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Kelly Denton-Borhaug Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA Abstract This article investigates the language of 'sacrifice' used in official U.S. government communications to build up support for the Iraq war in the [...]

This article explores the “omnipotent sacrificial sacred canopy” in US war-culture. I argue that sacrificial linguistic habits and patterns of logic in the US successfully discipline citizens, such that the violence of our current wars remains mystified, and clear analysis of the wars' true costs is disabled. Rather than attempt to arrive at one universal theory of sacrifice to analyze and better understand sacrificial US war-culture, I demonstrate that diverse theoretical methods of analysis better help us to understand the pluralistic nuances and permutations of these smothering dynamics. I further argue that increased awareness of the sacrificial sacred canopy over war and militarism in the US finally must lead to self-examination on the part of Christians regarding the way in which sacrificial civil religious admonishments regarding war merge with and are mutually reinforced by theological and ecclesial soteriological habits of Christians in the US Lastly, I advocate a two-fold approach for addressing this disturbing and destructive reality in the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we examine the relationship between mindfulness, memoir, and critical pedagogy. We propose that memoir links critical pedagogy and contemplative practice, furthering the goals of both. This proposal is rooted in an analysis of three years' worth of memoirs prepared by students in a Peace and Justice Studies course. Our study shows that the pedagogical strategy we have employed assists students' increased self-awareness as well as insight regarding their inter-connectedness with other living beings. Both the study and contemplative practice of memoir root this awareness in the specific places, relationships, and situations that form our students' lives. Students are thus situated for deeper reflection regarding the ways their own lives are linked with the destiny of a much larger world reality, and specifically, with questions of peace and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What would we say about the losses associated with war we did not describe them as sacrifices? What would we say about Jesus' life and death if we did not associate the gospel narratives with a cosmic framework of sacrificial self-giving? The "the necessity of sacrifice" operates as an electrical exchange between the institutionalization of "war-culture" in the United States and the understandings and practices of popular Christianity. This leads to an important and difficult question: is there any way to rehabilitate understandings of sacrifice for Christianity without at the same time aiding and abetting war? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: First, I summarize the major findings of a new comprehensive resource, Torture and Democracy, by Darius Rejali, as corrective for the current state of confusion and concealment in United States with regard to the persistence of torture. Second, I respond theologically to the insights from this scholarship through a) reflection on victims of torture as ‘nonpersons’ in light of theological anthropology, and through exploring the role of Christians in the public square, and b) addressing the problem of sacrificialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the process of audiences' absorption of the atonement images, penal substitution, christus victor and sacrifice in the motion picture "The Passion of the Christ," directed by Mel Gibson. Significance of the role of violence to the portrayal of atonement images in the film; Analysis of the physical response of viewers to the film; Effect of Gibson's encouragement between the christus victor atonement imagery in the film and his internal battle with addiction and external battle with film critics.