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This dissertation analyzes the messianic idea in “America”. The foci of the study are popular" /> <meta property="article:author" content="https://syr.academia.edu/AdamBrett" /> <meta name="description" content="A historically variegated emblem of trust and faith, the messianic idea is the offer of religion to the people for salvation from the coming catastrophe. This dissertation analyzes the messianic idea in “America”. The foci of the study are popular" /> <meta name="robots" content="noindex" /> <title>Catastrophic Christianity: an Iconological Study of the Messianic Idea in American Protestant Christianity Circa 1900-1940 | Adam D J Brett - Academia.edu</title> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.academia.edu/105557797/Catastrophic_Christianity_an_Iconological_Study_of_the_Messianic_Idea_in_American_Protestant_Christianity_Circa_1900_1940" /> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-5VKX33P2DS"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-5VKX33P2DS', { cookie_domain: 'academia.edu', send_page_view: false, }); gtag('event', 'page_view', { 'controller': "single_work", 'action': "show", 'controller_action': 'single_work#show', 'logged_in': 'false', 'edge': 'unknown', // Send nil if there is no A/B test bucket, in case some records get logged // with missing data - that way we can distinguish between the two cases. // ab_test_bucket should be of the form <ab_test_name>:<bucket> 'ab_test_bucket': null, }) </script> <script> var $controller_name = 'single_work'; var $action_name = "show"; var $rails_env = 'production'; var $app_rev = '49879c2402910372f4abc62630a427bbe033d190'; var $domain = 'academia.edu'; var $app_host = "academia.edu"; var $asset_host = "academia-assets.com"; var $start_time = new Date().getTime(); var $recaptcha_key = "6LdxlRMTAAAAADnu_zyLhLg0YF9uACwz78shpjJB"; var $recaptcha_invisible_key = "6Lf3KHUUAAAAACggoMpmGJdQDtiyrjVlvGJ6BbAj"; var $disableClientRecordHit = false; </script> <script> window.require = { config: function() { return function() {} } } </script> <script> window.Aedu = window.Aedu || {}; window.Aedu.hit_data = null; window.Aedu.serverRenderTime = new Date(1732484324000); window.Aedu.timeDifference = new Date().getTime() - 1732484324000; </script> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ScholarlyArticle","abstract":"A historically variegated emblem of trust and faith, the messianic idea is the offer of religion to the people for salvation from the coming catastrophe. This dissertation analyzes the messianic idea in “America”. The foci of the study are popular messianic figurations that serve as heuristic devices to explicate early 20th century U.S. culture, revealing two ideological impulses that encapsulate collective responses to the anxieties of the age: authoritarian-populism and catastrophic-utopianism. Four case studies, encompassing four different genres of media, define and illustrate these ideological impulses: The Fundamentals, Superman comic books, Bruce Barton’s capitalist Christianity, and The Wizard of Oz film. These iconic figures reflect respectively: a fundamentalist and nostalgic desire for the past; libidinal authoritarianism; commodification of religion; and the triumph of grift and hucksterism. Together, these figures constellate the messianic idea in “America”, a collective investment in an elongated historical present, which, in turn, colonizes psycho-social space with increasingly entrenched images that congeal into icons overtime. The messianic idea in “America” is best understood iconologically rather than theologically. As an icon, messianism’s primary contributions to the “American” cosmovision are a paranoid catastrophic-utopianism and religiously inflected authoritarian-populism.","author":[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","name":"Adam D J Brett"}],"contributor":[],"dateCreated":"2023-08-13","dateModified":"2023-08-13","datePublished":"2022-01-01","headline":"Catastrophic Christianity: an Iconological Study of the Messianic Idea in American Protestant Christianity Circa 1900-1940","inLanguage":"en","keywords":[],"locationCreated":null,"publication":"Dissertation","publisher":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":null},"image":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"url":"https://www.academia.edu/105557797/Catastrophic_Christianity_an_Iconological_Study_of_the_Messianic_Idea_in_American_Protestant_Christianity_Circa_1900_1940","sourceOrganization":[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"EducationalOrganization","name":"syr"}]}</script><link rel="stylesheet" media="all" 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window.loswp.shouldDetectTimezone = true; window.loswp.shouldShowBulkDownload = true; window.loswp.showSignupCaptcha = false window.loswp.willEdgeCache = false; window.loswp.work = {"work":{"id":105557797,"created_at":"2023-08-13T16:40:59.961-07:00","from_world_paper_id":null,"updated_at":"2023-08-13T18:54:26.991-07:00","_data":{"abstract":"A historically variegated emblem of trust and faith, the messianic idea is the offer of religion to the people for salvation from the coming catastrophe. This dissertation analyzes the messianic idea in “America”. The foci of the study are popular messianic figurations that serve as heuristic devices to explicate early 20th century U.S. culture, revealing two ideological impulses that encapsulate collective responses to the anxieties of the age: authoritarian-populism and catastrophic-utopianism. Four case studies, encompassing four different genres of media, define and illustrate these ideological impulses: The Fundamentals, Superman comic books, Bruce Barton’s capitalist Christianity, and The Wizard of Oz film. These iconic figures reflect respectively: a fundamentalist and nostalgic desire for the past; libidinal authoritarianism; commodification of religion; and the triumph of grift and hucksterism. 