King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire

King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire
Average customer rating:

Fascinating, but a bit esoteric

An impressive documentary history

King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire
David M. Bergeron
Manufacturer: University Of Iowa Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Royalty | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books
History | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books
General | Nonfiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books
Scotland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Tudor & Stuart | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Ireland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | British | Chinese | General | German | Greek | Japanese | Latin American | Medieval | Roman | Russian | Spanish & Portuguese | United States
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Gay Men | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0877456690

Book Description

What can we know of the private lives of early British sovereigns? Through the unusually large number of letters that survive from King James VI of Scotland/James I of England (1566-1625), we can know a great deal. Using original letters, primarily from the British National Library of Scotland, David Bergeron creatively argues that James' correspondence with certain men in his court constitutes a gospel of homoerotic desire. Bergeron grounds his provocative study on an examination of the tradition of letter writing during the Renaissance and draws a connection between homosexual desire and letter writing during that historical period.

King James, commissioner of the Bible translation that bears his name, corresponded with three principal male favorites--Stuart (Lennox), Robert Carr (Somerset), and George Villiers (Buckingham). Stuart, James' older French cousin, arrived in Scotland in 1579 and became an intimate adviser and friend to the adolescent king. Though he was eventually forced into exile by Scottish nobles, his letters to James survive, as does James' hauntingly allegorical poem Phoenix. The king's close relationship with Carr began in 1607. James' letters to Carr reveal remarkable outbursts of sexual frustration and passion.

A large collection of letters exchanged between James and Buckingham in the 1620s provides the clearest evidence for James' homoerotic desires. During a protracted separation in 1623, letters between the two raced back and forth. These artful, self-conscious letters explore themes of absence, the pleasure of letters, and a preoccupation with the body. Familial and sexual terms become wonderfully intertwined, as when James greets Buckingham as "my sweet child and wife."

King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire presents a modern-spelling edition of seventy-five letters exchanged between Buckingham and James. Across the centuries, commentators have condemned the letters as indecent or repulsive. Bergeron argues that on the contrary they reveal an inward desire of king and subject in a mutual exchange of love.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating, but a bit esoteric.......2000-07-02

I write this review from the perspective of one who is interested in reading about the history and documentation of same-sex love, but who is not an academic, a linguist, or has any special interest in the history of literary styles. I offer this explanation because while this book is tremendously fascinating in its historic and biographical material, it at times lost my interest when going deeply into literary interpretation and syntactic analysis. For example, the first chapter on the history and style of writing love letters, or "letters of desire" as the author coins it, I found uninspiring and difficult. However, it does lay the groundwork for the author's study of James' letters.

Having said that, I nonetheless found the book extremely informative, both about James' life and how his contemporaries viewed his life.

The first section covers James' association with Esme Stuart who became the Duke of Lennox. What was of particular interest to me was the fact James was just 13 years old and Stuart 37 when they first met. The description of their first meeting makes it unmistakeable to the reader that the two had indeed fallen in love. The biographical information on how the church leaders and other politicos involved in James' life broke up the relationship was extremely interesting and saddening. But the reader shouldn't interpret these actions as purely coming from the realm of the church's "condemnation of homosexuality." Because there was no such thing at the time as "homosexuality." That was a term and a concept that wouldn't be coined for another 200 years. Rather, the condemnation was over "lying with a man as though a woman." Because of James' young age, it is quite possible that he had taken the submissive role, or that his advisors presumed that he was taking the submissive role. What really happened we don't know. But if the king were in a submissive role, then Stuart was having an undo influence over the young king. Having the king taking the role of a woman would have been blasphemous.

This notion is given further support during the chapter discussing the king's relationship with George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. In one of the king's letters, he refers to Buckingham as not only his "dear son" and the king the father, but also as "wife" and the king being "husband." In one letter, Buckingham writes: "my thoughts are only bent of having my dear Dad and master's legs soon in my arms." This phrase also suggests that Buckingham took the submissive role in his relationship with the king.

Which fits in naturally with the culture of the times. Both James and his "favorites" married and sired children, as the king saw marriage and raising a family an obligation to be joyfully fulfilled. And throughout Renaissance Europe, it was acceptable for a man to play the dominate (top) role during sexual relations with another male, with the submissive generally being younger because it was then excusable for the youth to be a bottom because he was in a submissive role anyway because of age.

