USA Places - Religion and Popular Culture in America
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List Price: $22.95
USA Places Price: $20.65
Your Save: $ 2.30 ( 10% )
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Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 201.70973
EAN: 9780520246898
ISBN: 0520246896
Label: University of California Press
Manufacturer: University of California Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 339
Publication Date: 2005-11-17
Publisher: University of California Press
Studio: University of California Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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The connection between American popular culture and religion is the subject of this multifaceted and innovative collection. In fourteen lively essays whose topics range from the divine feminine in The Da Vinci Code to Madonna's "Like a Prayer," and from the world of sports to the ways in which cyberculture has influenced traditional religions, this book offers fascinating insights into what popular culture reveals about the nature of American religion today. Revised throughout, this new edition features three new essays--including a fascinating look at the role of women in apocalyptic fiction such as the Left Behind series--and editor Bruce David Forbes has written a new introduction. In addition to the new textual material, each chapter concludes with a set of suggested discussion questions.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Religious Experience?
Comment: This text, which is , in fact an anthology of academic papers on the topic of religion(s) and popular culture is limited by the fact that it only deals with the United States while claiming to deal with America? Other than this, however the essays are for the most part informative, intelligent and lucid in an easily accessible diction and content. Not being a huge fan of abstract theoretical constructions myself, I found the articles well-organized and significant in their content. At the same time, the extensive annotated bibliographies that accompanied each article were useful for myself in tracking down relevant data with regards to the articles about the internet, Pale Rider and Rap music and would, I assume, be likewise for those interested in pursuing other subjects such as the presence of sports and religion or weight loss as a soteriological undertaking.
While I definitely feet that there is a tremendous amount to be gained from reading these articles as far as their in-depth analysis of the interrelationship between Religion and Popular Culture in the United States, I also was intrigued by the fact that. The editors of the volume as well as the vast majority of their contributors felt compelled to support, or rather accepted as a foregone conclusion the concept that religious and popular cultures constitute two areas of thought and endeavor that are, more or less, mutually distinguishable. It seemed to me, even before reading the text, that religion is, primarily another manifestation of popular culture. One of its unique characteristics is the attempt of its supporters to construct an immutable facade which belies the extreme volatility and changeability of even its most cherished and central concepts and practices.
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