{"product_id":"acts-against-god-a-short-history-of-blasphemy-9781789142013","title":"Acts Against God: A Short History of Blasphemy","description":"Blasphemy is a phenomenon that spans human experience, from the ancient world right up to today's ferocious religious debates. \u003ci\u003eActs Against God\u003c\/i\u003e is the first accessible history of this crime--its prosecution, its impact, and its punishment and suppression. While acknowledging blasphemy as an act of individuals, \u003ci\u003eActs Against God \u003c\/i\u003ealso considers the act as a widespread and constant presence in cultural, political, and religious life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Beginning in ancient Greece and the genesis of blasphemy's link with the state, David Nash moves on to explore blasphemy in the medieval world, where it was used both as an accusation against outsiders and as a method of crusading for piety in the West. He considers how the medieval world developed the concept of heresy as a component of disciplining its populations, the first coherent phase in state control of belief. This phenomenon reached its full flowering in the Reformation, where conformity became a fixation of confessional states. The Enlightenment created agendas of individual rights where room for religious doubt pushed blasphemy into the twilight as modern humankind hoped for its demise. But, concluding in the twenty-first century, Nash shows how individuals and the state alike now seek to adopt blasphemy as a cornerstone of identity and as the means to resist the secularization and globalization of culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Reaktion Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/15\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781789142013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.14lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.30w x 0.90d","brand":"David Nash","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36669076177052,"sku":"9781789142013","price":25.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_4e61a898-746e-46af-bba6-deddb2dd34b7.jpg?v=1603919149","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/acts-against-god-a-short-history-of-blasphemy-9781789142013","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}