Tornado God
American Religion and Violent Weather
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
One of the earliest sources of humanity's religious impulse was severe weather, which ancient peoples attributed to the wrath of storm gods. Enlightenment thinkers derided such beliefs as superstition and predicted they would pass away as humans became more scientifically and theologically sophisticated. But in America, scientific and theological hubris came face-to-face with the tornado, nature's most violent windstorm. Striking the United States more than any other nation, tornadoes have consistently defied scientists' efforts to unlock their secrets. Meteorologists now acknowledge that even the most powerful computers will likely never be able to predict a tornado's precise path.
Similarly, tornadoes have repeatedly brought Americans to the outer limits of theology, drawing them into the vortex of such mysteries as how to reconcile suffering with a loving God and whether there is underlying purpose or randomness in the universe. In this groundbreaking history, Peter Thuesen captures the harrowing drama of tornadoes, as clergy, theologians, meteorologists, and ordinary citizens struggle to make sense of these death-dealing tempests. He argues that, in the tornado, Americans experience something that is at once culturally peculiar (the indigenous storm of the national imagination) and religiously primal (the sense of awe before an unpredictable and mysterious power). He also shows that, in an era of climate change, the weather raises the issue of society's complicity in natural disasters. In the whirlwind, Americans confront the question of their own destiny-how much is self-determined and how much is beyond human understanding or control.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this stimulating exploration of religious responses to deadly weather, Thuesen (Predestination), a professor of religious studies at Indiana University, argues that "the unpredictable randomness of tornadic violence engendered a special American anxiety" which has shaped American religious belief. In the seemingly random destruction wrought by tornadoes, he writes, early American thinkers saw God's providence and moral judgment. But as 19th-century religious figures rejected the concept of a God who made individuals suffer "as part of some divine pedagogy," Americans came to believe human intervention through lightning rods, tornado reporters (writers dedicated to covering and predicting tornados), and even insurance was an appropriate response to violent weather. Even as more recent theologies have found a greater place for "disorder, contingency, and change" in the divine, Thuesen proposes that current political opposition to recognizing climate change is rooted in religious beliefs that echo those early responses. Despite the broad implications of "American Religion" in the subtitle, the book's analysis is entirely rooted in Christianity mainly Protestant varieties and, though it is thick with theological references, there are moments when Thuesen could have given more attention to the wide spectrum of theological responses to storms. Thuesen's novel thesis and ability to explore nuanced complexities will make this dense work rewarding to any scholar of American religious history.
