Melissa M. Matthes's Books

When Sorrow Comes

The Power of Sermons from Pearl Harbor to Black Lives Matter

By: Melissa M. Matthes

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When Sorrow Comes

The Power of Sermons from Pearl Harbor to Black Lives Matter

By: Melissa M. Matthes

Since World War II, Protestant sermons have been an influential tool for defining American citizenship in the wake of national crises. In the aftermath of national tragedies, Americans often turn to churches for solace. Because even secular citizens attend these services, they are also significant opportunities for the Protestant religious majority to define and redefine national identity and, in the process, to invest the nation-state with divinity. The sermons delivered in the wake of crises become integral to historical and communal memory—it matters greatly who is mourned and who is overlooked. Melissa M. Matthes conceives of these sermons as theo-political texts. In When Sorrow Comes, she explores the continuities and discontinuities they reveal in the balance of state power and divine authority following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the assassinations of JFK and MLK, the Rodney King verdict, the Oklahoma City bombing, the September 11 attacks, the Newtown shootings, and the Black Lives Matter movement. She argues that Protestant preachers use these moments to address questions about Christianity and citizenship and about the responsibilities of the Church and the State to respond to a national crisis. She also shows how post-crisis sermons have codified whiteness in ritual narratives of American history, excluding others from the collective account. These civic liturgies therefore illustrate the evolution of modern American politics and society. Despite perceptions of the decline of religious authority in the twentieth century, the pulpit retains power after national tragedies. Sermons preached in such intense times of mourning and reckoning serve as a form of civic education with consequences for how Americans understand who belongs to the nation and how to imagine its future.

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Page Count

441

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674988191

ISBN 13

9780674988194

Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics

Readings in Livy, Machiavelli, and Rousseau

By: Melissa M. Matthes

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Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics

Readings in Livy, Machiavelli, and Rousseau

By: Melissa M. Matthes

Matthes (U. of Maryland) stages a conversation between feminism and republicanism to analyze the linkage between "founding stories" of republics, sexual violence, and gender hierarchy. While pointing out the differences in the retellings of Lucretia's rape by Livy, Machiavelli, and Rousseau, she argues that their commonality is in appropriating the classical tale to support the view that the alternative to violence is citizenship and politics infused with common good notions of agency, action, and community. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

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204

Publisher

Penn State Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0271039345

ISBN 13

9780271039343

The Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics

Readings in Livy, Machiavelli, and Rousseau

By: Melissa M. Matthes

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The Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics

Readings in Livy, Machiavelli, and Rousseau

By: Melissa M. Matthes

The bonds among republican citizens are created, in part, through the stories told and retold as the foundational myths of the republic. In this book, Melissa Matthes takes advantage of the way in which republican theorists in different eras&—Livy, Machiavelli, and Rousseau&—retell the story of the rape of Lucretia to support their own conceptions of republicanism. The recurring presentation of this story as theater by these different theorists reveals not only the performative elements of republicanism but, as Matthes argues, adds to Hannah Arendt&’s emphasis on the oral dimensions of speech and hearing the important idea of public space as a visual field. Lucretia&’s story also helps illuminate the gendering of republicanism, particularly the aspects of violence and subordination that lie at its very origin. By focusing attention on this underlying and deeply gendered quality of republics, Matthes brings republican theory into fruitful dialogue with feminism.

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Page Count

197

Publisher

Penn State Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0271030127

ISBN 13

9780271030128

When Sorrow Comes

The Power of Sermons from Pearl Harbor to Black Lives Matter

By: Melissa M. Matthes

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When Sorrow Comes

The Power of Sermons from Pearl Harbor to Black Lives Matter

By: Melissa M. Matthes

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

441

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674988191

ISBN 13

9780674988194

Book's by Melissa M. Matthes

When Sorrow Comes

When Sorrow Comes

Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics

Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics

The Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics

The Rape of Lucretia and the Founding of Republics

When Sorrow Comes

When Sorrow Comes

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