The Babylon Complex: Theopolitical Fantasies of War, Sex, and Sovereignty

by Erin Runions

Overview

Babylon is a surprisingly multivalent symbol in U.S. culture and politics. Political citations of Babylon range widely, from torture at Abu Ghraib to depictions of Hollywood glamour and decadence. In political discourse, Babylon appears in conservative ruminations on democratic law, liberal appeals to unity, Tea Party warnings about equality, and religious advocacy for family values. A composite biblical figure, Babylon is used to celebrate diversity and also to condemn it, to sell sexuality and to regulate it, to galvanize war and to worry about imperialism.

Erin Runions explores the significance of these shifts and contradictions, arguing that together they reveal a theopolitics that tries to balance the drive for U.S. dominance with the countervailing ideals and subjectivities of economic globalization. Examining the confluence of cultural formations, biblical interpretations, and (bio)political philosophies, The Babylon Complex shows how theopolitical arguments for war, sexual regulation, and political control both assuage and contribute to anxieties about waning national sovereignty. Theoretically sophisticated and engaging, this remarkable book complicates our understanding of how the Bible affects U.S. political ideals and subjectivities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823257331
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	04/03/2014
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Erin Runions is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Religious Studies at Pomona College. Her previous books are Changing Subjects: Gender, Nation, Future in Micah and How Hysterical: Identification and Resistance in the Bible and Film.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Babylon and the Crisis of Sovereignty
1. From Babel to Biopolitics: Josephus, Theodemocracy, and the Regulation of Pleasure
2. Bellicose Dreams: Babylon and Exception to Law
3. Tolerating Babel: Biopolitics, Film, and Family
4. Revenge on Babylon: Literalist Allegory, Scripture, Torture
5. Who Lives in Babylon? The Gay Antichrist as Political Enemy
6. Babelian Scripture: A Queerly Sublime Ethics of Reading
Postlude: Roads to Babel

Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The Babylon Complex is unlike anything else in the fields it engages and crosses; its scholarship is unique, top-tier, and challenging, offering much savvier reflections upon biblical heritages and uses than what one often finds in the current theoretical 'turn to religion.' In short, it is both relevant and interdisciplinary, two terms too often used, but seldom as aptly as they are for this truly excellent book."-Joseph A. Marchal, Ball State University

"Runions' scholarship is phenomenal. It's stunning that she can sustain her rigor over this variety of cultural and political contexts. That she does is a testament to her breadth as a scholar, and her critical acumen."-Jay Twomey, University of Cincinnati

"Erin Runions reveals Babylon to be an ambivalent but perversely indispensable figure for theopolitical discourses girding contemporary biopolitics. Modeling a queerly sublime ethics of reading, The Babylon Complex sets an agenda for a next generation of biblical scholars while demonstrating what cultural studies gains from engagement with biblical studies."—Jennifer Glancy, Le Moyne College

"With fearless insight and incisive prose, Erin Runions offers a breathtaking tour de force of astute biblical-political-philosophical analysis that persistently reframes the intertwining of biblical interpretation and biopolitics through the figure of Babel/Babylon. As she shows, the pervasive theopolitics of American discourse, right and left, is informed by an eschatological fantasy sanctioned by the twin edifices of bible and law. This engrossing account of biblically inflected defenses of US sovereignty places biblical interpretation at the center of critical theory and critical theory at the center of biblical interpretation. A must read for anyone interested in the current state of theodemocratic exceptionalism, in the unpredictable and shifting meanings of biblical texts, and in the possibility of listening, finally, to an other."—Jennifer Knust, Boston University

"Theoretically sophisticated and engaging, this remarkable book complicates our understanding of how the Bible affects U.S political ideals and subjectivities."—Reading Religion

"...Erin Runions has written a closely argued, verbally incandescent, and deeply insightful study: The Babylon Complex: Theopolitical Fantasies of War, Sex, and Sovereignty. Her project is to trace the complex and contradictory set of interpretive frames that surround the figure of Babylon, illustrating how its invocation sustains claims to sovereignty and shapes the potential for critique. In the process, she stakes out a new, activist role for critical scholarship wherein analysis ranges widely from ancient text to contemporary interpretive context, tracking the conspiracy of power and knowledge production to condition the political field."—Reading Religion

"Erin Runions' remarkable book explores various ways in which the biblical figure of Babylon, or Babel, circulates in contemporary U.S. politics and culture... her book should be read by any scholar interested in the role of the Bible in the contemporary world."—Biblical Interpretation

From the Publisher

Theoretically sophisticated and engaging, this remarkable book complicates our understanding of how the Bible affects U.S political ideals and subjectivities.

Reading Religion

Erin Runions reveals Babylon to be an ambivalent but perversely indispensable figure for theopolitical discourses girding contemporary biopolitics. Modeling a queerly sublime ethics of reading, The Babylon Complex sets an agenda for a next generation of biblical scholars while demonstrating what cultural studies gains from engagement with biblical studies.

Le Moyne College - Jennifer Glancy

Erin Runions’ remarkable book explores various ways in which the biblical figure of Babylon, or Babel, circulates in contemporary U.S. politics and culture… her book should be read by any scholar interested in the role of the Bible in the contemporary world.

Biblical Interpretation

With fearless insight and incisive prose, Erin Runions offers a breathtaking tour de force of astute biblical-political-philosophical analysis that persistently reframes the intertwining of biblical interpretation and biopolitics through the figure of Babel/Babylon. As she shows, the pervasive theopolitics of American discourse, right and left, is informed by an eschatological fantasy sanctioned by the twin edifices of bible and law. This engrossing account of biblically inflected defenses of US sovereignty places biblical interpretation at the center of critical theory and critical theory at the center of biblical interpretation. A must read for anyone interested in the current state of theodemocratic exceptionalism, in the unpredictable and shifting meanings of biblical texts, and in the possibility of listening, finally, to an other.

Boston University - Jennifer Knust

Runions’ scholarship is phenomenal. It’s stunning that she can sustain her rigor over this variety of cultural and political contexts. That she does is a testament to her breadth as a scholar, and her critical acumen.

University of Cincinnati - Jay Twomey

The Babylon Complex is unlike anything else in the fields it engages and crosses; its scholarship is unique, top-tier, and challenging, offering much savvier reflections upon biblical heritages and uses than what one often finds in the current theoretical 'turn to religion.' In short, it is both relevant and interdisciplinary, two terms too often used, but seldom as aptly as they are for this truly excellent book.

Ball State University - Joseph A. Marchal