Small Screen, Big Picture: Television and Lived Religion [Paperback]

Diane Winston (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

A pioneering study at the intersection of religion and media, Small Screen, Big Picture treats television as a virtual meeting place where Americans across racial, ethnic, economic and religious lines find instructive and inspirational narratives. An interdisciplinary tour de force, this book describes how television converts social concerns, cultural conundrums and metaphysical questions into stories that explore and even shape who we are and would like to be--the building blocks of religious speculation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Winston and her colleagues deepen understanding of American mass culture, and this book merits reading and discussion... Recommended. All readers. --CHOICE

God and television have been together from the start--from the theologically explicit "Lamp Unto My Feet" and "Life Is Worth Living" to the I-can-walk-again schmaltz of "Highway to Heaven" and "Touched By an Angel." Small Screen, Big Picture, however, concentrates on more recent and complex examples of the partnership. In fifteen rich, compelling, and often amusing essays, this book describes the remarkable flowering of religious themes in the high-quality television melodramas of the new century. It discusses with both sanity and intelligence two subjects that are often discussed with neither. --Robert Thompson, Professor of Television and Popular Culture, Syracuse University

About the Author

Diane Winston (Ph.D., Princeton University) is Associate Professor and Knight Chair in Media and Religion, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. She is the author of Faith in the Market: Religion and Urban Commercial Culture (2002), and Red-Hot and Righteous: The Urban Religion of the Salvation Army (1999).

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Baylor University Press (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602581851
• ISBN-13: 978-1602581852
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 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: #692,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Guaranteed to Spark Spiritual (and Spirited!) Discussions about TV, June 23, 2009

By 

David Crumm "Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine" (Canton, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Small Screen, Big Picture: Television and Lived Religion (Paperback)

Diane Winston's new book, "Small Screen BIG PICTURE," was produced by a group of scholars as a challenging "reader" for college students. Over the years, Baylor University Press has produced a number of great choices like this that explore spirituality and popular culture--and this is a truly BIG book, weighing in at more than 500 pages.

I'm writing this review not for college students or teachers who already are hearing about this book if they are interested in these issues. (Diane managed to pull together a number of leading lights in this field of research to write the book's various sections.)

I'm writing for the hundreds of thousands of readers out there who coordinate small discussion groups, preach to congregations or teach in secular small-group settings. This is a challenging, provocative look at the spiritual themes in a remarkable set of TV dramas--the blossoming of major dramas in the first decade of the Third Millennium (and the decade shaped by 9/11). In this book, you'll read a lot about "Battlestar Galactica," "Deadwood," "The Wire," "The West Wing," "Everwood," "The O.C.," "Sleeper Cell," "Heroes," "Lost," "Prison Break," "Saving Grace" and "Sopranos."

To use this book in a small group, leaders should get copies and pick out series they want to explore--then consider the cutting-edge reflections shared by these authors. That's potent fuel to spark a discussion.

Diane herself in an interview about the book, says this: "To me, the most basic spiritual questions are: What am I doing here? How can I make a difference? And, what happens when I die? Those three questions are a great starting point for getting a discussion going in your small group about Battlestar Galactica or Sopranos or many of these other series."

I agree entirely.