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font-weight: 500; color: #4b4b4b;"><div class="u-textTruncate"><span itemprop="author">Adam D J Brett</span></div></div></a><script data-card-contents-for-user="1875403" type="text/json">{"id":1875403,"first_name":"Adam","middle_initials":"D J","last_name":"Brett","page_name":"AdamBrett","domain_name":"syr","created_at":"2012-06-03T06:52:39.637-07:00","display_name":"Adam D J Brett","url":"https://syr.academia.edu/AdamBrett","photo":"https://gravatar.com/avatar/4624cc48da1e378660ad140a6c301dd7?s=65","has_photo":true,"department":{"id":7269,"name":"Religion","url":"https://syr.academia.edu/Departments/Religion/Documents","university":{"id":453,"name":"Syracuse University","url":"https://syr.academia.edu/"}},"position":"Adjunct","position_id":9,"interests":[{"id":6638,"name":"American Religion","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/American_Religion"},{"id":48550,"name":"Religious Studies","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Religious_Studies"},{"id":188,"name":"Cultural Studies","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Cultural_Studies"},{"id":8,"name":"Critical Theory","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Critical_Theory"},{"id":4917,"name":"Gender and Sexuality","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Gender_and_Sexuality"},{"id":122,"name":"Comparative Religion","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Comparative_Religion"},{"id":6107,"name":"Constructive Theology","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Constructive_Theology"},{"id":951,"name":"Humanities","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Humanities"},{"id":4946,"name":"Theory of Religion","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Theory_of_Religion"},{"id":14578,"name":"Method and Theory in the Study of Religion","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Method_and_Theory_in_the_Study_of_Religion"},{"id":106,"name":"Religion","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Religion"},{"id":8694,"name":"Science Fiction","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Science_Fiction"},{"id":20667,"name":"Science Fiction and Fantasy","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Science_Fiction_and_Fantasy"},{"id":2858,"name":"Popular Culture","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Popular_Culture"},{"id":46860,"name":"American Religious History","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/American_Religious_History"},{"id":128580,"name":"Call for Papers","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Call_for_Papers"},{"id":2059,"name":"History of Religion","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/History_of_Religion"},{"id":107,"name":"Abrahamic Religions","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Abrahamic_Religions"},{"id":7024,"name":"Gender","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Gender"},{"id":863,"name":"Visual Studies","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Visual_Studies"},{"id":4195,"name":"Cultural Theory","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Cultural_Theory"},{"id":1138,"name":"Women's Studies","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Womens_Studies"},{"id":2474,"name":"Religion in America","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Religion_in_America"},{"id":120,"name":"New Religious Movements","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/New_Religious_Movements"},{"id":24593,"name":"Doctor Who","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Doctor_Who"},{"id":11160,"name":"Ecumenical Theology","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Ecumenical_Theology"},{"id":78733,"name":"Ecumenism","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Ecumenism"},{"id":32641,"name":"World Religions","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/World_Religions"},{"id":696,"name":"Gender Studies","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Gender_Studies"},{"id":814,"name":"Ethics","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Ethics"},{"id":1555,"name":"Film Studies","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Film_Studies"},{"id":808,"name":"Aesthetics","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Aesthetics"},{"id":1439,"name":"Globalization","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Globalization"},{"id":5178,"name":"Phenomenology","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Phenomenology"},{"id":659,"name":"Comparative Literature","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Comparative_Literature"},{"id":926,"name":"Indigenous Studies","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Indigenous_Studies"},{"id":4351,"name":"Indigenous Religions","url":"https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Indigenous_Religions"}]}</script><div class="work-card--no-attachment-details"><div style="font-weight: 700; font-size: 14px;">Abstract</div><div class="work-card--abstract js-swp-splash-abstract">A historically variegated emblem of trust and faith, the messianic idea is the offer of religion to the people for salvation from the coming catastrophe. This dissertation analyzes the messianic idea in “America”. The foci of the study are popular messianic figurations that serve as heuristic devices to explicate early 20th century U.S. culture, revealing two ideological impulses that encapsulate collective responses to the anxieties of the age: authoritarian-populism and catastrophic-utopianism. Four case studies, encompassing four different genres of media, define and illustrate these ideological impulses: The Fundamentals, Superman comic books, Bruce Barton’s capitalist Christianity, and The Wizard of Oz film. These iconic figures reflect respectively: a fundamentalist and nostalgic desire for the past; libidinal authoritarianism; commodification of religion; and the triumph of grift and hucksterism. Together, these figures constellate the messianic idea in “America”, a collective investment in an elongated historical present, which, in turn, colonizes psycho-social space with increasingly entrenched images that congeal into icons overtime. The messianic idea in “America” is best understood iconologically rather than theologically. As an icon, messianism’s primary contributions to the “American” cosmovision are a paranoid catastrophic-utopianism and religiously inflected authoritarian-populism.</div></div><div class="request-upload--container"><p class="request-upload--title">Adam D J Brett hasn't uploaded this document.</p><div class="request-upload--info-text"><svg aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" data-prefix="fas" data-icon="info-circle" class="request-upload--info-icon svg-inline--fa fa-info-circle fa-w-16" role="img" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path fill="currentColor" d="M256 8C119.043 8 8 119.083 8 256c0 136.997 111.043 248 248 248s248-111.003 248-248C504 119.083 392.957 8 256 8zm0 110c23.196 0 42 18.804 42 42s-18.804 42-42 42-42-18.804-42-42 18.804-42 42-42zm56 254c0 6.627-5.373 12-12 12h-88c-6.627 0-12-5.373-12-12v-24c0-6.627 5.373-12 12-12h12v-64h-12c-6.627 0-12-5.373-12-12v-24c0-6.627 5.373-12 12-12h64c6.627 0 12 5.373 12 12v100h12c6.627 0 12 5.373 12 12v24z"></path></svg><p class="no-margin hide-on-small-mobile">Let Adam know you want this document to be uploaded.</p><p class="no-margin hide-above-small-mobile">Ask for this document to be uploaded.</p></div><button class="work-cover--request-pdf-button small js-request-pdf-button hide-on-desktop"><svg style="width: 14px; 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