A resurgent right wing is using "values," especially religious values, to attempt to undermine progressive policies on the economy, the environment, national security, and more. Now more than ever, it is important to have a clear analysis of how these reactionary messages are conveyed in the digital age, and to develop powerful, religiously insightful, and positive alternatives.
An innovative new book by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite does just that. Dreaming of Eden: American Religion and Politics in a Wired World develops “public theology,” using the images and stories in our Internet-driven culture as the “stuff” of theology. Religion is rooted in the deep stories we tell, and now we tell them in cyberspace. Dreaming of Eden reveals their digital religious meanings, critiquing some for sabotaging justice and peace, and proposing others to advance a progressive message.
The book exposes the conservative-driven temptation to "escape to innocence" and shows progressives how they can develop and "use emotionally laden, wisdom images that can ‘go viral’ because of the multiplication effect of the digital age."
Please join in a conversation between Susan Thistlethwaite and Jacques Berlinerblau on this controversial and timely subject.
Copies of Dreaming of Eden: American Religion and Politics in a Wired World will be available for sale at the event.
Introduction by:
Sally Steenland, Director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative, Center for American Progress
Featured speakers:
Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress and Professor of Theology, Chicago Theological Seminary
Dr. Jacques Berlinerblau, Associate Professor and Director, Program for Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University