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About Religion: Economies of Faith in Virtual Culture (Religion and Postmodernism)
 
 
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About Religion: Economies of Faith in Virtual Culture (Religion and Postmodernism) [Paperback]

Mark C. Taylor (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

0226791629 978-0226791623 July 1, 1999
"Religion," Mark C. Taylor maintains, "is most interesting where it is least obvious." From global financial networks to the casinos of Las Vegas, from images flickering on computer terminals to steel sculpture, material culture bears unexpected traces of the divine. In a world where the economies of faith are obscure, yet pervasive, Taylor shows that approaching religion directly is less instructive than thinking about it.

Traveling from high culture to pop culture and back again, About Religion approaches cyberspace and Las Vegas through Hegel and Kant and reads Melville's The Confidence-Man through the film Wall Street. As astonishing juxtapositions and associations proliferate, formerly uncharted territories of virtual culture disclose theological vestiges, showing that faith in contemporary culture is as unavoidable as it is elusive.

The most accessible presentation of Taylor's revolutionary ideas to date, About Religion gives us a dazzling and disturbing vision of life at the end of the old and beginning of the new millennium.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What is religion about in the late 20th century? In a virtual world where surface images provide the depth of reality, what role does religion play? These are only two of the many questions that Taylor (Hiding) explores in his inimitably playful way. He begins by asking how can we engage in speculation about the existence of God after God's death and he argues that Melville's ("the most important writer America has yet produced") The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade provides the best portrait of the bankruptcy of faith. In other essays, Taylor investigates the relationship between psychosocial theory and religion as well as the relationship between evolutionary biology and religion. In addition, he explores the similarities between ancient alchemy and the virtual Postmodern culture. "Today's alchemists," he notes, "sublimate base matter into immaterialities on fiber-optic networks where everything is light." Where is religion in the late modern age? Taylor concludes: "The religion that today calls for reflection does not answer questions or provide meaning but abandons us....[It is] forever turning toward what is always slipping away; we can never be certain what religion is about." As comfortable talking about Karl Marx as about contemporary sculptors Fred Sandback and Richard Serra, Taylor courses through the history of ideas and the images of pop culture to demonstrate that religion, art and literature are cultural constructs inextricably bound together. No one who wants to understand religion and contemporary culture should avoid reading Taylor. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Mark C. Taylor is professor of religion and chair of the Department of Religion at Columbia University. His most recent book is After God, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (July 1, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0226791629
  • ISBN-13: 978-0226791623
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This book was a bear, but worth it-, December 7, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: About Religion: Economies of Faith in Virtual Culture (Religion and Postmodernism) (Paperback)
To read this book (for me) was like wading through mud. But the result was definitely worth it. This book explored the things that Taylor didn't (or was unable) to write in "Erring: a Postmodern A/Theology." Among other things, he traces the link between Christianity and Captitalism, the lack of distinction between "real" and "virtual," and concludes with how we can begin to live with the "nothing" that is always looming but never really present.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Faith is a confidence game whose stakes are undeniably economic. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
peripatetic perception, nonfoundational foundation, ambulatory paths, cultural constructionism, cultural constructionists, hereafter page numbers, inner teleology, formless self, gilded sign, postindustrial capitalism, speculative logic, virtual culture, pedestrian space, purposiveness without purpose, original oneness, universal equivalent
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Las Vegas, New York, Richard Serra, Absolute Idea, Holy Land, Andy Warhol, Double Torqued Ellipse, Eiffel Tower, The Birth of Tragedy, Gordon Gekko, Kingdom of God, True Subject, World War, Fundamental Subject, Hegelian Geist, John's Rotary Arc, José Márquez, Minding the Brain, Aesthetic Education of Man, Civil War, French Revolution, House of Cards, One Ton Prop, Original Mother, True Void
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