Modern culture from a comparative perspective Book

Throughout the latter part of the 20th century it was thought that we were well on our way to a secular world. Nowhere was this thought more comfortably accepted that in the United States. But this thought would be heavily challenged after our blanket of security was lifter on September 11th. In his Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11, Bruce Lincoln forces us to re-think religion, not only around the world, but in the familiar and seemingly unthreatening Christianity in our very own country. He further aims to evaluate how the role of religion has changed, particularly as it relates to violence (ix).
Lincoln admits that Holy Terrors was already underway when his 9/11 occurred. As a result, the book was nearly entirely rewritten and framed in relation to the attack that would provide the perfect context for discussion. The result is hardly noticeable, as all of his theories fit perfectly into 9/11. He starts by redefining religion as it seems to be fairly elastic a concept. The four elements he determines make a religion are discourse, practice, community, and institution. Keeping this in mind, Lincoln points out that is a disparity between religion as most people think of it and the religion of what, he would later identify as "Maximist." He later identifies the Muslim religious leader Sayyid Qutb. Qutb had visited the United States and found that although people attended church, many failed to apply the tenets of Chrstianity to their life. Qutb identified this as hypocrisy (3). This thought of a religion active in the lives of its members pervades the directions to the 9/11 attackers. These letters, along with others provided in their entirety, George W. Bush's Public Address following the attacks and Osama bin Laden's televised retort, and a transcript of Jerry Falwell's appearance on the 700 Club, are the showcases of Lincoln's argument that religious discourse is very much active today and, as detailed throughout his chapter Symmetric Dualisms, the rhetoric, whether it belong to a Muslim terrorist or a President of the United States, who tip-toes the line between his pleasing his religious conservative constituents and maintaining his official and wholly non-offensive secular duties, is can be strikingly similar in its richest form.
Chapter 3 further examines the popularized concept of jihad. He particularly focuses on Islam in this chapter, examining why "maximalists" feel the need to reclaim space. He further states that there are two types of jihad, internal and external. If one fails to reclaim lost space, appeasers such as Saudi Arabia, who let America use their lands to stage an attack on a fellow Muslim nation, then they are in no shape to wage the more important internal jihad. It is here that Lincoln provides Jerry Falwell's scapegoating of gays and abortionists. Both Muslims and Christians are locked in a cosmic struggle, which the common man neglects to see.
Chapter 4 concentrates on religious leaders as Lincoln differentiates between "culture" and "Culture," detrmining that some are in a position to speak for others. Chapter 5 views the effects colonialism had on religion and global sentiments. Chapter 6 examines the relationship between rebellion and revolution. It is in this chapter that Lincoln brings up a mélange of examples throughout history. The scope of examples given makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the chapters that focus on specific examples. The chapters in the book are not overly relying one another. Each could be read alone and make perfect sense. There does not seem to be much of a conclusion. Rather it seems like a book of essays with a common author. Lincoln regularly uses bubble charts to expound on his ideas. Some of his ideas are relatively straight forward and I do not know that uses of these charts are always necessary. One illustration, Figure 1.1, shows how Al Qaeda mirrors Muhammad and the first Muslims in mission. I feel that this chart was pretty clear and that this did not need to be diagrammed (14).