Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE How White Evangelicals        Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation By    Kristin Kobes Du Mez Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton   Kristin Kobes Du Mez begins and ends her assault on militaristic white American evangelical men with their contemporary sociopolitical leader, former president, Donald Trump. In the Introduction we learn the short doctrinal list of what it means to be a Bible-believing evangelical, but the author posits that American evangelicals are more than a set of theological statements. Instead, since the early 1900s they have embraced a John Wayne view of what it means to be a Christian man—a powerful warrior for country and God—a man who leads his troops into battle to uphold the values of God’s chosen people, the Americans. It was the title, Jesus and John Wayne , that was off-putting. I didn’t grow up with John Wayne films or a love of American westerns. I was after...

The New Religious Intolerance      Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age By Martha C. Nussbaum Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton Philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum provides real world examples to illustrate the role of fear in sociopolitical actions. She identifies fear as “more narcissistic than other emotions.” People who are different from us can evoke anxiety, which can become exaggerated into a call for action to reduce or eliminate the influence of the other group. In the examples, Nussbaum shows how people fail to consistently apply principles of respect for the religious values of people who are members of a minority religion in a pluralistic society. One example is the resistance toward a Muslim plan to build a cultural center in lower Manhattan. Another example is the concern of some Europeans with the facial coverings of Muslim women. What I find particularly refreshing is her ability to clarify the role of human emotions in moral philosophy. S...