Rhetoric Society Quarterly Oct 2011

The Call of the Sacred and the Language of Deterritorialization

Michael Bernard-Donals

Abstract

The sacred exceeds our understanding and compels us to respond. I intend to broaden a definition of the sacred so that we can begin to see how it functions in less mystical and more mundane circumstances. The sacred call troubles, rather than easily calls forth, a rhetorical response, a reasonable discourse, or even an autonomous interlocutor or a stable ground from which to speak, and is distinguished from what Michael Hyde and others have described as the “call of conscience.” I then examine the call of the sacred in a Biblical text well known in the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions (the Akedah), and in a contemporary text (Caryl Churchill's very recent and very brief Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza) whose topic—the violence in Israel and Palestine—is decidedly political rather than religious but whose call, I will argue, is excessive, sacred, and unavoidable.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2011-10-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2011.595760
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
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Citation context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Rehman et al. (2022)
    The Practice of Transformation-Oriented Anti-Colonial Dialogue: Personae in Pos…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Earle (2016)
    Dispossessed: Prisoner Response-Ability and Resistance at the Limits of Subjectivity
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Reeves (2013)
    Suspended Identification:
    Philosophy & Rhetoric

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