- #Errand into the wilderness summary how to#
- #Errand into the wilderness summary driver#
- #Errand into the wilderness summary series#
Miller corrects the balance by bringing out the inherent individualism of American Puritanism, its respect for private conscience, and even the revolutionary implications nurtured by Puritan doctrine.He has given us an analysis of the Puritan mind which is subtle and sophisticated, profound and humane, and revised in the light of the most recent scholarship. * Library Journal * Perry Miller has corrected the extreme revisionist historians who have overstressed the authoritarian and even totalitarian aspects of Puritan political doctrine. The author's impressive knowledge of the subject and his persistent research are evident throughout. The chapter on the various theories and prophecies on the end of the world brings the record up to the present. Beginning with the Puritans and their preoccupation with orthodoxy and continuing with the Quakers, the Congregationalists, Calvinists, and Unitarians, he interprets each from the point of view of its place in social and political change.Dominant figures such as Hooker, Jonathan Edwards, and Emerson are brought to life with understanding. Graziano says this messianic idea fits well with American exceptionalism: a delusional belief the US is an empire of liberty that has a moral responsibility to export democracy and freedom.Professor Miller has assembled materials which would otherwise not be easily accessible and which, taken together, present new perspectives on the dominant Christian origin of American political doctrine and civilization. Its blind spot was an assumption religion could be used to unify one global culture with a single value system. * Tisa Wenger, author of Religious Freedom: The Contested History of an American Ideal *Įrrand into the Wilderness of Mirrors notes how this close-knit relationship between psychology, theology and espionage in the US dates back to 1942: when President Franklin Roosevelt formed the Office of Strategic Services. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In this engaging and deftly written book, Graziano illuminates the fallibility of expertise, the role of religious studies in the security state, and the changing place of religion in American life. The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (GJIA) is the official publication of the Edmund A. But their methods were grounded in an American religious exceptionalism that often left them flat-footed and unprepared.
#Errand into the wilderness summary how to#
US intelligence agents in the Cold War thought they knew what religion was, how it worked, and how to manipulate it for national security goals. * Andrew Preston, author of Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy * This superb book is a must-read for scholars of American religion and foreign relations alike. On May II, 1670, the Reverend Samuel Danforth preached an election sermon entitled, A Brief Recognition of New. In colorful detail and with sharp insight, Graziano shows how the US intelligence community waged the Cold War with innovative but misleading academic theories about world religions.
#Errand into the wilderness summary series#
'Intelligence histories are curious things,' writes Graziano, and his brilliant, highly original book is no exception. 2In Colonial New England, where justification of the errand into the wilderness was paramount and entailed setting up a series of controlling techniques.
#Errand into the wilderness summary driver#
By braiding the development of the modern intelligence agency with the story of postwar American religion, Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors delivers a provocative new look at a secret driver of one of the major engines of American power.
As Graziano makes clear, these misconceptions often led to tragedy and disaster on an international scale. Winthrop began his encomium regarding the immigrants’ errand into the wilderness, using language familiar to Reformed Christians everywhere: God Almighty in His most holy and wise providence, hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity others. But more tellingly, Graziano shows, American intelligence officers were overly inclined to view powerful religions and religious figures through the frameworks of Catholicism. In a practical sense, this was because the Roman Catholic Church already had global networks of people and safe places that American agents could use to their advantage.
Graziano argues that the religious approach to intelligence by key OSS and CIA figures like Wild Bill Donovan and Edward Lansdale was an essential, and overlooked, factor in establishing the agency's concerns, methods, and understandings of the world. Fittingly, Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors investigates the dangers and delusions that ensued from the religious worldview of the early molders of the Central Intelligence Agency. Michael Graziano's intriguing book fuses two landmark titles in American history: Perry Miller's Errand into the Wilderness (1956), about the religious worldview of the early Massachusetts colonists, and David Martin's Wilderness of Mirrors (1980), about the dangers and delusions inherent to the Central Intelligence Agency.
0 kommentar(er)
