens, in this and some of his other publications, seems to think that Christianity should be relegated to observer status. This has never been the case in American history, as one can clearly see in our Constitution and the writings of the Founding Fathers all the way up to Roosevelt invoking God's guidance throughout the Depression and WW2. Mr. Biven's view of Christianity is somewhat stereotypical of the revisionist left. To end any group's legal involvement in politics and culture runs counter to American ideals and any success in such endeavors will be the end of liberty in this country.