ABSTRACT
Modern religion emerged at the moment in history when religious practitioners in large numbers first discovered and were embarrassed by the profanity entailed by the body of religion; or, in the alternative, modern religion emerged when in large numbers religious practitioners first discovered that ‘true’ religion had no body. Not surprisingly, this was also the moment in history when, again in large numbers, social actors first concluded that sacrificing their bodies in acts of state sanctioned death might actually possess emancipatory value. Thus, in Europe, between 900 and 1450, less than a half million soldiers sacrificed their lives in acts of war. Nevertheless, as an omen of things to come, the fifteenth century alone accounts for nearly half (roughly 194,500) of these deaths.1 And from there the figures climb to the heavens. The relationship between modernity and war has, of course, occupied some of our best minds. Among the best is Modris Eksteins. In his masterful work on the relationship between war and modernity, Rites of Spring, Eksteins called attention to the curious relationship between the ‘avant-garde’ and storm troops. Eksteins suggested ‘there may be a sibling relationship between these two terms that extends beyond their military origins. Introspection, primitivism, abstraction, and myth making in the arts, and introspection, primitivism, abstraction, and myth making in politics, may be related manifestations’.2 Yet, if our figures are correct, the connection between war and modernity may actually have taken root much earlier, perhaps as early as the fourteenth century itself.
