Papers by Susan Trollinger
Selling the Amish
Johns Hopkins University Press eBooks, 2012
Redeem All: How Digital Life is Changing Evangelical Culture
Journal of Contemporary Religion, Jan 2, 2023
Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, Dec 1, 2019
Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 6, 2017
Review of Kathleen Hall Jamieson's 'Beyond the Double Bind: Women and Leadership
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1996
The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity after the New Media Turn
Journal of Contemporary Religion, May 4, 2023
Johns Hopkins University Press eBooks, 2016
Rhetoric, possibility, and women's status in ancient Athens: Gorgias' and Isocrates' encomiums of Helen
Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 1992
... Cantarella, Eva. Pandora's Daughters: The Role and Status of Wonmen in Greek and Ronman ... more ... Cantarella, Eva. Pandora's Daughters: The Role and Status of Wonmen in Greek and Ronman Antiquity. Trans. Maureen B. Fant. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1987. Demosthenes. ... Isocrates. Helen. Trans. Larue Van Hook. In vol. 3 of Isocrates in Three Volumnes. ...
In a sense, the discipline of communicati on is all about peace. This is so because the disciplin... more In a sense, the discipline of communicati on is all about peace. This is so because the discipline seeks to explain the relationship between communicati on and understanding as well as to promote better understanding th ro ugh instru ction in effective communication practices. Thu s, all the subdisciplines of comm unicati on-fro m orga ni zati o na l communi ca tion to public add ress to hea lth communi cation-address both theoreti ca l and prac tical questions about how com munication ass ists or frustrates human understanding. To the e~ten. t that un-~ ders tandlllg serves as an antidote to human conflict, then, communIcatIOn seeks to promote peace. The di scipline of communication is also one of the oldest academic di sc iplines. Already in the fifth century B.C. E., young Athenian men were receiving instruction in the strategies of persuas ion.' Altho ugh in its earliest days the study of communication was called rhetoric, even then it was concerned with how human beings ac hieve understanding through commun ication. Thus we learn in Plato's Phaedrus, for in stance, that it is possible to achieve understand ing through di alogue between interlocutors who are essentiaJly the same 2
Mennonite Quarterly Review, Jul 1, 2007
This essay offers a genealogy, in the Foucauldian sense, of the Confession of Faith in a Mennonit... more This essay offers a genealogy, in the Foucauldian sense, of the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. Thus, it provides an account of the origins of the document and its uses over time with attention given to the politics of both. The essay argues that the Confession was critical for the merger of the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church especially as it took on the function of the "teaching position" of the church. By way of a case study, the essay explores recent uses to which the Confession has been put. The essay concludes by discussing an inherent tension in Anabaptist confessions between the desire to fix a set of common beliefs and convictions, on the one hand, and the necessity for a discursive shift both in meaning and use amid a changing context, on the other.
Many people tell [him that his] style is [horrific]; it is kind of different, but let's get speci... more Many people tell [him that his] style is [horrific]; it is kind of different, but let's get specific. 1-KRSOne
The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity after the New Media Turn The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity after the New Media Turn , by Travis Warren Cooper, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2022, 361 pp., US$85.00 (hb), US$ 38.00 (pb), ISB...
Journal of Contemporary Religion
The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities
eaders of this journal know that the Amish, while diverse in many ways, are by and large a peacef... more eaders of this journal know that the Amish, while diverse in many ways, are by and large a peaceful people who seek to witness to the Kingdom of God on Earth by following Jesus' teachings in the here-and-now. For the Amish, Jesus' teachings are pretty straightforward. Whether stated in the Sermon on the Mount or given in the Lord's Prayer or embodied in Jesus' life, the Amish know that Jesus calls them to love their enemy, live humbly, never take up arms against another, forgive those who trespass against them, and depend on God in all things. When the so-called reality TV show Amish Mafia launched its first of four seasons on the Discovery Channel in 2012, I could not have been less interested. Gun-toting Amish guys throwing their weight around Lancaster County to settle scores, force rule-breaking Amish back into submission, and make money via extortion was simply too ridiculous. I did not need to watch an episode to know it would be a waste of my time. Dirk Eitzen, Amish scholar and documentary filmmaker, watched not just one episode but all four seasons. More than that, he wrote a whole scholarly book on the show. A good question to ask is why. In Fooling with the Amish, Eitzen seeks to understand the appeal of a so-called "reality show" that is obviously fake. All reality shows, he points out, involve a certain amount of fakery. Viewers of reality TV shows like Survivor or The Bachelor or The Apprentice expect a bit of deception or, at least, to be misled now and again. How else are those shows going to deliver scintillating story lines and dramatic conflicts that keep viewers watching season after season? Eitzen explains that central to the appeal of reality TV shows is the idea that what viewers are watching is unscripted and that the people in the show are who they say they are. Neither is the case in Amish Mafia. As Eitzen deftly demonstrates through careful analyses of camera work, scene setup, dialogue, and story lines, every episode of Amish Mafia was scripted and staged. Moreover, Eitzen shows, the individuals who appear in the show are definitely not who they say they are. Lebanon Levi, the purported godfather of the Amish mafia in the show, is pure fiction. While raised Amish, the actor who played Lebanon Levi was, when first hired for the part, "leading
Fundamental Gaffes
Communication and Critical/cultural Studies, Mar 1, 2007
According to certain political analyses, George W. Bush won a second term because he built a ‘‘fa... more According to certain political analyses, George W. Bush won a second term because he built a ‘‘faith coalition’’ that featured Protestant fundamentalists and evangelicals, 78 percent of whom voted for him. Not surprisingly, Democrats have since been trying to figure out how to get some religion. Of course, despite the formal separation between church and state, religion has played an important role in American politics from the beginning. Still, as political sages from both sides of the aisle have pointed out, the especially active role among conservative Christians is unprecedented. For John Danforth, what is new is how ‘‘Republicans have transformed [the] party into the political arm of conservative Christians.’’ For Jimmy Carter, what is new is the fundamentalist character of the religious voices in politics. Leaders among politically active conservative Christians are thrilled with the political clout that comes with this sort of analysis. Moreover, they are prepared to use it, as did James Dobson, fundamentalist and founder of Focus on the Family, when he warned Republicans that if they did not deliver a ban on same-sex marriage, an end to abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, and a strictly constructionist Supreme Court, the party would ‘‘pay a price in four years.’’ Given the increasing significance of fundamentalism and evangelicalism for American politics, it is unfortunate that rhetorical scholars have had so little to say about either discourse. Very few books or articles on the subject have appeared in our field. I believe that the primary reason for this is that, especially in the case of fundamentalism, which will be my focus here, the discourse appears decidedly unrhetorical. This is so first of all because fundamentalism depends upon the proposition that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, which means that it is completely without error or contradiction and that it must be read literally. Thus, fundamentalism seeks to repeat without rhetoric what it perceives as God’s commonsensical, unmediated, and unembellished Word. Second, fundamentalism takes a closed view of history according to which the precise character of the end of history is known, even if the date remains elusive. Since there are no apparent significant historical contingencies for fundamentalism to address, it appears to have
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Papers by Susan Trollinger