It is also made clear in the book that James' other advisors disapproved of his relationships with his favorites not so much because they viewed the physical relationship as being immoral, but because of James' lavish endowment of titles and gifts, and consequently power to his favorites. The book does reveal critics, both contemporary and later, of the king's behavior who found the intimacy of these relationships unseemly and even "disgusting." And it is amusing to read how some of these critics eschewed discussing in detail the nature of the relationships.

In all it is a good book, but for the general reader of the history of same-sex relationships, it may be a bit troublesome and slow to plod through. For example, if I read the book at night while in bed, I usually fell asleep after just one page. If I read it in the morning, then I could read upward of a dozen or so pages.

An impressive documentary history.......1999-06-26

First and foremost, the letters between King James and his three male "favorites" are fascinating. Even the little, unintended cultural insights are interesting, for instance, that "gossip" meant godfather, that "Steenie" is short for Stephen, or that the king of Spain had given James an elephant as a gift.

With the author's help in establishing the king's difficult passage into manhood, and his piety as a Christian primitivist, as well as his love of literature--ditto for the gripping biographical sketches of the king's "sweet hearts"-- one cannot read some of the more beautiful passages without being profoundly touched. There is the time James wrote to George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham, that "for protest to God I rode this afternoon a great way in the park without speaking to anybody and the tears trickling down my cheeks, as now they do that I can scarcely see to write. But alas, what shall I do at our parting?" Or on another occasion, "I had rather live banished in any part of the earth with you than live a sorrowful widow's life without you."

Other times the content is more "saucy," to use Villiers's term. A good example is his own letter to the king: "All the way hither I entertained myself your unworthy servant with this dispute, whether you loved me now ... better than at the time which I shall never forget at Farnham, where the bed's head could not be found between the master and his dog. ... --Your majesty's most humble slave and dog, Steenie"

The letters come from the manuscript collections of the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and so on, where Bergeron saw and transcribed from holographs, correcting occasional mistakes or intentional glosses from previous historians who have from time to time cited or published versions of these letters, or mentioned them in an embarrassed footnote. The letters have not been otherwise previously collected in such a topical form.

Bergeron does careful work as a scholar; that this does not translate into equal achievement as a writer is okay. Perhaps more seriously, though, are a few puzzling lapses, such as his use of a secondary source for an important speech by King James to the Privy Council in 1617, and the fact that the abbreviated footnote does not have a corresponding bibliographic entry, but again, I'm willing to overlook minor distraction for the strengths the book demonstrates. After reading it, I only want to read more by Bergeron.

Oh, by the way, I suppose that no one needs to point out the obvious implications for fundamentalist Christians: those who (1) use the King James Bible only, and allow no other biblical translation, and then (2) use the same Bible to theologically bludgeon homosexuals. This further reminds me that if there are any fellow Mormons out there, you will want to know that the letters refer to Apostle Boyd K. Packer's seventh-great-grandfather John Packer, who was the "patronage secretary" of King James's lover, Duke Buckingham--according to corroborative data in Donna Smith Packer's book, "On Footings from the Past: The Packers in England" (self-published by the Boyd K. Packer family, 1988, 488 pp.). Although Donna doesn't mention that Buckingham was in love with the king, but she does mentions that John Packer was forty years old when he married. What's my point? Well, maybe just that it's a small world. Enjoy the Bergeron book.

King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire.(Review): An article from: Shakespeare Studies
Average customer rating:
King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire.(Review): An article from: Shakespeare Studies
Nicholas F. Radel
Manufacturer: Associated University Presses
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary
General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B0008IDLEG
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Shakespeare Studies, published by Associated University Presses on January 1, 2001. The length of the article is 2742 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire.(Review)
Author: Nicholas F. Radel
Publication: Shakespeare Studies (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: Associated University Presses
Page: 173(8)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Review of David Bergeron, King James and Letters of Homerotic Desire.(Book Review): An article from: Early Modern Literary Studies

Average customer rating:

Review of David Bergeron, King James and Letters of Homerotic Desire.(Book Review): An article from: Early Modern Literary Studies
Curtis Perry
Manufacturer: Matthew Steggle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary

General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B0008JDISE
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Early Modern Literary Studies, published by Matthew Steggle on May 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1249 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Review of David Bergeron, King James and Letters of Homerotic Desire.(Book Review)
Author: Curtis Perry
Publication: Early Modern Literary Studies (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2000
Publisher: Matthew Steggle
Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Page: NA

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Pedro Martinez: Throwing Strikes (Superstar Series Baseball)
Average customer rating:

