The-Blackwell-Guide

THE BLACKWELL GUIDE TO THEOLOGY AND POPULAR CULTURE Blackwell Guides to Theology Blackwell Guides to Theology offer cutting edge and imaginative coverage of the central themes, key works, important authors, and historical figures in the major subdisciplines of theology. The Guides will direct readers through the most recent research in a lively and accessible way, making them suitable for everyone from undergraduate level upwards. The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture Kelton Cobb The Blackwell Guide to Spirituality Shawn Madison Krahmer The Blackwell Guide to Christian Theology Mark McIntosh The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture Kelton Cobb Blackwell Publishing © 2005 by Kelton Cobb BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Kelton Cobb to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2005 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cobb, Kelton. The Blackwell guide to theology and popular culture/Kelton Cobb. p. cm.—(Blackwell guides to theology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0698-6 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0698-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0702-0 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0702-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Popular culture—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Popular culture—Religious aspects. I. Title. II. Series. BR115.C8C523 2005 261—dc22 2004029174 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12pt Sabon by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd, Kundli The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com I dedicate this book to the memories of my father, William Cobb, and my uncle, Ernest Miller “What have you that you did not receive?" I Cor. 4.7 Contents Acknowledgments viii Introduction 1 Part I Theories of Popular Culture 27 1 Popular Culture 29 2 Cultural Studies 53 3 Theology and Culture 72 4 Theological Tools 101 Part II A Theology of Popular Culture 133 5 Images of God 135 6 Human Nature 177 7 Sin 211 8 Salvation 229 9 Life Everlasting 262 Conclusion 291 Notes 295 Bibliography 324 Index 343 Acknowledgments Among the many gifts of St Augustine to theology is the idea that cultural signs have the power to facilitate our enjoyment of God. These pages are an attempt to unwrap that gift one more time. The signs that come under consideration here are scattered around in the detritus of popular culture – movies, novels, recorded music, prime-time dramas, wall art, the World Wide Web, theme parks, and advertising. But from Augustine I’ve also received a sober respect for sin. In the analysis undertaken here I’ve tried to keep both of these bequests in view and offer a measured assessment of select artifacts from among the onslaught of mass-produced images, sounds, and storytelling with which we, for the most part gladly, sometimes begrudgingly, fill our lives. So, my first word of gratitude goes to St Augustine. But writing a book incurs many debts. I’ve had help along the way from the Louisville Institute, the Wabash Center, the North American Paul Tillich Society, the New Haven Theological Discussion Group, and a well-timed sabbatical from Hartford Seminary. I’ve benefited immensely from the insights and enthusiasm of students in my courses at Hartford Seminary and Wesleyan University who have been willing to lay their ears to the ground and listen for religious rumblings in popular culture. And I’ve received bountiful moral support from members of my family: Alverna, Lori, Henry and Elfriede. I’m also mindful of what I have learned from my teachers and colleagues William Schweiker, David Klemm, Arthur Roberts, Doug Frank, Sam Alvord, Max Stackhouse, Langdon Gilkey, and Maria Antonoccio, each of them in league with Augustine’s guarded endorsement of all things finite. My colleagues at Hartford Seminary, Clifford Green, Worth Loomis, and, particularly, Ian Markham, not only hounded me to write this book but also lightened my load to permit me to do so. My primary guides in determining what sounds, stories and images are worth paying attention to are my friends – Gary Erickson, Gayle Beebe, Scott Webb, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix John Arndt, Steve Vaughan, Shann Cobb, Ned Edwards, Ed Horstmann, Graham Reside, Heng Wong, Lois Lorentzen and George McKinley – each attuned in different ways to the mysterious nuances of popular culture. They deserve both credit and blame for what materials come under scrutiny in this book. Images and song lyrics have been reproduced in the book with permission of copyright holders. The difficulties involved in obtaining permissions are legion, but in a few cases permission was granted with exemplary graciousness – by the family of Joe Strummer, David McGinnis on behalf of Nick Cave, Dr Edison Amos on behalf of Tori Amos, and Vitaly Komar (who is equal parts iconoclast and iconographer). And both I and readers of this book owe thanks to Jennifer L. Geddes for her knowledge of the subject and gifts with language, and to Rebecca Harkin and Karen Wilson, my editors, who were encouraging throughout in allowing the book to become what it is. To write this book, I’ve had to live among digitized, cathode ray, and newsprint artifacts more than I am ordinarily inclined to do. To my patient and long-suffering wife, Heidi Gehman, who wrote her own dissertation as I was writing this book, her desk beside mine, and to our puzzled though rarely neglected young sons, Henry and William, I can’t begin to express the depth of my love and gratitude. Introduction In Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, next to a cart selling roasted pecans and hot pretzels, is a kiosk with Empire State Building pencil sharpeners, Statue of Liberty snow globes, and the standard-issue rack of souvenir postcards. On this rack are pictures of Grand Central Station, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Central Park, the United Nations Plaza, the Chrysler Building, the American Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim Museum, and Macy’s Department Store. That each of these architectural marvels came to be built represents not only a confluence of political clout, engineering expertise, artistic craftsmanship and vast outlays of cash, but also a con- siderable level of public consent for what kinds of aspirations are worth enshrining in beautiful buildings. This rack of postcards, like that at any tourist kiosk in any big city, can be read like a book that tells us what matters most to its citizens. The objects depicted on these postcards are human values that have been sheathed with rebar, stone, and glass and veined with romex and fiber optics. In this manner, they serve both as monuments to human values, and as instruments which can further extend the reach of those values into the community. They are monuments in that much creative genius has been lavished upon them to testify to the worthiness of a particular value; they are instruments in that they create a venue for that particular value to be pursued. We build magnificent buildings to provide physical bodies for our cultural values. Thus, the landmark architecture pictured on New York City postcards can be read as an inventory of the particular human activities that are valued in American culture. Grand Central Station is a monument to and instrument of freedom (of physical movement); Central Park is a monument to and instrument of leisure; St Patrick’s Cathedral is a monument to and instrument of religion; the Chrysler Building and Macy’s are monuments to and instruments of the economy; the United Nations Plaza is a monument to and instrument of politics; the Guggenheim Museum 2 INTRODUCTION is a monument to and instrument of art; the Museum of Natural History is a monument to and instrument of knowledge. It is in this respect that ecclesial terms are sometimes used as metaphors in relation to such landmark structures: Macy’s is a “cathedral of commerce”; the Guggenheim is a “sanctuary of art”; the Museum of Natural History is a “temple of science,” etc. Some discrete cultural value is being venerated and practiced within the walls of each. The use of this sacred space metaphor in landmark architecture has a parallel in more general discussions of the value spheres that the buildings are built to enshrine. It has become common to say “art is religion,” that we should have “faith in science,” or that “the market is God.” What is meant in these expressions is that something like faith and worship has come to be attached to art, science, and the economy. Just as the ven- eration of certain values may be expressed through the beauty of great architecture, these values can also become objects of a more generalized religious piety.

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