The Persistence of Purgatory - Fenn, Richard K.
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Richard K. Fenn focuses on the significance of time in modern society, and why we take it so seriously. He traces contemporary western attitudes toward time back to the doctrine and myth of Purgatory. Fenn makes a provocative case that especially for Americans the sense of the scarcity of time is a sign of social character, shaped by a 'purgatorial complex'. He demonstrates the impact of Purgatory on Protestant preachers such as Baxter and Channing, but also argues that Locke's views of religion, education and the nature of the state can only be understood in this context. Seriousness about…mehr

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Produktbeschreibung
Richard K. Fenn focuses on the significance of time in modern society, and why we take it so seriously. He traces contemporary western attitudes toward time back to the doctrine and myth of Purgatory. Fenn makes a provocative case that especially for Americans the sense of the scarcity of time is a sign of social character, shaped by a 'purgatorial complex'. He demonstrates the impact of Purgatory on Protestant preachers such as Baxter and Channing, but also argues that Locke's views of religion, education and the nature of the state can only be understood in this context. Seriousness about time has become evidence of the good faith of the citizen. Novelists like Robbins, Mailer, Vonnegut and Brautigan portray a society that oppresses the individual through time constraints. For Dickens, America seemed a purgatorial wasteland: a place where time is always of the essence.

Table of contents:
Introduction: Testing claims to grace: the intensification of time; 1. Silent anguish: distinguishing the cure for soul-loss from the disease; 2. Purgatory as a way of life: time as the essence of the soul; 3. The modern self emerges: Baxter, Locke and the prospect of heaven; 4. Locke, reason and the soul; 5. The American purgatory and the state; 6. Protestants and Catholics in the American purgatory; 7. Charles Dickens in the American purgatory: the eternal foreground; Epilogue.

Taking his cue from Heaven: A History by McDannell and Lang, Fenn in this stimulating and provocative essay makes apposite connections between theological doctrine and a ubiquitous modern preoccupation. It will appeal to scholars of American studies, to intellectual historians, and to sociologists of religion alike.

A stimulating essay which makes interesting connections between Christian doctrine and modernity.