Religion, Empire, and Torture

The Case of Achaemenian Persia, with a Postscript on Abu Ghraib

Bruce Lincoln author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:10th Feb '15

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Religion, Empire, and Torture cover

In Religion, Empire, and Torture, Bruce Lincoln identifies three core components of an imperial theology that have transhistorical and contemporary relevance: dualistic ethics, a theory of divine election, and a sense of salvific mission. He shows how these religious ideas shaped Achaemenian practice and brought the Persians unprecedented wealth, power, and territory, but also produced unmanageable contradictions, as in a gruesome case of torture discussed in the book's final chapter. Close study of that episode leads Lincoln back to the present with a postscript that provides a searing and utterly novel perspective on the photographs from Abu Ghraib.

ISBN: 9780226251875

Dimensions: 23mm x 15mm x 1mm

Weight: 113g

192 pages