Humans have been uttering profane words and incurring the consequences for millennia. But contemporary events-from the violence in 2006 that followed Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed to the 2012 furor over the Innocence of Muslims video-indicate that controversy concerning blasphemy has reemerged in explosive transnational form. In an age when electronic media transmit offense as rapidly as profane images and texts can be produced, blasphemy is bracingly relevant again.In this volume, a distinguished cast of international scholars examines the profound difficulties blasphemy raises for modern societies. Contributors examine how the sacred is formed and maintained, how sacrilegious expression is conceived and regulated, and how the resulting conflicts resist easy adjudication. Their studies range across art, history, politics, law, literature, and theology. Because of the global nature of the problem, the volume's approach is comparative, examining blasphemy across cultural and geopolitical boundaries.
List of Illustrations Foreword Martin E. Marty Introduction: On the Modern Confluence of Blasphemy, Free Expression, and Hate Speech Christopher S. Grenda, Chris Beneke, and David Nash PART ONE. CREATING SPACE FOR SACRILEGIOUS EXPRESSION 1. Thick-Skinned Tolerance: Satire, the Sacred, and the Rise of the Modern Christopher S. Grenda 2. The Productive Obscene: Philip Roth and the Profanity Loop Jacques Berlinerblau 3. Defaced: The Art of Blaspheming Texts and Images in the West David Lawton PART TWO. SACRILEGE AND DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT 4. Blasphemy and Free Thought in Jacksonian America: The Case of Abner Kneeland Paul Finkelman 5. Secular Blasphemies: Symbolic Offense in Modern Democracy Robert A. Yelle PART THREE. CIVILITY, THE SACRED, AND HUMAN RIGHTS 6. Muslim Political Theology: Defamation, Apostasy, and Anathema Ebrahim Moosa 7. Protesting Sacrilege: Blasphemy and Violence in Muslim-Majority States Ron E. Hassner 8. The Indonesian Blasphemy Act: A Legal and Social Analysis Asma T. Uddin 9. Profound Offense and Religion in Secular Democracies: An Australian Perspective Elizabeth Burns Coleman 10. Blasphemy versus Incitement: An International Law Perspective Jeroen Temperman Afterword: Blasphemy beyond Modernism David Nash List of Contributors Index
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