God in the Details offers a provocative look at the breadth, diversity, and persistence of religious themes in contemporary American consciousness. Throughout the book, the contributors critically assess the ways in which American popular culture reappropriates traditional religious symbols to serve the purposes of particular communities.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
The insights explored in this volume provide rich resources for the student of missiology for the crucial task of engaging contemporary American culture, not only from an anthropological, but also from a missiological perspective. -- Eddie Gibbs, Missiology: An International Review
Mazur and McCarthy present a rich collection of ethnographic research detailing the religious myths and practices exhibited through a variety of expressions of popular culture. -- Religious Studies Review
...lively and fun-filled... Recommended for all readership levels. -- D. W. Ferm, Choice
With this book's smart and insightful authors acting as your guides, you can leave behind the seemingly secular surface of American popular culture, come to understand the religious impulses coursing through music and television, feel their pulse, tap their energy, and in the end reach another country where ordinary things reveal unexpected significance. Be a hero. Take the journey. -- Joel Martin, co-editor of Screening the Sacred: Religion, Mythology and Ideology in Popular American Film
Seeking not 'religious things' but religious meanings, the authors in this excellent collection address such diverse and pervasive interests in North American culture as football, dieting, southern barbeque, cop shows, rap, and religion on TV. Simultaneously sympathetic and critical, they propose new ways of thinking about popular culture and its effects. -- Margaret R. Miles, author of Seeing and Believing: Religion and Values in the Movies
Contributors delve into various popular subcultures such as rap music, multi-user domains (MUDs), the world of Disney, and Jimmy Buffett's faithful Parrotheads. These categories offer fascinating findings because they uncover novel communities of real-life people who exhibit religious devotion in alternative religious settings. -- Religious Studies Review
Mazur and McCarthy present a rich collection of ethnographic research detailing the religious myths and practices exhibited through a variety of expressions of popular culture. -- Tim Van Meter, Bethany Theological Seminary
Mazur and McCarthy present a rich collection of ethnographic research detailing the religious myths and practices exhibited through a variety of expressions of popular culture. -- Religious Studies Review
...lively and fun-filled... Recommended for all readership levels. -- D. W. Ferm, Choice
With this book's smart and insightful authors acting as your guides, you can leave behind the seemingly secular surface of American popular culture, come to understand the religious impulses coursing through music and television, feel their pulse, tap their energy, and in the end reach another country where ordinary things reveal unexpected significance. Be a hero. Take the journey. -- Joel Martin, co-editor of Screening the Sacred: Religion, Mythology and Ideology in Popular American Film
Seeking not 'religious things' but religious meanings, the authors in this excellent collection address such diverse and pervasive interests in North American culture as football, dieting, southern barbeque, cop shows, rap, and religion on TV. Simultaneously sympathetic and critical, they propose new ways of thinking about popular culture and its effects. -- Margaret R. Miles, author of Seeing and Believing: Religion and Values in the Movies
Contributors delve into various popular subcultures such as rap music, multi-user domains (MUDs), the world of Disney, and Jimmy Buffett's faithful Parrotheads. These categories offer fascinating findings because they uncover novel communities of real-life people who exhibit religious devotion in alternative religious settings. -- Religious Studies Review
Mazur and McCarthy present a rich collection of ethnographic research detailing the religious myths and practices exhibited through a variety of expressions of popular culture. -- Tim Van Meter, Bethany Theological Seminary
About the Author
Eric Mazur is Assistant Professor of Religion at Bucknell University and author of The Americanization of Religious Minorities (1999). Kate McCarthy is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at California State University in Chico.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Idea and OK Attempt,
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This review is from: God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture (Paperback)
This book is an attempt to highlight venues in American popular culture that contain elements of religion or replace it all together. The thesis sounds very intriguing and caught my attention right off. At times, however, the essays that compose the book seem to be too much of a stretch. They can seem to force the analogy of religion to some topics. Not all the meat of the essays is unfounded. Many points that are raised are worth reading. I perhaps had higher expectations of the book and was therefore a little disappointed in what insight it had being surrounded by superfluous discussion. The essays are intelligently written and carry a heavily academic tone. Overall, I gained a few insights, but not what I would consider 313 pages worth.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
At a recent conference on using popular culture in the university classroom, an English professor made the case that the popular sitcom Friends is a clever repackaging Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, that Star Wars retells Book One of The Faerie Queene, and that The Simpsons is really a contemporary take on Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
apocalyptic fiction, vernacular religion, pig love, traditional religious institutions, eating barbecue, popular spirituality, southern religion, chapel grounds Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Burning Man, New York, Precious Moments, United States, Bruce Springsteen, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Walt Disney World, Jimmy Buffett, New Jersey, Black Rock City, Super Bowl, Oxford University Press, Victor Turner, Larry Harvey, Laura Schlessinger, Phil Donahue, West African, African Americans, Homer the Heretic, Houston Chronicle, Oprah Winfrey, Roman Catholic, Universal Press Syndicate, University of California Press New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
At a recent conference on using popular culture in the university classroom, an English professor made the case that the popular sitcom Friends is a clever repackaging Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, that Star Wars retells Book One of The Faerie Queene, and that The Simpsons is really a contemporary take on Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
apocalyptic fiction, vernacular religion, pig love, traditional religious institutions, eating barbecue, popular spirituality, southern religion, chapel grounds Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Burning Man, New York, Precious Moments, United States, Bruce Springsteen, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Walt Disney World, Jimmy Buffett, New Jersey, Black Rock City, Super Bowl, Oxford University Press, Victor Turner, Larry Harvey, Laura Schlessinger, Phil Donahue, West African, African Americans, Homer the Heretic, Houston Chronicle, Oprah Winfrey, Roman Catholic, Universal Press Syndicate, University of California Press New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
12
books
cite this book:
See all 12 books citing this book
- Burning Man (Jubal Cade, No 6) by Charles R. Pike on 6 pages
- Ritual Process, The: Structure and Anti-Structure by Victor Turner on 4 pages
- Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life by Robert N. Bellah on 4 pages
- Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture by R. Laurence Moore in Front Matter, page 153, and Back Matter
- The Interpretation Of Cultures (Basic Books Classics) by Clifford Geertz in Front Matter, page 197, and page 246
See all 100 books this book cites
- Understanding Theology and Popular Culture by Gordon Lynch on 7 pages
- The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family by Mark I. Pinsky on 4 pages
- Engaging With Contemporary Culture: Christianity, Theology And The Concrete Church (Explorations in Practical, Pastoral, and Empirical Theology) by Martyn Percy in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community by Sarah M. Pike in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture (Blackwell Guides to Theology) by Kelton Cobb in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 12 books citing this book
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