Mapping the end times : American evangelical geopolitics and apocalyptic visions

280 Pages·2016·1.68 MB·English

by  Dittmer

Mapping the End Times
American Evangelical Geopolitics
and Apocalyptic Visions
Edited by
Jason Dittmer and Tristan Sturm
Mapping the end tiMes
Critical geopolitics
Series Editors:
Klaus Dodds, Royal holloway, University of London, UK
Alan Ingram, University College London, UK
Merje Kuus, University of British Columbia, Canada
Over the last two decades, critical geopolitics has become a prominent field in
human geography. it has developed to encompass topics associated with popular
culture, everyday life, architecture and urban form as well as the more familiar
issues of security, inter-national relations and global power projection. Critical
geopolitics takes inspiration from studies of governmentality and biopolitics,
gender and sexuality, political economy and development, postcolonialism and the
study of emotion and affect. Methodologically, it continues to employ discourse
analysis and is engaging with ethnography and participatory research methods.
This rich field continues to develop new ways of analysing geopolitics.
this series provides an opportunity for early career researchers as well as
established scholars to publish theoretically informed monographs and edited
volumes that engage with critical geopolitics and related areas such as international
relations theory and security studies. With an emphasis on accessible writing, the
books in the series will appeal to wider audiences including journalists, policy
communities and civil society organizations.
Other books in this series
spaces of security and insecurity
geographies of the War on terror
Edited by Alan Ingram and Klaus Dodds
isBn 978 0 7546 7349 1
Mapping the end times
american evangelical geopolitics and
apocalyptic Visions
edited by
Jason dittMeR
University College London, UK
and
tRistan stURM
University of California Los Angeles, USA
© Jason dittmer, and tristan sturm 2010
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Jason dittmer, and tristan sturm have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
ashgate publishing Limited ashgate publishing Company
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Mapping the end times : american evangelical geopolitics
and apocalyptic visions. -- (Critical geopolitics)
1. evangelicalism--political aspects--United states.
2. Christianity and politics--United states. 3. end of the
world--political aspects--United states.
i. series ii. dittmer, Jason. iii. sturm, tristan.
320.5’5’0973-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mapping the end times : american evangelical geopolitics and apocalyptic visions / edited
by by Jason dittmer and tristan sturm.
p. cm. -- (Critical geopolitics)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-0-7546-7601-0 (hardback) -- isBn 978-1-4094-0083-7 (pbk) --
isBn 978-0-7546-9983-5 (ebook) 1. evangelicalism--United states. 2. Christianity and
international affairs. 3. Christianity and politics--United states. 4. eschatology--political
aspects--United states. 5. end of the world. i. dittmer, Jason. ii. sturm, tristan.
BR1642.U5M35 2009
277.3’082--dc22
2009032352
isBn 978-0-7546-7601-0 (hbk)
isBn 978-1-4094-0083-7 (pbk)
isBn 978-0-7546-9983-5 (ebk)
IV
Contents
List of Figures and Table vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Foreword: Evangelism, Secularism and Pluralist Possibility xi
William E. Connolly
Acknowledgements xvii
introduction: Mapping the end times 1
Tristan Sturm and Jason Dittmer
PArT I ConTESTInG ThE AMErICAn hoLy LAnD
1 “What would Lee do?” Religion and the Moral Landscapes
of southern nationalism in the United states 27
David Jansson
2 Contests over Latter-day space: Mormonism’s Role within
evangelical geopolitics as seen through Last-days novels 49
Ethan Yorgason
3 obama, son of perdition?: narrative Rationality and the Role
of the 44th president of the United states in the end-of-days 73
Jason Dittmer
PArT II AMErICAn EVAnGELICAL ExCEPTIonALISM
4 apocalyptic exceptionalism: Rosenberg, Clancy
and the prophecy of americanism 99
Simon Dalby
5 the ‘new World order’ and american exceptionalism 119
Michael Barkun
6 imagining apocalyptic geopolitics:
american evangelical Citationality of evil others 133
Tristan Sturm
vi Mapping the End Times
PArT III MISSIonAry GEoPoLITICS
7 the problematic synergy Between evangelicals
and the U.s. state in sub-saharan africa 157
Hannes Gerhardt
8 Reaching the Unreached in the 10/40 Window:
the Missionary geoscience of Race, difference and distance 183
Ju Hui Judy Han
9 Between armageddon and hope: dispensational premillennialism
and evangelical Missions in the Middle east 209
Carolyn Gallaher
afterword: the geopolitics of end time Belief
in the era of george W. Bush 233
Paul Boyer
Index 249
List of Figures and table
Map 7.1 evangelicals’ self-projected growth in africa 168
Figure 8.1 Cultural distance diagram 198
table 6.1 Changing dispensational toponymns, 1970–2008 139
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notes on Contributors
Michael Barkun is a professor of political science at the Maxwell school of
syracuse University. his books include Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions
in Contemporary America (University of California press, 2003) and Religion and
the Racist Right (University of north Carolina press, 1997).
paul s. Boyer is Merle Curti professor of history emeritus at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and editor-in-chief of the Oxford Companion to United States
History. his books include When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in
Modern American Culture (harvard University press, 1992).
William e. Connolly is Krieger-eisenhower professor at Johns hopkins University
where he teaches political theory. his recent publications include Why I Am Not A
Secularist (University of Minnesota press, 1999), Neuropolitics: Thinking, Culture,
Speed (University of Minnesota press, 2002); Pluralism (duke University press,
2005) and Capitalism and Christianity, American Style (duke University press,
2008). his new book, A World of Becoming is currently in production.
simon dalby is professor of geography, environmental studies and political
economy at Carleton University in ottawa. he is author of Creating the Second
Cold War (pinter and guilford, 1990), Environmental Security (University of
Minnesota press, 2002) and Security and Environmental Change (polity, 2009)
and coeditor of Rethinking Geopolitics (Routledge, 1998), The Geopolitics Reader
(Routledge, 1998, 2006) and the journal Geopolitics.
Jason dittmer is a Lecturer in human geography at University College London.
his research interests are in popular geopolitics and the construction of meaning
from cultural resources. he is the author of Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and
Identity (Rowman and Littlefield, 2010) and co-editor of Aether: The Journal of
Media Geography.
Carolyn gallaher is in the school of international service at american University.
her work on right-wing militias in the United states and ireland has resulted in
two books, On the Fault Line: Race, Class, and the American Patriot Movement
(Rowman and Littlefield, 2003) and After the Peace: Loyalist Paramilitaries in
Post-Accord Northern Ireland (Cornell University press, 2007).