Religion and Popular Culture in America

341 Pages·2005·17.56 MB·English

by  Bruce David Forbes

Religion and Popular Culture In America
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RELIGION AND
POPULAR CULTURE
IN AMERICA
Revised Edition
Edited by Bruce David Forbes and Jeffrey H. Mahan
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON
UniversityofCaliforniaPress,~llleofthemostdistinguisheduniversity
pressesintheUnitedStates,enricheslivesaroundtheworldbyadvancing
scholarshipinthehumanities,socialsciences,andnaturalsciences.
ItsactivitiesaresupportedbytheUCPressFoundationandbyphilanthropic
contributionsfromindividualsandinstitutions.Formoreinformation,
visitwww.ucpress.edu.
UniversityofCaliforniaPress
BerkeleyandLosAngeles,California
UniversityofCaliforniaPress,Ltd.
London,England
©2000,2005 byTheRegentsoftheUniversityofCalifornia
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
ReligionandpopularcultureinAmericaIeditedbyBruceDavidForbes
andJeffreyH.Mahan.-Rev.ed.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences and index.
ISBN978-0-520-24689-8 (pbk. :alk. paper)
1.Popularculture-Religiousaspects. 2.Religionandculture-
UnitedStates. 3.UnitedStates-Religion-I96o- 1.Forbes,BruceDavid.
II.Mahan,JeffreyH.
BL2525.R46I3 2005
20I'·7'0973-dc22
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
14 13 12 II 10
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetsthe
minimumrequirementsofANSI/NISOZ39.48-I992
(R 1997)(PermanenceofPaper). @
-
Contents
Preface to the Revised Edition ix
Prefaceto the First Edition xi
Introduction: FindingReligion in UnexpectedPlaces
Bruce DavidForbes 1
PartOne
RELIGION IN POPULAR CULTURE 21
1 The Oriental Monk in American Popular Culture
Jane Naomi Iwamura 25
2 Consecrating Consumer Culture: Christmas
Television Specials
Robert]. Thompson 44
3 Re-Mythologizing the Divine Feminine in
The Da Vinci Code and The Secret Life ofBees
Jennie S. Knight 56
4 Like a Sermon: Popular Religion in
Madonna Videos
Mark D. Hulsether 75
PartTwo
POPULAR CULTURE IN RELIGION 99
5 Evangelicals and Popular Music:
The Contemporary ChristianMusic Industry
William D. Romanowski 103
6 The Internetand Christian and
Muslim Communities
Greg Peterson 123
7 The Cross atWillow Creek: Seeker Religion and
the Contemporary Marketplace
StewartM. Hoover 139
PartThree
POPULAR CULTURE AS RELIGION 155
8 It's about Faith in Our Future:
Star Trek Fandom as Cultural Religion
MichaelJindra 159
9 LosingTheirWay to Salvation: Women, Weight
Loss, and the Salvation Myth ofCulture Lite
Michelle M. Lelwica 174
10 An American Apotheosis:
Sports as Popular Religion
Joseph L. Price 195
11 The Church ofBaseball, the Fetish ofCoca-Cola,
and the PotlatchofRock 'n' Roll
DavidChidester 213
Part Four
RELIGION AND POPULAR CULTURE IN DIALOGUE 233
12 The Disguise ofVengeance in Pale Rider
RobertJewett 237
13 Rap Music and Its Message: On Interpretingthe
Contact between Religion and Popular Culture
AnthonyPinn 252
14 The Gender Dynamics ofthe LeftBehindSeries
AmyJohnson Frykholm 270
Conclusion: Establishing aDialogue about Religion
and Popular Culture
Jeffrey H. Mahan 288
Discussion Questions 297
Contributors 305
Selected Bibliography 309
Index 315
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Preface to the Revised Edition
Popularculture, byitsvery nature,changesrapidly,especiallyinits par
ticular examples. The first edition of this volume was prepared in the
late 1990S and published in 2000. In those years, religion occasionally
was explicit in popularculturein the United States, but more often one
would discover religious themes below the surface.
Since then, the explicit appearance ofreligion in popularculture has
exploded, exemplified in 2004 alone by The Passion in movie theaters,
bookssuchas The Da Vinci CodeandthelatestbookintheLeftBehind
series atop best-seller lists, and theJoan ofArcadiaseries on television.
Notsurprisingly, scholarship about religion in popularculture has bur
geoned as well.
It remains importantto reflect upon the explicit appearances ofreli
gion in popularculture, to understand how they both shape and reflect
us. It also remains important to probe the subtle, less obvious dimen
sions and influences ofreligion in popular culture. Many readers ofthe
first edition ofthis book have told us that they appreciate its structure,
which explores four different relationships between religion and popu
lar culture and points out the four directions in which a discussion
might proceed. Teaching professionals have found this volume useful,
especially in undergraduate classes, to launch discussions on a wide
range oftopics.
This revised edition includesthreeentirely newchapters, minor revi-
ix