PEDRO MARTINEZ GREAT TOPIC

Pedro Martinez: Throwing Strikes (Superstar Series Baseball)
Mike Shalin
Manufacturer: Sports Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Sports & Recreation | Biographies | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Baseball | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Sports Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 1582610479

Customer Reviews:

PEDRO MARTINEZ GREAT TOPIC.......1999-07-15

EXCELLENT CHOICE, VERY INTERESTING AND ONLY GOT BETTER AS I READ ABOUT PEDRO. VERY INFORMING MATERIAL THAT KEEP ME INTERESTED FROM START TO FINISH. HOPE TO READ MORE OF YOUR MATERIAL IN THE NEAR FUTURE,YOUR BOOK WAS BETER THAN MOST OF THE STORIES I HAVE READ IN SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. THE NUZZO FAMILY

Pedro Martinez: Throwing Strikes

Average customer rating:

Pedro Martinez: Throwing Strikes
Michael Shalin
Manufacturer: Sports Publishing LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MBM8MA

My Reel Story
Average customer rating:
My Reel Story
Ted. Perry
Manufacturer: Middlebury College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Stagecraft | Theater | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Entertainers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Journalists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Direction & Production | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1584650761

Book Description

An unusual look at the role of movies in interpreting personal life experience.

My Reel Story

Average customer rating:

My Reel Story

Manufacturer: Middlebury College Pr.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I2XC8W

My Reel Story.

Average customer rating:

My Reel Story.
Ted. PERRY
Manufacturer: Hanover & London: Middlebury College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UG5GN0

Music and friends: Seven decades of letters to Adrian Boult from Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Bruno Walter, Yehudi Menuhin and other friends
Average customer rating:
Music and friends: Seven decades of letters to Adrian Boult from Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Bruno Walter, Yehudi Menuhin and other friends

Manufacturer: H. Hamilton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0241101786

Music and Friends: Seven Decades of Letters to Adrian Boult from Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Bruno Walter, Yehudi Menuhin and other friends
Average customer rating:
Music and Friends: Seven Decades of Letters to Adrian Boult from Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Bruno Walter, Yehudi Menuhin and other friends
Jerrold Northrop (ed.) MOORE
Manufacturer: H. Hamilton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPII4G

Transylvania Chronicles: The Dragon Ascendant (Vampire: The Dark Ages (Paperback))
Average customer rating:

TERRIBLE!

This is the way the world will end...ALMOST....

Transylvania Chronicles: The Dragon Ascendant (Vampire: The Dark Ages (Paperback))

Manufacturer: White Wolf Games Studio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Alternate History | Anthologies | Arthurian | Contemporary | Epic | General | Historical | History & Criticism | Magic & Wizards | Series
Vampire | Gaming | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Transylvania Chronicles III: Ill Omens (Vampire: The Dark Ages) (Vampire: The Dark Ages)

Transylvania Chronicles I: Dark Tides Rising (For Vampire, the Dark Ages)

Transylvania by Night (Vampire: The Dark Ages)

ASIN: 156504293X

Customer Reviews:

TERRIBLE!.......2006-07-22

THIS IS NOT THE DRAGON ASCENDANT! This is Ill Omens, the third book of four for the Transylvania Chronicles. I was very angry when I found out that this was Ill Omens and not The Dragon Ascendant when I recieved it in the mail. Get your products straight, please.

This is the way the world will end...ALMOST...........2000-06-08

This is the fourth and last installment in the epic TRANSYLVANIA CHRONICLES series of VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE supplements. The chronicle started in the Dark Ages and crossed over into modern era VtM in the third installment. Like other Dark Ages material, this series has been instumental in adding depth to VtM by giving the vampires a history. Like past installments in this series, this book contains helpful advice about running a century-spanning chronicle and playing elders (how vampires age, summarizing down time etc.) It has some advice for running this installment as a stand alone and how to get the stories back on track if the characters go in the wrong direction. It includes detailed rosters of major story characters. In short, it seems to be a really well designed module.

It takes the chronicle to the brink of Gehenna. It gives you front row seats at major events- the fate of the the Tremere antitribu, for example. A really good possible use for this book is integrating individual parts of it into other campaigns as a way of letting characters be witnesses to history independent of the larger TRANSYLVANIA CHRONICLES plot.

The problem is that it also reveals certain things about the Jyhad- the goals and machinations of specific Antediluvians, for example. There are big surprises here about just who the "great diabolical master of the Jyhad" is.

