Mapping the End Times: American Evangelical Geopolitics and Apocalyptic Visions(Critical Geopolitics)

Over the last quarter-century, evangelicalism has become an important social and political force in modern America. Here, new voices in the field are brought together with leading scholars such as William E. Connolly, Michael Barkun, Simon Dalby, and Paul Boyer to produce a timely examination of the spatial dimensions of the movement, offering useful and compelling insights on the intersection between politics and religion. This comprehensive study discusses evangelicalism in its different forms, from the moderates to the would-be theocrats who, in anticipation of the Rapture, seek to impose their interpretations of the Bible upon American foreign policy. The result is a unique appraisal of the movement and its geopolitical visions, and the wider impact of these on America and the world at large.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword: evangelism, secularism and pluralist possibility, William E. Connolly; Introduction; mapping the end times, Tristan Sturm and Jason Dittmer. Part I Contesting the American Holy Land: 'What would Lee do?': religion and the moral landscapes of southern nationalism in the United States, David Jansson; Contests over latter-day space: Mormonism's role within evangelical geopolitics as seen through last-days novels, Ethan Yorgason; Obama, son of perdition? Narrative rationality and the role of the 44th President of the United States in the end-of-days, Jason Dittmer. Part II American Evangelical Exceptionalism: Apocalyptic exceptionalism: Rosenberg, Clancy and the prophecy of Americanism, Simon Dalby; The 'new world order' and American exceptionalism, Michael Barkun; Imagining apocalyptic geopolitics: American evangelical citationality of evil others, Tristan Sturm. Part III Missionary Geopolitics: The problematic synergy between evangelicals and the US state in sub-Saharan Africa, Hannes Gerhardt; Reaching the unreached in the 10/40 window: the missionary geoscience of race, difference and distance, Ju Hui Judy Han; Between Armageddon and hope: dispensational premillennialism and evangelical missions in the Middle East, Carolyn Gallaher; Afterword: the geopolitics of end-time belief in the era of George W. Bush, Paul Boyer; Index.

About the Author :
Jason Dittmer, University College London, UK and Tristan Sturm, University of California Los Angeles, USA. William E. Connolly, Tristan Sturm, Jason Dittmer, David Jansson, Ethan Yorgason, Simon Dalby, Michael Barkun, Hannes Gerhardt, Ju Hui Judy Han, Carolyn Gallaher, Paul Boyer.

Review :
'For much of the twentieth century political belief and practice seemed to be dominated by great secular visions that competed in their promise of a better world in the future. That now seems like a distant memory. The greatest conflicts around the world today all seem directly inspired by differences in religious belief. Images of worlds other than this one are driving political consciousness and action. The beauty of this collection lies in showing from an array of fascinating angles how much geopolitical competition in preparation for a transcendent world has now replaced historical becoming as the leitmotif of world politics.' John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles, USA 'Sturm and Dittmer have brought together a range of specific analyses that speak to a wide set of issues. The studies range from elite discourses to popular culture and from theoretical engagements to detailed empirical work. Challenging, powerful and disturbing, this is a much needed volume on a pressing geopolitical concern.' Stuart Elden, Durham University, UK 'The collected essays are informative and often fascinating.' Journal of Church and State 'The volume's strength is that it critiques how eschatolo-gies are deployed as a means to attain the secular ends of nation-building at the expense of nonexceptional others.' Annals of the Association of American Geographers