Empire of Sacrifice: The Religious Origins of American Violence

List of Tables and Figures Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Rethinking Violence and Religion in America Rethinking "Violence" Rethinking "Religion" Rethinking "Religious Violence" in America 2 Sacrificing Youth: From Reefer Madness to Hostel Spectacles of Sacrifice in the Cinema of Adolescence A Theater of Terror, or Innocent Martyrs to the "Beast in the Boudoir"Beyond Hollywood's Happy Endings 3 Sacrificing RaceFrom Christian Ambivalence to a Total System of Bodily Discipline "A Severe Cross" 4 Sacrificing GenderAsa's Tale: Patriarchy Lost Abigail's Tale: Providential Power The Hidden Hand in Handmaids' Tales 5 Sacrificing Humans: An Empire of Sacrifice from Mary Dyer to Dead Man WalkingSacrifice and Empire Building from the Aztecs to Puritan Boston via John BunyanMimesis in Massachusetts, 1656-1657 Ecstatic Asceticism: The Domination of Discourse and Rhetorical Inversion, 1658-1661Sacrificial Rites and an Imagined Community, 1660-1776 Dead Man Walking and an American Empire of Sacrifice Epilogue: Innocent Domination in the "Global War on Terror" Notes Bibliography Index About the Author