Profane Sacrilegious Expression in a Multicultural Age

Humans have been uttering profane words and incurring the consequences for millennia. This volume examines the profound difficulties blasphemy raises for modern societies.

“Masterful. This work is a major contribution to a field needing precisely this kind of approach and scholarly care. Its fresh and creative insights to the issues within the work provide the necessary foundation for the consideration of policy in the area, as well as a picture of excellence. The diversity of approaches and development and interplay of issues makes for an outstanding work—one of the best I have read.”—Gary D. Bouma, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations at Monash University, Australia

“Profane offers distinctive insights into the issue of blasphemy. The volume contains a unique blend of disciplines and methods that make it unlike any other work. Its significance draws from its engaging style, multidisciplinary approach, wide range of research and theoretical tactics, and the quality of the scholars involved in the project. Contributions from scholars outside of the United States give the volume an added appeal for those whose perspective is both national and international in scope."—Lori G. Beaman, Professor of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada


Humans have been uttering profane words, and incurring the consequences, for millennia. But recent events--from the violence that followed Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, in 2006, to the furor over The Innocence of Muslims, in 2012--indicate that blasphemy has reemerged in explosive transnational form. In an age when electronic media transmit offense as rapidly as profane images and texts are produced, blasphemy is bracingly relevant again in our multicultural world. In this volume, a distinguished cast of international scholars examines the profound difficulties blasphemy raises for modern societies. Contributors examine how the sacred is formed and maintained, how sacrilegious expression is conceived and regulated, and how the resulting conflicts resist easy adjudication. Their studies range across art, history, politics, law, literature, and theology. Because of the global nature of the problem, the volume's approach is comparative, examining blasphemy across cultural and geopolitical boundaries.