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This book offers scholars who ground their research in compassion and pacifism a new framework for the socio-political analysis of current global events. By tackling a broad range of critical themes in various disciplines, the essays compose a critical narrative of the ways in which power and violence shape society, culture, and belief. In addition to the contemporary dynamics of international economics, political murder, and the rhetorical antagonism between Christianity and Islam, the book addresses cultural strife in the West, the societal effects of neoconservative hegemony in the United States and the world, and the overall question of religious credence in connection with political action. All such topics are discussed with a view toward providing solutions and policies that are informed by a comprehensive desire to resist violence and war, on the one hand, and to foment cohesion and harmony at the community level, on the other.

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1. Introductory: Hyper-Modernity; Guido Giacomo Preparata 2. Blasphemous Speech in a Secular Society: An Anachronism?; Peter Lah 3. Epidemiological Research, Individualism, and Public Health; Jacquineau Azetsop
4. Unspeakable: James W. Douglass, Non-Violence, and Political Murder; Eric Wilson
5. The Neoconservative Influence on American Catholics, 1950-2015: Smothering Pacifism in the Cradle; Jeffrey J. Langan
6. René Girard, the War on Terror, and Modernity´s Apocalypse; Thaddeus Kozinski
7. On the Science of Discord: The "Diabolic" Idiom of French Postmodernism and the "Politics of Diversity" in America; Guido Giacomo Preparata
8. The Political Scripting of Jesus: Utilizing the Savior Story to Exercise Power Today - The Debate over Vatican Censures, Apocrypha, and Literary Interpretations; Guido Giacomo Preparata
9. The Political Economy of Hyper-Modernity: A Tale of America´s Hegemonic Exigencies Recounted through the Undulations of the U.S. Balance of Payments (1946-2015); Guido Giacomo Preparata; Domenico D´Amico; and Evelyn Ysais
10. The Blueprint: A Modest Monetary and Organizational Proposal for Re-launching the Economic Welfare of Communities; Guido Giacomo Preparata; Domenico D´Amico; Flavio Fabiani; Aurelio Riccioli; and Sebastiano Scrófina

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Guido Giacomo Preparata is Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. He is the author of Conjuring Hitler and The Ideology of Tyranny.

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