And that's why I'm only giving it three stars. This book reveals too darn much and makes decisions that I don't want made for me. Alternate possibilites for "what's really happening" don't seem to be offered. It's important to keep in mind that overthrowing established assumptions in an interactive role-playing game world isn't just a "surprise plot twist". It can play havoc with the direction of longstanding campaigns- previously thought in good faith to be well and faithfully grounded in offical materials. There specifically has to be enough ambiguity for storytellers to make their own personal decisions about "what it all means" without feeling that they are running divergent chronicles. (The assurance that "divergent chronicles are OK" is NOT the same.) The stuff revealed here trashes that utterly.

The Transylvania Chronicles Complete Set 1, 2, 3, 4: Dark Tides Rising; Son of the Dragon; Ill Omens; The Dragon Ascendant (Vampire: The Dark Ages and Vampire: The Masquerade)
Average customer rating:
The Transylvania Chronicles Complete Set 1, 2, 3, 4: Dark Tides Rising; Son of the Dragon; Ill Omens; The Dragon Ascendant (Vampire: The Dark Ages and Vampire: The Masquerade)
Brian Campbell , Nicky Rea , Reid Schmadeka , Brendan Moran , and Jackie Cassada
Manufacturer: White Wolf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000THND5I

Product Description

Four-part crossover chronicle for the RPGs Vampire: The Dark Ages and Vampire: The Masquerade.

Lecture Notes in Microeconomic Theory: The Economic Agent
Average customer rating:
Lecture Notes in Microeconomic Theory: The Economic Agent
Ariel Rubinstein
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Microeconomics | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Theory of Corporate Finance

Repeated Games and Reputations: Long-Run Relationships

Incentives: Motivation and the Economics of Information

Notes on the Theory of Choice (Underground Classics in Economics)

Real Analysis with Economic Applications

ASIN: 0691120315

Book Description

Lecture Notes in Microeconomic Theory is the first publication of Ariel Rubinstein's lecture notes from the first part of his well-known course in microeconomic theory, which he has taught for fifteen years to first-year graduate students at Tel Aviv, Princeton, and New York universities. The book will be an invaluable supplement to primary textbooks in microeconomic theory. Conveying the style and method of Rubinstein's lectures, it will benefit teachers and research economists as well as students. The book focuses on and provides a critical assessment of models of rational economic agents, and it contains a large number of original problems.

Rubinstein, one of the world's most-respected economics theorists, has made substantial contributions to several fields in economics, particularly game theory. His work is characterized by an unusual combination of deep originality and surprising simplicity. He is probably best known for his contributions to the bargaining problem and, more recently, to bounded rationality.

Albert the Great: The Albert Pujols Story
Average customer rating:

Great story for aspiring young baseball players

this is an amazing book about albert pujols

He Loves It

Great Book filled with facts...

Albert the Great: The Albert Pujols Story
Rob Rains
Manufacturer: Sports Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Baseball | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Baseball | Sports | Subjects | Books
General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Cardinals Journal: Year by Year and Day by Day with the St. Louis Cardinals Since 1882

Cardinals Rule: The St. Louis Cardinals Incredible 2006 Championship Season

Cardinals Essential: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Real Fan

Ozzie Smith: Road to Cooperstown

Cardinals: Where Have You Gone?

ASIN: 1582618925

Book Description

Description: No player in the history of baseball has burst onto the scene like the Cardinals' Albert Pujols. His first four seasons have been matched statiscally by only Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio through the same point in their Hall of Fame careers. Moving from the Dominican Republic when he was 15 years old was the break Pujols needed to turn himself into one of the best players in the game today. He was only a 13th-round draft choice out of a small junior college, but all Pujols needed was one season in the low minor leagues, with 14 career at bats above Class A, before he was ready for the major leagues. Pujols' career began with a monstrous Rookie of the Year campaign, and he has not slowed down yet, finishing as the runnerup to Barry Bonds in the National League's MVP voting the last two years and likely to finish in the top three in voting again this season. He appears to be the most likely candidate in the game today to become the next Triple Crown winner and perhaps the next hitter to challenge the .400 mark.

Customer Reviews:

Great story for aspiring young baseball players.......2007-05-13

Easy and quick read. Professional athletes can still be great people and players. True to his beliefs Albert is a great role model for all people young and old.

this is an amazing book about albert pujols.......2006-10-26

this book is great it is an awesome book if you like albert pujols if i could rate this book higher i defenetly would have. i recommend this book to anyone who is an albert pujols fan or loves a great story about baseball.

