Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery

List Price: $25.00 Details

Save: $8.01 (32%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Tuesday, May 30 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 24. Order within 20 hrs 17 mins

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon

[{"displayPrice":"$16.99","priceAmount":16.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"OyOOB8tGWQM%2Bm4jkDbCIKpUP60QrnswW8%2BuFw75fApqb5eD5zUVqn9JYRbINIGVPpoXGL3eDEvzvBdIvrjdIVzPHJaLvEirs78r1zUdizNb0rHGFOfPuwWluMO6MUd5TzauqPH%2BAvWyPh4Ln61QYSIoa%2FzcUx9A8Rl3%2F3T9uiUtqllYqtH0zGrrbdJxWJkQC","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$1.87","priceAmount":1.87,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"1","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"87","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"OyOOB8tGWQM%2Bm4jkDbCIKpUP60QrnswWHokqeIKadT94IvVKay%2F7uOoInMpXqxuBMT%2B7vRjKlYGL7RbRhVH0gw4XOkZWUbQw77Pj88x%2FMOm8HKj7AHXBM4u95489X28JpA4ve7J3GRvda4cs8aVMreY6zv6ptQi3weKkFG4LwqKPoqd%2Bl4sqnpGZBvso1L1r","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$16.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Zoey Distributions

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Details

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Zoey Distributions

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$3.98 delivery May 31 - June 1. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by glenthebookseller

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Daniel Radosh

Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture Hardcover – April 8, 2008

by Daniel Radosh (Author)

4.2 68 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$16.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$16.99

$10.00

$1.87

Paperback

"Please retry"

$15.95

$11.95

$1.50

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

—

$56.87

$35.95

Kindle
$16.99 Read with Our Free App
Hardcover
$16.99

34 Used from $1.87 4 New from $10.00 1 Collectible from $9.99
Paperback
$15.95

20 Used from $1.50 2 New from $11.95
Mass Market Paperback
from $35.95

2 Used from $35.95 2 New from $56.87

Purchase options and add-ons

Presents the author's exploration of the intersection of popular culture and Christianity, discussing Christian bookstores, theme parks, publishers, superheroes, pop music, rock festivals, comedians, and professional wrestling.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Scribner
Publication date

April 8, 2008
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0743297709
ISBN-13

978-0743297707
See all details

Rachel Slade
1,589
Hardcover
Editors' pickBest History
79 offers from $1.99
Kate Harris
951
Paperback
Editors' pickBest Biographies & Memoirs
84 offers from $1.68

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

“Organized as a series of adventures,” Radosh’s entertaining, often enlightening guide to a $7 billion industry cruises through the complex, diverse world of Christian pop culture. It drops into a Christian retail show in Denver; the Holy Land Experience, a biblical theme park near Orlando, Florida; The Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs, Arkansas; Thomas Nelson, one of the largest Christian publishers in the U.S.; the ostensible “granddaddy of the alternative fest,” Cornerstone Festival outside Peoria, Illinois; Christian comedy clubs and tours; and the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky. It also discusses, among other topics, Christian bookstores, the flourishing Christian children’s and teenage markets, and Christian music. The Jewish Radosh, who writes regularly for the New Yorker, the New York Times, and similarly secular publications, approaches the subject as if he were on an anthropological expedition, interviewing countless people, taking careful notes, and offering thoughtful observations. He takes his role of reporter in an unfamiliar land seriously, yet he isn’t afraid to use his well-honed wit to good advantage. --June Sawyers

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; First Edition (April 8, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743297709
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743297707
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,982,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,787 in Sociology & Religion
- #10,516 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- #11,683 in Communication & Media Studies

Customer Reviews:
4.2 68 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Daniel Radosh

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

68 global ratings

5 star		48%
4 star		37%
3 star		7%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Renee C. Ozer

Co-opted

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 13, 2010

Verified Purchase

I was raised with Biblical fundamentalism and live in Colorado Springs, where even today sex ed content in public schools is provided by Education for a Lifetime (EFL), part of the anti-abortion group Life Network and associated with Focus on the Family. EFT gets $400K per year of your federal tax dollars for abstinence education, according to the Colorado Springs Independent newspaper.

