From Jesus Christ to Salman Rushdie, from Moses to Freud, blasphemy has been a force in producing many forms of Western cultural identity. Blasphemy continues to influence our relations with other cultures, yet it is not so much an idea as a shifting rhetorical figure. It stands for whatever we deplore: we define the truths we uphold in terms of the blasphemies we attack. "Blasphemy is an orthodoxy's way of demonizing difference," writes Lawton. In this provocative book, the author tracks the history of blasphemy from the trial of Christ through the fatwa imposed on Salman Rushdie. He concludes that blasphemy is far from an antique concept, but a living, dangerous rhetoric that still defines the boundaries of popular culture.
- ISBN10 0812215036
- ISBN13 9780812215038
- Publish Date 1 July 1993 (first published 1 June 1993)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 12 April 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Pennsylvania Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 228
- Language English