集美麻豆

Abstract

This talk examines how the mourning and memorialization of the April 16th shootings at Virginia Tech reflected unique forms of American "civil religion." How did the administration, students and faculty of Virginia Tech develop a language and a symbolism of its collective mourning and remembrance?聽聽 How did their appeal to the civil religion of the 鈥淗okie nation鈥� organize and manage the ways in which the tragedy would be understood and its victims remembered?聽 What were the tensions between the official modes of mourning and those of various religious individuals and groups?聽 We will also consider the theologically tinged controversy that emerged over the question of the placement of a "thirty-third stone" in remembrance of the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, at the official memorial site.聽聽