‘Follow the money’
Dr Zagano is Professor of Religion at Hofstra University in New York, the author of many books, and a specialist on the diaconate. She has visited Ireland to speak at the Loyola Institute Trinity College Dublin, and has given a number of interviews to Irish Jesuit Communications.
As the USA’s war with Iran continues, Dr Zagano has turned her attention to a conflict which has the world on edge. In an online article for RNS (Religious News Services), she argues that leaders in Iran, the United States, and Israel—despite very different systems—are all driven by forms of narcissism, ambition, and ideological righteousness that fuel conflict.
She draws on Christopher Lasch’s idea of a “culture of narcissism,” and suggests that Iran’s theocracy, America’s self‑focused political culture, and Israel’s hard‑line leadership each distort religion or national identity to justify violence. Across the region, ordinary people pay the price, while constitutions and moral principles are sidelined. “Beneath all the rubble in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East are people. Stuck in war’s quagmire are men and women, boys and girls, whose hopes, dreams, lives and limbs have suffered.” Read the full article here »
