Conservative Zombies & Other Readings


A lot of highly informative resources have come out on newsfeeds in recent weeks, so much so that it has been hard to collate them. However, in the wake of the supposed victory for conservatism at the most recent American mid-term elections, and the mouth-frothing over the alleged goings on surrounding the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, the ongoing question of what actually is a conservative seems to be (perhaps unconciously) operating behind a lot of these new posts, a few examples of which are included below.

At the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, a special edition is out that explores the the politics of the zombie in popular culture. 

Though not directly associated with conservatism as such, the megachurch does form the base of much of what passes off as conservative politics in the United States. To this, Parse has provided readers with an insightful article on the role of the car in creating this base, courtesy of Adam Graber. Although the car is not a status symbol of either conservatism or progressivism, it nonetheless has had an impact on the Church in its self-identification, which in turn feeds into social processes that nurture what is taken for conservatism in the Anglosphere currently, in contrast to a more "crunchy" form of conservatism from yesteryear. This is explored somewhat in an article in First Things entitled "the Death of the Parish", by David Koyzis.


Finally, the conservative victories in parliamentary elections of late can cause one to reflect on the degree to which two-party politics frames the terms of how the Gospel is lived out as a public witness. Part of this discussion includes a piece in The Other Journal entitled "Non-voting as a Form of Christian Political Witness". 

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