Religion, Media, and the Marketplace
Religion is infiltrating the arena of consumer culture in increasingly visible ways. We see it in a myriad of forms-in movies, such as Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, on Internet shrines and kitschy Web "altars," and in the recent advertising campaign that attacked fuel-guzzling SUVs by posing the question: What would Jesus drive?
In Religion, Media, and the Marketplace, scholars in history, media studies, and sociology explore this intersection of the secular and the sacred. Topics include how religious leaders negotiate between the competing aims of the mainstream and the devout in the commercial marketplace, how politics and religious beliefs combine to shape public policy initiatives, how the religious "other" is represented in the media, and how consumer products help define the practice of different faiths.
At a time when religious fundamentalism in the United States and throughout the world is inseparable from political aims, this interdisciplinary look at the mutual influences between religion and the media is essential reading for scholars from a wide variety of disciplines.
The breadth of coverage given to different religious traditions in this volume is nothing short of astonishing. The reader is taken on a wide-ranging tour of religion, media, and markets across diverse social and cultural contexts.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Identity, Belonging, and Religious Lifestyle Branding (Fashion Bibles, Bhangra Parties, and Muslim Pop), Lynn Schofield Clark
Part I
Selling, Influencing, Publishing, Purchasing: Establishing and Participating in the Mediated Religious Marketplace
1. Free Grace, Free Books, Free Riders: The Economics of Religious Publishing in Early Nineteenth-Century America, David Nord
2. Making Money, Saving Souls: Christian Bookstores and the Commodification of Christianity, Anne L. Borden
3. Jewish Space Aliens Are Lucky to Be Free! Religious Distinctiveness, Media, and Markets in Jewish Childrens Culture, Hillary Warren
Part II
Religion and Politics in Tension: Mobilization and Mission through Media and Material Artifacts
4. Literacy in the Eye of the Conversion Storm, Gauri Viswanathan
5. Mary as Media Icon: Gender and Militancy in Twentieth-Century U.S. Roman Catholic Devotional Media, Maryellen Davis
6. Cartoon Wars: The Prince of Egypt in Retrospect, Erica Sheen
Part III
Representations of the Religious Other in Popular Media and in the Marketplace
7. Evangelicalism and the Presidential Election of 1960: The Catholic Question in Christianity Today Magazine, Phyllis E. Alsdurf
8. Religion as Rhetorical Resource: The Muslim Immigrant in (Danish) Public Discourse, Ferruh Yilmaz
9. Blowing the Cover: Imaging Religious Functionaries in Ghanaian/Nigerian Films, Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
Part IV
Media Courted, Media Resisted: Popular Rituals and Artifacts in the Crafting of New Public Religious Practices
10. Media Mecca: Tensions, Tropes, and Techno-Pagans at the Burning Man Festival, Lee Gilmore
11. Day of the Dead as a New U.S. Holiday: Ritual, Media, and Material Culture in the Quest for Connection, Regina M. Marchi
Afterword, Stewart M. Hoover
List of Contributors
Index
