Modernist God State

Michael Lackey is Associate Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, USA. He is the author of African American Atheists and Political Liberation: A Study of the Socio-Cultural Dynamics of Faith (University Press of Florida), which won the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title in 2007.  He has published articles in numerous journals, including Callaloo, African American Review, Philosophy and Literature, Journal of the History of Ideas, and Modern Fiction Studies.

• AcknowledgmentsDebunking the Secularization HypothesisChapter One: Short-circuiting Aesthetics: A Novel Theory about the Origins of Hitler and the NazisChapter Two: The Secularization Hypothesis: An Exercise in Political BlindnessThe Theology of the Modernist God StateChapter Three: "In-depth Christianization": E.M. Forster and the Modernist "religious sense" Chapter Four: Louise Erdrich, Alice Walker, and David Mamet on the Supersessionist Theology of the Sacred Imagined NationChapter Five: Joseph Conrad and Michael Bakunin on the Redemptive Logic of Western GenocideThe Nazis' Christian ReichChapter Six: The Making of Hitler and the Nazis: A Tale of Modern Secularization or Christian Idealism?Chapter Seven: William Styron's Sophie's Choice: Locating the Christian Theology of the Nazi's Genocidal Anti-SemitismConclusion: The Theological Origins of Hitler and the Nazis: A Question of MethodWorks Cited

"From Lackey's opening argument about the centrality of the novel to human understanding and concepts of social order to his careful analysis of the role of religion in conceptualizing and justifying the Nazi world view, this is a provocative book.  It is also deeply informed, fervently purposeful, and decidedly unsettling.  A must read." -John Ernest, Interim Chair, Department of EnglishEberly Family Distinguished Professor, Department of English, West Virginia University and author of Chaotic Justice: Rethinking African American Literary History