Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.