He Loves It.......2005-08-15

My son is an Albert Pujols fan of the first order. I bought this book for his birthday. He keeps it in a special place in his room, and likes to talk about it all the time. A wonderful book about a modern day baseball player of incomperable skill and character.

Great Book filled with facts..........2005-08-05

This was a great book. I really enjoyed it very much, however I wish they would talk about Albert. Overall I gave this book 4 stars because it is so hard to put down. Great story of a baseball player acheiving his goal.

Civil War Justice: Union Army Executions Under Lincoln
Average customer rating:
Civil War Justice: Union Army Executions Under Lincoln
Robert I. Alotta
Manufacturer: White Mane Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | Civil War | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0942597109

Theopolitical Imagination
Average customer rating:

Eucharistic Ecclesiology

A Milestone in Theological Politics

Theopolitical Imagination
William T. Cavanaugh
Manufacturer: T. & T. Clark Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Catholicism | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Roman Catholicism | Catholicism | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Theology | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Ethics | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Church & State | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Religion & Spirituality | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ (Challenges in Contemporary Theology)

Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (Political Profiles)

Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology

African American Religious Thought: An Anthology

Savage Systems: Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa (Studies in Religion and Culture (Charlottesville, Va.).)

ASIN: 0567088774

Customer Reviews:

Eucharistic Ecclesiology.......2005-04-13

In this very short text, Cavanaugh presents an argument that the church, when it properly celebrates the Eucharist, confronts oppressive political structures as a counter-politics. Through the sacrament, the church embodies an alternative to nationalism, civil society, and globalization. In the first chapter, Cavanaugh outlines the way the emergence of the nation-state created an individualized religion. This is because the state presents a narrative of salvation. The church, on the other hand, presents a true story of salvation as it participates in the Eucharist. In the second chapter, Cavanaugh outlines the contention of some Christians that the church should particpate in civil society, since it is a "free space" and the means of reform. However, the church is a free and public space, in the best senses of the terms, as it gathers around the Lord's table. Here Christians can truly engage in acts that can transform the world. Finally, in the third chapter Cavanaugh takes on globalization. As he presents it, globalization is an extension of the project of the nation-state. Globalization allows the universal to dominate the local, to a greater degree than nation-states do. The church is a counter-politics in that the Eucharist allows for a spacial relations to be reconceived. The universal/local dichotomy is collapsed as the universal is encapsulated in the local.

This is a great collection of essays. The only problem is that the book is too short. Cavanaugh promises more to come on these topics. I hope that he is true to his word. This is a must read for those interested in the church and politics.

A Milestone in Theological Politics.......2004-02-14

William T. Cavanaugh has produced yet another excellent book on the issue of theology, the church and politics. Building off his earlier work in "Torture and Eucharist", Cavanaugh explores the themes of the state, civil society, capitalism and globalism from a distinctly ecclesial, Eucharistic perspective. Cavanaugh's overarching argument is that the Christian practice of the Eucharist offers resources for building of a body (the body of Christ) of resistance to the violence and totalizing designs of the nation-state.

Cavanaugh's argument proceeds in three chapters, 1) The Myth of the State as Savior, 2) The Myth of Civil Society as Free Space and 3) The Myth of Globalism as Catholicity.

In his first chapter, Cavanaugh chronicles the rise of the modern nation-state against the historical backdrop of the "wars of religion". He shows, against the common perception, that the modern nation-state arose, not in order to police the violence of religious wars, but actually created the existence of religion (defined as an inner faith that has no direct political implications). The "wars of religion" are thus a misnomer, as they were not, as Cavanaugh shows caused by doctrinal zealotry, but by the political designs of rising nation-states. Cavanaugh shows how the state passed itself off as an "alternative soteriology to that of the church", purporting to save to world from the church as peacemaker. However, as the last four centuries have testified, the state has turned out to be a false soteriology, breeding more violence than ever before in history. Thus, Cavanaugh argues, the path for the church to follow is not to attempt to wrest the sword of Christendom from its rusty sheath, but to cultivate forms of resistance to the violence of the state through the communal practice of the Eucharist, which is a profoundly political act, as it relativizes the boundaries drawn by nation-states and declares the fellow members of the body of Christ are our true fellow-citizens. As such, the church, through the Eucharistic practice resists the violence of the state and offers a political alternative to it.

