The Gospel of Freedom, or Another Gospel?: Augustinian Reflections on American Foreign Policy – by James K.A. Smith
Go read something by someone smarter than me, if you’re into thinking about empire, competing conceptions of freedom and theologically-based political critique. It’s long, but worthwhile.
Good shit, thanks!
this is my favorite part. it is also a totally new idea which could change some of the ways i think:
There remains a link between America and Empire, but not as a qualifier: not American empire, but rather America serving Empire, even perhaps America as privileged colony of Empire, now understood as a transnational network of “flows” of capital through a global market that transcends territorial control. Post-imperial Empire means that the market has taken on a life of its own as a rather Frankenstein-ish creation of modernity that eludes the control of modern nation-states. Empire has outgrown the constraints of national sovereignty. Its anthem is no longer “Rule, Britannia!” or some other national hymn; its anthem is more on the order of, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke!”
Ry: my pleasure.
Joel: yeah, that bit on empire is probably what’s going to leave me pondering the most out of the article.