Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, The Living Dead and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States [Hardcover]

Gary Laderman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2009

"From Snow White to the ghost cult of Tupac Shakur to the legend of Deep Throat, Gary Laderman reveals that though these `living myths' of the American landscape lack God, they have everything else: rituals, relics, and the everyday work of meaning-making. . . . Sacred Matters is a generous and hopeful book, an invaluable guide to a broader, more profound understanding of what `religion' means and why it matters whether we believe in it or not."
--Jeff Sharlet, New York Times bestselling author of The Family and Killing the Buddha

It is commonplace to say that the United States is a religious country: references to God are as normal as proclaiming love of country, support for the military, or security for the nation's children. And a full 92 percent of Americans prefer to believe in God or a universal spirit. But in Sacred Matters, Gary Laderman casts his eye over our deeply hidden spiritual landscape, questioning whether our conventional views even begin to capture the rich and strange diversity of religious life in America.

Sacred Matters shows that genuinely religious practices and experiences can be found in the unlikeliest of places--in science laboratories and movie theaters, at the Super Bowl and Star Trek conventions, and in Americans' obsession with prescription drugs and pornography. When devoted fans make a pilgrimage to Graceland because of their love for Elvis, Laderman argues, their behavior doesn't just seem religious, it is religious--enacting a well-known ritual pattern toward saints in the history of Christianity.

In a dramatic reframing of what is holy and secular, Sacred Matters makes a powerful and illuminating case that religion is everywhere--and that we have barely begun to reckon with its hold on our cultural life.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gary Laderman is a professor of American Religious History and Cultures at Emory University. He is the author of two books on death in America: The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799-1883 and Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America. Laderman is also the director and co-editor of the new online religion magazine, ReligionDispatches.org. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595584374
• ISBN-13: 978-1595584373
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gary Laderman is a professor of American religious history and cultures at Emory University. He is the author of two books on death in America: The Sacred Remains and Rest in Peace. Laderman is also the director and co-editor of the new online religion magazine, ReligionDispatches.org. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars pretty good, but lacks depth, May 1, 2010

By 

Stephen P. Hale (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred Matters: Celebrity Worship, Sexual Ecstasies, The Living Dead and Other Signs of Religious Life in the United States (Hardcover)

There are a lot of books on theology + pop culture on the market right now. Most of them have a customary chapter on the Matrix (movie), though this book skips that. The biggest problems with most books like this is that they lack a method. They analyze various parts of pop culture, and sometimes even have a few interesting insights, but they are scattered.

Sacred Matters is like that. Its interesting, but it lacks a method. The author devotes very little space to explaining how he recognizes religion in various parts of the modern world and jumps right in to seeking it out. Well that's all well and good, but if you haven't clarified what you are seeking, you probably won't find it. As a result, the rest of the book lacks sufficient specificity to be genuinely useful.

To be clear, though, the author is trying to do more than many culture books written by Evangelicals. Most of those just try to find hints of theology in anything they can. This book aims to show that certain parts of pop culture more or less serve full-fledged religious functions. Now, that's a much more interesting proposition. In the end, I found it did not live up to its potential because it lacked a clear method.

I recommend instead a book called understanding theology and pop culture, by Gordon Lynch. It addresses thew shortcomings of Sacred Matters in spades.