This is a wonderful, witty book. But Daniel Radosh may have been co-opted to some extent by the Evangelicals. The book is full of conversations with intelligent, intellectually curious and reasonable people. This is natural, since it makes better reading than conversations with dolts, but it gives the skewed impression of the numbers of the intelligent and fair minded in the Evangelical ranks. Actually, much more common are people like Chuck Ambrose (who jabs at Radosh's chest as he growls that "Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord" and "You'd better give it some thought," but didn't recognize the name C. S. Lewis) or Frank Peretti, who characterize as wayward pastors who "endorse religious tolerance and condemn animal cruelty." Or James Dobson, who writes in the New Strong-Willed Child about beating his dachshund into submission with a belt because the dog wanted to sleep on the fuzzy toilet seat cover next to the electric heater instead of in his bed: "The only way to make Siggie obey was to threaten him with destruction" and "That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast" and "I eventually got him into his bed, but only because I outweighed him 200 to 12." And kids are like dogs, only more so, when it comes to defiance. The New Strong-Willed Child

Radosh thinks the progressive elements will provide a corrective, but I think part of the appeal of the whole Evangelical/Fundamentalist world is its fetishization of willful ignorance (shouting down biology teachers discussing evolution with "Were you there?!?") and dumbed-down books, music, and movies, reinforced by isolation from all "contaminants", even those of superior quality (no Anna Karenina, no Mass in B Minor). I see a link here to the increasingly vitriolic political atmosphere, and I think Radosh is way too hopeful.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Nick Alexander

"Gloria in excelsis Deo...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2009

Verified Purchase

..., motherf-----r."

If the title of this post, taken verbatim from this book, offends you, you will not appreciate this book. The author's very creative use of f-bombs littered throughout the text will no doubt have the effect of placing Eskimos in a dunk tank filled with scalding, bubbling oil. No doubt, I am taking these words out of context, but then again, Radosh does the same thing to Stephen Baldwin in this book, so I guess he knew he was setting himself up for that.

THAT SAID, Radosh gives a very fair and balanced examination of the unbearably tacky, of the politically volatile, and the... surprisingly good/effective elements within the Evangelical Christian pop culture bubble.

The one reason why evangelical Christians (small 'e', incorporating all denominations) should weather the harsh language is that Radosh writes what we need to hear. We need to know where the zietgiest is, and Radosh, in his own way, contributes a voice to helping us understand how each side sees each other, and, in turn, how to make our voice in the culture that much more effective.

Plus, as an attendee of both the Cornerstone Festivals and the Christian Comedy Association conferences--two of the extremely positive portrayals in his accounts--I can attest that what he writes is quite accurate and encouraging. I can only thank God that I escaped his scrutiny, for being in the Catholic side of things.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Megan @ Tiny Orchard

Entertaining and Insightful.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 7, 2008

Verified Purchase

I am, without a doubt, a person who lives a life far apart from Christian (or any religion, for that matter) pop culture. Noone in my family attends church regularly and I can count on one hand the number of I've actually been inside a church myself.

However, I'm incredibly intrigued by religion. Its something so pervasive yet so alien to my way of thinking. As soon as I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it--lickity split.

The author, a Jewish man with fairly liberal tendancies, immerses himself in Christian pop culture: attending concerts, going to creation museums and christian theme parks, and talking with pastors of all varieties as well as members of the churches he visits.

Is it a totally unbiased report on christian pop culture? absolutely not. The author brings his background and views with him as he writes but that is part of the fun of the book. Some of it is down right frightening in its conservatism but there are, surprisingly, a few hopeful notes.

I'd recommend this book to anyone. If you are a secularist, its a good laugh mixed with a certain amount of "they really aren't all crazy, maybe you shouldn't be so judgemental." If you are a Christian, its a good way to see yourself through the eyes of a secularist. You may think your creation museum is totally factual--but really? Most people think you are nuts to believe adam and eve rode around on domesticated dinosaurs.

The "interview" with stephen baldwin alone is worth reading the book.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

J F G Shearmur

Interesting but ultimately disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

Radosh’s “Rapture Ready” offers an interesting tour round various aspects of US evangelical popular culture. Some of what he covers – e.g. aspects of the popular music scene – are likely to be known about only by those with a special interest in that material, while others – e.g. Christian commercial wresting – are both odd and covered very nicely. As a survey it is interesting enough, but the book would have been improved by an index and notes about sources at the back.
What seemed to me disappointing, is that the author’s own perspective - he is liberal and Jewish (as he keeps reminding us) – is intrusive. It is fine that he writes from his own perspective. But rather than giving us a guide together with commentary, he lines up with those whom he comes across who are not conservative or fundamentalist. It is understandable that he finds sympathetic people whose views are closer to his own. I’d also share his view that the ideas of many of those with whom he disagrees are highly problematic. But rather than an exploration of – and engagement with – what he finds, his account is partisan. And while he may find sympathetic those whose interpretations of conservative Christianity are closer to his own ideas, his bias towards them is intrusive, while the substance of their views comes over as having the intellectual integrity of a wet paper bag.

Arni

Great insight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 15, 2009

Verified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed "Rapture Ready!" Although Radosh is an outsider he speaks of the parallel universe of Christian pop culture in America with a combination of bemusement and respect I found refreshing. His journalistic skill is abundantly clear and while I was very familiar with Christian pop culture before reading the book, I found Radosh's great insight both informing, entertaining and quite impressive. I appreciated the fact that he didn't let what I think rightly can be called the Jewish fetish of many especially American Evangelical Christians go by without mention. In this regard I especially appreciated what he said about the crucifixion play he participated in. I was pleasantly surprised by the chapter on Christian comedy, which, as Radosh says, turns out to be much better than you'd expect. Some of the simplistic capitalist analyses in the concluding chapter could stand more of the insight that distinguishes the rest of the book, but since that rest is so good, Radosh is forgiven. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who, like me, is fascinated, and a bit terrified as well, by Christian pop culture. It's an easy, entertaining and enlightening read.

2 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

The path that Christianity is choosing to take

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 21, 2010

Verified Purchase

It all began with a Christian salesman and a wife who applied make-up by the metric ton; Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. The PTL organization felt that the religion that they held so dear could be commericialized and sold to both the Christian and secular public. Due to the scandels that arose around them, their dream quickly crumbled. But its impetus was taken up by countless entrepreneurs who quickly took up the Baker mantle. Thirty years later we have a cacophony of clanging Christian symbols that go from well done professional works to the ridiculous "Jesus junk". The theme through all of these changes remains the same, however; Christian separatism and their spiritual superiority over all other religious concepts. The range includes Christian apolgetics and works of fiction, Christian praise bands, rave dances, creationist theme parks, and abstinance education to include a few.

"Will the concept of secularizing Christianity work in the long range?" is the question the author attempts to answer throuhout his text. My sense is that it probably will not. Anytime you mix two things together, neither one of them remains the same, they both change. In this instance secular society has changed to a small degree through the quasi acceptance of pop-Christianity into its mix. Christianity, on the other hand, if it maintains its path down this road, will change significantly. The period of the peaceful, holy little church in the valley will be gone. It will be replaced by religious extravaganzas that are more confrontive and egotistical than humble and spiritual. The author shows that the percentage of young adults who turn away from the church remains at 65%. This is in spite of the pop-Christian campaign to reach a population they feel is critical to the church's future. In the mean time mainline denominatons, who were the Christian standard bearers a few decades ago, are shrinking rapidly.

This is a top quality, well written text that covers an area of social that should interest everyone. Bravo! to Daniel Radosh for bringing it to our attention,

See all reviews

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Amazon Prime includes:

Buy new: $16.99$16.99 FREE delivery: Tuesday, May 30 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Zoey Distributions

Buy used: $1.87

Follow the Author

Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture Hardcover – April 8, 2008

Purchase options and add-ons

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Product details

Videos

About the author

Daniel Radosh

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$16.99

FREE delivery: Tuesday, May 30 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Ships from: Amazon

Sold by: Zoey Distributions

Buy used:

$1.87