Abstract

In the contemporary US, a configuration of market theocracy has melded together laissezfaire economics and right-wing religious conservatism, in spite of the many differences among the groups involved; it is a configuration that remains powerful even as it is increasingly fractured. Market theocracy draws on the mechanism of literalism, not the literal reading of texts but a concept of realism based on a belief in a common-sense version of unmediated natural law. Literalism filters meaning through two concepts long available in American culture: spirit and surrender. Analyzing this configuration requires an analysis of a double structure: a highly complex deployment of strategic vagueness, joined to claims of simple clarity, and wrapped in passionate, emotional intensity. It is the most valuable prize in mass-mediated US politics. This article traces literalism by way of the concepts of ‘surrender’ and ‘spirit’ in three secular discourses: a best-selling marriage self-help book for women; marketing texts directed at entrepreneurs and investors; and an academic study written for neoconservative economists, in order to assess the importance of the strategic deployment of literalism. Unlike the literal, literalism draws on the most advanced sophisticated technological resources of modernity in order to produce a form of ‘vague clarity’ characterized by passionate, affective intensities. This literalism often confounds scholars and activists on the left who, in too many cases, still presume that knowledge and faith, the secular and the religious, the rational and the emotional can be kept ‘cleanly’ separate.