Religion at Ground Zero: Theological Responses to Times of Crisis

Description

'The world will never be the same!' How many times have human beings uttered this cry after a tragic event? This book analyzes how such emotive reactions impact on the way religion is understood, exploring theological responses to human tragedy and cultural shock by focusing on reactions to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7/7, the two World Wars and the Holocaust, the 2004 South-East Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. It discusses themes such as the theodicy question, the function of religious discourse in the face of tragedy, and the relationship between religion and politics. The book explores the tension between religion's capacity to both cause and enhance the suffering and destruction surrounding historical tragedies, but also its potential to serve as a powerful resource for responding to such disasters. Analyzing this dialectic, it engages with the work of Slavoj Zizek, Karl Barth, Theodor Adorno, Emil Fackenheim and Rowan Williams, examining the role of belief, difficulties of overcoming the influence of ideology, and the significance of trust and humility.

Christopher Craig Brittain is Lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen, UK.

"In Religion at Ground Zero, Christopher Brittain provides moving examples of catastrophic events from the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He focuses on conflicting religious and theological responses to those traumatic experiences. Taking up insights of Critical Theory and Political Theology, Brittain makes a both brilliant and provocative plea for "negative" God-talk in a Time of Terror." -- Edmund Arens, University of Lucerne, Switzerland Our thoughts have implications, they always do, though sometimes we do not feel their impress as deeply as we should. Christopher Brittain's sober, sometimes somber, reflection on the last decade of thinking on religion and religious thinking--the decade in the wake of 9/11, and in the shadow of what he rightly sees as the profoundly contested symbol of "9/11"--offers us a way more deeply, more fully to feel the weight of our thoughts. It shines a powerful light on our thinking: fueled by engagements with thinkers as diverse as Adorno and Camus, Paul Tillich and Bruce Lincoln, and handling all those engagements with subtlety and grace, this book is truly a light shining in the darkness, though with a dark light. Accessible and yet profound, charitable but critical, this is a tremendous contribution to thinking about life in our world today, and as it ever was. -- Charles Mathewes, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia, USA. Author Christopher Craig Brittain part of a panel on 9/11 on the BBC Radio Wales program All Things Considered. Brittain persuasively reminds us of the need to be aware of our own biases and ideologies when responding to the suffering of other people, and his call for a more negative framework for such responses is one that should not go unheard or unexamined. * Reviews in Religion and Theology, volume 19, issue 4 *