The military-industrial complex in the U.S. has grown exponentially in recent decades, yet the realities of war remain invisible to most Americans. A culture has been created where sacrificial rhetoric is the norm when dealing in war. This culture has been partly enabled to flourish because popular American Christian understandings of redemption rely so heavily on the sacrificial. U.S. War-culture, Sacrifice and Salvation explores how formulations of Christian redemption have been manipulated to create a world and a time of necessary sacrifice. It reveals the links between Christian notions of salvation and sacrifice and the aims of the military-industrial complex.

War-culture and sacrifice -- Building and maintaining the drive to war: victimage rhetoric, framing, and the language of sacrifice -- A deadly nexus: "necessity," Christian salvation, and war-culture -- Rehabilitating sacrifice? -- Detranscendentalizing war -- Appendix: "Just this once" by Coleman Barks.