Holy Terror

Brimming with lively wit and penetrating insight, Holy Terror offers a profound and timely investigation of the idea of terror, drawing upon political, philosophical, literary, and theological sources to trace a genealogy from the ancient world to the present day. Famed critic Terry Eagleton offers here a metaphysics of terror with a serious historical perspective. Writing with remarkable clarity and persuasiveness, Eagleton examines a concept whose cultural impact predates 9/11 by millennia. From its earliest manifestations in rite and ritual, through its rebirth as a political idea with the French Revolution, to the 'War on Terror' of today, terror has been regarded with both horror and fascination. Eagleton examines the duality of the sacred (both life-giving and death-dealing) and relates it, via current and past ideas of freedom, to the idea of terror itself. Stretching from the cult of Dionysus to the thought of Jacques Lacan, the book sheds light into ideas of God, freedom, the sublime, and the unconscious. It also examines the problem of evil, and devotes a concluding chapter to the idea of tragic sacrifice and the scapegoat. Written by one of the world's foremost cultural critics, Holy Terror is a provocative and ambitious examination of one of the most urgent issues of our time. Holy Terror is a profound and timely investigation of the idea of terror, drawing upon political, philosophical, literary, and theological sources to trace a genealogy from the ancient world to the modern day. Rather than add to the mounting pile of political studies of terrorism, Terry Eagleton offers here a metaphysics of terror with a serious historical perspective. Writing with remarkable clarity and persuasive insight he examines a concept whose cultural impact predates 9/11 by millennia. From its earliest manifestations in rite and ritual, through the French Revolution to the 'War on Terror' of today, terror has been regarded with both horror and fascination. Eagleton examines the duality of the sacred (both life-giving and death-dealing) and relates it, via current and past ideas of freedom, to the idea of terror itself. Stretching from the cult of Dionysus to the thought of Jacques Lacan, the book takes in en route ideas of God, freedom, the sublime, and the unconscious. It also examines the problem of evil, and devotes a concluding chapter to the idea of tragic sacrifice and the scapegoat. Written by one of the world's foremost cultural critics, Holy Terror is a provocative and ambitious examination of one of the most urgent issues of our time. This short but profound study sets the idea and ideology of 'terror' in a richly historical, metaphysical, theological, and literary context. Terry Eagleton traces a genealogy from ancient rites and rituals, as notably articulated in classical drama, through medieval theology and the eighteenth-century sublime, to the Freudian unconscious. - ;Holy Terror is a profound and timely investigation of the idea of terror, drawing upon political, philosophical, literary, and theological sources to trace a genealogy from the ancient world to the modern day. Rather than add to the mounting pile of polit "Terry Eagleton's examination of the idea of terror draws on political, philosophical, literary, and theological sources to trace a genealogy from the ancient world to the modern day. Ranging from the cult of Dionysus, through Shakespearian tragedy and the politics of Danton and Hegel, to the thought of Freud and Lacan, it takes in en route ideas of God, freedom, the nation, the sublime, and the unconscious. It also examines the problem of evil, and devotes a concluding chapter to the idea of tragic sacrifice and the scapegoat."--Jacket In this investigation of the idea of terror, a cultural critic offers a metaphysics of terror with a serious historical perspective that draws upon political, philosophical, literary, and theological sources to trace a genealogy from the ancient world to present day. In this investigation of the idea of terror, a cultural critic offers a metaphysics of terror with a serious historical perspective that draws upon political, philosophical, literary, and theological sources to trace a genealogy from the ancient world top resent day. Invitation To An Orgy -- States Of Sublimity -- Fear And Freedom -- Saints And Suicides -- The Living Dead -- Scapegoats. Terry Eagleton. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [141]-144) And Index.