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 How Mathematicians Think by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Math Bytes by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Walter Kaufmann by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book The Future of Fossil Fuels by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Exporting American Dreams by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Statistical Mechanics in a Nutshell by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Higher Education in the Digital Age by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Cells to Civilizations by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book The Arabic Freud by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Strings Attached by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book The Great Brain Debate by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book The Ultimate Book of Saturday Science by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book Hidden Markov Processes by Susan Wise Bauer
Cover of the book The Faces of Terrorism 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