E-Book Overview
Increasingly, the religious practices people engage in and the ways they talk about what is meaningful or sacred take place in the context of media culture -- in the realm of the so-called secular. Focusing on this intersection of the sacred and the secular, this volume gathers together the work of media experts, religious historians, sociologists of religion, and authorities on American studies and art history. Topics range from Islam on the Internet to the quasi-religious practices of Elvis fans, from the uses of popular culture by the Salvation Army in its early years to the uses of interactive media technologies at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Beit Hashoah Museum of Tolerance. The issues that the essays address include the public/private divide, the distinctions between the sacred and profane, and how to distinguish between the practices that may be termed "religious" and those that may not.
E-Book Content
PRACTICING RELIGION IN THE AGE OF THE MEDIA This page intentionally left blank PRACTICING RELIGION IN THE AGE OF THE MEDIA Explorations in Media, Religion, and Culture Stewart M. Hoover and Lynn Schofield Clark, Editors Columbia University Press Publishers Since New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Practicing religion in the age of the media : explorations in media, religion, and culture / Stewart M. Hoover and Lynn Schofield Clark, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN - - - (alk. paper) — ISBN - - - (pbk. : alk. paper) . Mass media—Religious aspects. . Mass media and culture. I. Hoover, Stewart M. II. Clark, Lynn Schofield. . . ' —dc Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America c p A version of the essay appearing as chapter in this book was published as John Schmalzbauer, “Between Professional and Religious Worlds: Catholics and Evangelicals in American Journalism,” Sociology of Religion, Winter , vol. , issue , p. . © Association for the Sociology of Religion, Inc. All Rights Reserved. CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: The Cultural Construction of Religion in the Media Age Stewart M. Hoover . Overview: The “Protestantization” of Research into Media, Religion, and Culture Lynn Schofield Clark . Mediation in Popular Religious Practice . Protestant Visual Practice and American Mass Culture David Morgan . Believing in Elvis: Popular Piety in Material Culture Erika Doss vi . The Mediation of Religion in the Public Sphere . Public Art as Sacred Space: Asian American Community Murals in Los Angeles J. Shawn Landres . All the World’s a Stage: The Performed Religion of the Salvation Army, – Diane Winston . “Turn It Off!”: TV Criticism in the Christian Century Magazine, – Michele Rosenthal . Religion Made Public Through the Media . Between Objectivity and Moral Vision: Catholics and Evangelicals in American Journalism John Schmalzbauer . The Southern Baptist Controversy and the Press Mark G. Borchert . Implicit Religion and Mediated Public Ritual . Scapegoating and Deterrence: Criminal Justice Rituals in American Civil Religion Carolyn Marvin . Ritual and the Media Ronald L. Grimes vii . Explicit and Public Expression in New Media Contexts