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 šUtopia,'"
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
