The Art of the Public Grovel

Sexual Sin and Public Confession in America

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, Leadership, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Church, Church & State
Cover of the book The Art of the Public Grovel by Susan Wise Bauer, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Susan Wise Bauer ISBN: 9781400830022
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: October 16, 2011
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Susan Wise Bauer
ISBN: 9781400830022
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: October 16, 2011
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

Whether you are a politician caught carrying on with an intern or a minister photographed with a prostitute, discovery does not necessarily spell the end of your public career. Admit your sins carefully, using the essential elements of an evangelical confession identified by Susan Wise Bauer in The Art of the Public Grovel, and you, like Bill Clinton, just might survive.

In this fascinating and important history of public confession in modern America, Bauer explains why and how a type of confession that first arose among nineteenth-century evangelicals has today become the required form for any successful public admission of wrongdoing--even when the wrongdoer has no connection with evangelicalism and the context is thoroughly secular. She shows how Protestant revivalism, group psychotherapy, and the advent of talk TV combined to turn evangelical-style confession into a mainstream secular rite. Those who master the form--Bill Clinton, Jimmy Swaggart, David Vitter, and Ted Haggard--have a chance of surviving and even thriving, while those who don't--Ted Kennedy, Jim Bakker, Cardinal Bernard Law, Mark Foley, and Eliot Spitzer--will never really recover.

Revealing the rhetoric, theology, and history that lie behind every successful public plea for forgiveness, The Art of the Public Grovel will interest anyone who has ever wondered why Clinton is still popular while Bakker fell out of public view, Ted Kennedy never got to be president, and Law moved to Rome.

Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Whether you are a politician caught carrying on with an intern or a minister photographed with a prostitute, discovery does not necessarily spell the end of your public career. Admit your sins carefully, using the essential elements of an evangelical confession identified by Susan Wise Bauer in The Art of the Public Grovel, and you, like Bill Clinton, just might survive.

In this fascinating and important history of public confession in modern America, Bauer explains why and how a type of confession that first arose among nineteenth-century evangelicals has today become the required form for any successful public admission of wrongdoing--even when the wrongdoer has no connection with evangelicalism and the context is thoroughly secular. She shows how Protestant revivalism, group psychotherapy, and the advent of talk TV combined to turn evangelical-style confession into a mainstream secular rite. Those who master the form--Bill Clinton, Jimmy Swaggart, David Vitter, and Ted Haggard--have a chance of surviving and even thriving, while those who don't--Ted Kennedy, Jim Bakker, Cardinal Bernard Law, Mark Foley, and Eliot Spitzer--will never really recover.

Revealing the rhetoric, theology, and history that lie behind every successful public plea for forgiveness, The Art of the Public Grovel will interest anyone who has ever wondered why Clinton is still popular while Bakker fell out of public view, Ted Kennedy never got to be president, and Law moved to Rome.

Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book Fréchet Differentiability of Lipschitz Functions and Porous Sets in Banach Spaces (AM-179) by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book In the Shadow of World Literature by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book The Unheavenly Chorus by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Diaspora, Development, and Democracy by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book QED by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book A Sparrowhawk's Lament by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Individual-based Modeling and Ecology by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Love's Vision by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book The Collected Works of C.G. Jung by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Generative Social Science by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Siegfried Kracauer by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Nietzsche's Jewish Problem by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Facing the Challenge of Democracy by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book From a Cause to a Style by Susan Wise Bauer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy