An Angel Directs the Storm

Few people in the UK really understand what it is that drives the US Administration and the Bush Presidency. Michael Northcott is one of those and his exposé of the evangelical fundamentalism and neo-conservative ideology that underpins the Republican Party today is masterly - and deeply disturbing. An Angel Directs the Storm is an outstanding piece of scholarly insightful polemic from which we all have a lot to learn.Jonathan PorrittI would hope that this book will be read widely in both Great Britain and America. It shows with skill and perspicuity that the nature of the US reaction to 9/11 had been long prefigured by the American subversion of Christianity. [It is] a mature historically informed and passionate analysis of the current American psyche that tells Americans things of which they urgently need to take heed.Stanley HauerwasNorthcott develops an incisive critique of American apocalyptic religion and argues for an understanding of church as counter-culture to empire. Those theologians willing to utilize 'just war' theory in support of imperial adventures like the first and second Gulf War ought to consult Northcott here Perhaps one should not talk of pleasure in reading a book so serious and so disturbing but not the least of its merits is that Northcutt writes beautifully and without the least trace of the barbaric jargon which mars so much current theological writing. The book should be read and attended to. Its importance as Bush's second term gets underway will only grow and if we want to understand ourselves and our world we could have no better guide.Tim GorringeMichael Northcott is Reader in Christian Ethics at the University of Edinburgh. He is author of The Environment and Christian Ethics (1996 CUP) and of Life After Debt: Christianity and Global Justice (1999 SPCK).