A Theological Perspective of the Clash of Civilizations...

Introduction On more than one occasion, President George W. Bush has described the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as fostering â€Å"a monumental battle of good versus evil.† In this battle, there has been no doubt in his mind (or in ours) regarding who is on the side of good and who is on the side of evil. Though some have winced at the President’s use of such absolute moral terms to portray the tragic events of that fateful day, others have applauded his courageous use of such unfashionable discourse as entirely appropriate, even suggesting that it implies the demise of the cultural scourge of postmodern moral relativism. Another important way, not entirely unrelated, of interpreting what transpired on 9/11 is to explain†¦show more content†¦According to the editors of Foreign Affairs, Huntington’s article generated more response over a three year period than any other article they had published since the 1940s. Given the interest in, as well as the controversy over and misrepresentation of his article, Huntington decided that the prudent thing to do would be to expand it into a book-length treatment in which he would explore more deeply and document more thoroughly the thesis he propounded in his article. So the outcome was a 1996 book titled The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order.4 In this work conceived as â€Å"an interpretation of the evolution of global politics after the Cold War,† Huntington aspires, as he says, â€Å"to present a framework, a paradigm, for viewing global politics that will be meaningful to scholars and useful to policymakers.â⠂¬ 5 Its central theme is virtually identical to that of his article, namely â€Å"that culture and cultural identities, which at Huntington is the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University where he is also the director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and the chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. He was the director of security planning for the National Security Council in the Carter administration, the founder and co-editor of the journal Foreign Policy, and the president of the American Political Science Association. 3 SamuelShow MoreRelatedUnderstanding of Identity in Samuel P. Huntingtons Clash of Civilization1148 Words   |  5 Pagesimagined a future world witnesses a clash of civilizations.According to his categorizationfrom a cultural perspective however; the world shall be divided into eight civilizations. This essay shall shed a light into the different understandings of theidentity and culture as in relation to Islam and the West having reference to different arguments and visions presented in the following scholarly sources. Samuel P. 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