Edward Said Meets Dwight L. Moody

Last updated on: April 12, 2016 at 11:40 am by D. G. Hart

Edward Said Meets Dwight L. Moody 2016-04-12T11:40:57-04:00 D. G. Hart

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For readers who have spent time with Edward Said’s influential book, Orientalism, the thought that a leading critic of the West’s understanding of the East was a graduate of Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts will no doubt surprise. Mount Hermon was the creation of the revivalist, Dwight L. Moody, and as Said observed in his autobiography, Out of Place, thoroughly beholden to quirks of evangelicalism in the United States:

The mythology of D. L. Moody dominated the school and made it the not-quite-first-rate place it was. There was the “dignity of manual labor” part, which seemed to me totally silly. There seemed to be unquestioned asset to the man’s incredible importance: it was my first encounter with enthusiastic mass hypnosis by a charlatan, because except for two of us, not one teacher or student expressed the slightest doubt that Moody was worthy of the highest admiration. . . .

And so it was with religion — the Sunday service, the Wednesday evening chapel, the Thursday noon sermon — dreadful pietistic, nondenominational (I disliked that form of vacillation in particular), full of homilies, advice, how-to-live. Ordinary observations were encoded into Moodyesque sturdy Christianity in which words like “service” and “labor” acquired magical (but finally unspecifiable) meaning, to be repeated and intoned as what gave our lives “moral purpose.” . . . We were all Hermon boys, six hundred of us marching on after Moody and Ira Sankey, his faithful sidekick.

Image

Previous Post

April 8, 2016

Blame the Anti-Smoking Social Justice Warriors

Next Post

April 14, 2016 Evangelical Chicken and GOP Egg

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2016 Presidential Election 2020 Presidential Election Apocalypse Bible in American Life Biblical authority Books and culture Calvinism Church Life Civil Religion Culture Wars Doctrine evangelicalism Gullibility Heaven and Hell Intellectual life Jesus Ministry modernity moralism Nationalism New Testament Old Testament Otherworldiness Otherworldliness Paul Peter Piety Popular culture Protestantism Psalms Puritans Race Roman Catholicism sacred/secular distinction Sex Shameless Self Promotion Sports Ten Commandments U.S. politics Uncategorized vulgarity worship

Select a Month January 2022 October 2021 August 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz