Forbes, Bruce David and Jeffrey H. Mahan, eds. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2000. 324 pp. $21.95 (USD). ISBN:
0520220285.
[1] As an introductory text, Forbes and Mahan's 14-essay compilation
deserves to be mentioned alongside Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lause's
Popular Culture: An Introductory Text for its authoritative
position on how the study is conducted. Particularly important
are its four categories (religion in popular culture; popular culture
in religion; popular culture as religion; and religion and popular
culture in dialogue) which take shape in Forbes' introduction.
Here, Forbes defines popular culture in terms of mass audiences, and
cites divergent theories on popular culture's origins. Likewise,
he draws on various definitions of religion to arrive at a broad,
applicable understanding of the term. The introduction concludes
by describing the categories and asserting that "the multifaceted
and constantly changing nature of popular culture, and the changing
faces of religion as well, assure that there will be no final word"
(18), indicating the ever-present dynamic this field generates.
[2] Of the four essays in Part One, all unpack the relationships
of religion, post-modernity, and the carriers of mass media by examining
ways in which religion has been the subject material in films, television,
novels, and music videos. Of these, Robert J. Thompson's "Consecrating
Consumer Culture: Christmas Television Specials" and Terry C.
Muck's "From American Dream to American Horizon: The Religious
Dimension of Louis L'Amour and Cormac McCarthy" do so with precision.
In Thompson's contribution, the idea that Christmas television specials
indicate a generic sense of religion in the U.S. and communicate a
message of consumption strikes at contemporary culture's composition.
Though begging for explicit references to Robert Bellah and Max Weber
and lacking a theoretical expounding on the distinction between Christmas
television and programming during the rest of the year, Thompson effectively
addresses how American economics and religiosity are understood through
popular culture. Similarly, Muck explicates how popular culture reveals
shifting values in delineating the concrete plots found in L'Amour
novels as contrasted with McCarthy's relativistic expositions that
communicate "that the mixture of good and evil in the world is
every bit as much a quagmire within human beings as it is without"
(65). So too, values are central to the section's other entries
by Jane Naomi Iwamura and Mark D. Hulsether.
[3] The three essays in Part Two explain that contemporary
religion necessarily commodifies to survive. Particularly strong
here is Gregor Goethals's "The Electronic Golden Calf: Transforming
Ritual and Icon," which fluidly brings together the study of
religion and of popular culture in relating a functional description
of ritual to televised religion. For Goethals, successful religion
conforms to television's entertainment standards; this has broadened
the traditional space, time, and participation boundaries of ritual.
Similarly, Stewart M. Hoover's "The Cross at Willow Creek: Seeker
Religion and the Contemporary Marketplace" explores how the megachurch
phenomenon has employed marketing strategies and commoditized religious
symbols in appealing to audiences. William D. Romanowski examines
contemporary Christian music in the section's other entry.
[4] Part Three's articles balance aspects and challenges in
the study of popular culture as religion. In Michael Jindra's "It's
About Faith in our Future: Star Trek Fandom as Cultural Religion,"
the beliefs and rituals of fans are likened to those of religious
communities. Likewise, Joseph L. Price's "An American Apotheosis:
Sports as Popular Religion" presents sports as a meaning-giving
institution. Especially valuable in Price's study are his references
to numerous scholars, offering a range of positions on the issue.
Moreover, Price's study is balanced (though open-ended) in his description:
"One of the primary challenges for religious studies scholars
who undertake theological analysis of sports is to identify within
sports a source of ultimate powers for evoking and inspiring radical
transformation among participants and faith spectators" (213-214).
In the following article, "The Church of Baseball, the Fetish
of Coca-Cola, and the Potlatch of Rock N' Roll," David Chidester
mulls definitions, concluding, "Religion is about sacred symbols
and systems of sacred symbols that endow the world with meaning and
value" (220), thereby circumnavigating Price's obstacle.
Also in this section, Michelle M. Lelwica critically compares weight
loss practices to elements of Christian soteriology.
[5] The fourth section's examination of religion and popular
culture in dialogue features three of the text's more conceptually
dense, though perhaps less engaging, essays. In "The Disguise
of Vengeance in Pale Rider," Robert Jewett economically
applies an exegesis of Pauline epistles to Owen Wister's The Virginian
and the Clint Eastwood-starring Pale Rider. Conclusively,
Jewett finds that, as opposed to notions of vigilante justice glorified
in the aforementioned Westerns, "if Paul is right, the crimes
of our enemies will be avenged in God's good time, both in this world
and the next" (255). Likewise, Anthony Pinn's "Rap
Music and its Message: On Interpreting the Contact between Religion
and Popular Culture" introduces the notion of "nitty gritty"
hermeneutics by examining the ethic conveyed by several forms of rap
in how each addresses race and power in America. In "Lost in
Cyberspace?: Gender, Difference, and the Internet ÔUtopia,'"
Meredith Underwood uses feminist theology to critique Internet service
providers' marketing a supposedly gender-free Internet.
[6] The text's conclusion features Mahan underscoring the role
of religious studies in the analysis of popular culture. Here,
as throughout the book, a number of categories are presented for organizing
ideas and contextualizing the preceding essays. Along with Forbes's
introduction, Mahan's conclusion contributes to the text's agenda
"to expand our understanding of the varied and complex ways religion
and popular culture interact . . . in order to see how Americans and
American culture give expression to the religious impulse" (298-299).
[7] Overall, Religion and Popular Culture in America
is perhaps most at home in a college classroom setting, and the way
it categorizes concepts makes it highly useful in this arena. Though
some introductory knowledge of the study of religion, the process
of secularization, and the emergence of post-modernism might be a
useful prerequisite, the text's material does not preclude general
audiences and serves well as one's first encounter with the study
of religion and popular culture. As such, this volume stands
to be perennially referenced for at least a generation.
Frank Ferreri
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
fferreri@mail.usf.edu