In his second chapter, Cavanaugh goes on to discuss civil society. He notes that many Christians have attempted to place Christian public contribution and activism within the sphere of "civil society" which is purported to be a public square that is outside the state, but still equally public and actually is able to impact state from without. Cavanaugh critiques this understanding and shows how the structures of the state pervade "civil society" to such a degree that no true boundaries can be drawn between them. Cavanaugh concludes that "civil society" does not offer a free space of dialogue in which the church has ground to speak. He thus moves on to argue that the church itself is a space for such dialogue. Against the hegemonic designs of the state, which represses and controls the public square, the church itself is irreducibly public through its proclamation and liturgical practice, which form the church community to be a body capable of resistance to the designs of the totalizing state. This again is connected to the fact that the church relativizes the boundaries of nation-states through participation in the Eucharist, in which one's countrty and fellow-citizens are redefined as members of the body of Christ. In so doing, the church creates the space for different kinds of political discussions and dialogues that the state is unable to sustain, give its inherent violence and greed.

In his final chapter, Cavanaugh moves into a discussion of globalism. He proceeds to show that globalism, rather than marking a departure from the paradigm of the nation-state, is in fact a hyperextension thereof. Globalism presupposes the nation-state paradigm and arises out of it. Again, the answer to globalism, Cavanaugh argues is the church's practice of the Eucharist. Globalism is actually a false catholicity, or universality. The Eucharist, by contrast establishes true catholicity, offering an alternative to the destructive politics of capitalistic globalism.

All in all, this is an excellent, lucid and well-argued book on the political nature of the church. "Theopolitical Imagination" should be required reading for anyone attempting to think through the political nature of the church in a world of statized global capitalistic consumerism.

Northeastern Wilds: Journeys of Discovery in the Northern Forest
Average customer rating:

Fantastic Book

Wonderful mosiac of wild new england

With captivating photographs of natural beauty

Beautiful journey through New England forests

Northeastern Wilds: Journeys of Discovery in the Northern Forest
Stephen Gorman
Manufacturer: Appalachian Mountain Club Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Northeast | Regions | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
New England | Northeast | Regions | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1929173431

Book Description

Spanning 26 million acres across New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, the Northern Forest is the last remaining wild forest in the East. In Northeastern Wilds, writer and photographer Stephen Gorman leads readers on a stunning visual and literary journey through the Northern Forest's rich heritage, geography, culture, and ongoing environmental change. Traveling by foot, canoe, ski, and snowshoe, Gorman confidently guides readers through the complexities of this working wilderness and the many challenges facing its survival. He explores with an even hand and an open mind such difficult issues as clear-cutting, land development, endangered species reintroduction, and conservation-issues that resonate whether readers live in Maine, Colorado, or California. First-hand insights from such well-known voices as E. Annie Proulx and Bill McKibben, as well as Abenaki leaders, lifelong residents, and paper company executives, highlight the present-day choices, challenges, and opportunities facing the Northern Forest. Northeastern Wilds is a breathtaking visual testament to the importance of this Eastern wilderness and the power of landscape in our lives.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic Book.......2007-05-27

This book gives you a glimpse into a vast wilderness region that few know, even those that live in the northeast. It is a story that encompasses the land, people, history, culture, and environmental issues.

Wonderful mosiac of wild new england.......2004-12-20

A fantastic, well written, visually captivating reflection of the beauty of the wild places of new england...a one of a kind book and a must have.

With captivating photographs of natural beauty.......2003-11-14

A finalist for the 2003 Independent Publisher Award, Stephen Gorman's Northeastern Wilds: Journeys Of Discovery In The Northern Forest is a stunning tour of adventure and wonder amidst remote woodland beauty. Captivating photographs of natural beauty and unique words of wisdom, memory, and appreciation for nature's bounty distinguish this very highly recommended informative and simply beautiful pictorial "great outdoors" northeastern tour.

Beautiful journey through New England forests.......2002-12-12

The Northern Forest is an area of twenty-six million acres that stretches from Adirondack Park in New York through Vermont, New Hampshire, and most of Maine. "Northern Wilds: Journeys of Discovery in the Northern Forest" consists of historical information about this area as well as the author's personal experiences. The author provides detailed descriptions and commentary of the various facets of the Forest. These descriptions include what one might expect while hiking in the area in different seasons, canoeing the rivers, or camping as well as how the area is changing due to development, logging, and other ecological factors.

Filled with stunningly beautiful photographs, it made me want to visit the Northern Forest at my first opportunity. A recommended read, but worth the price just for the pleasure of enjoying the photography.

Books:

Recommended Books