Religion and popular culture is a fast-growing field that spans a variety of disciplines. This volume offers the first real survey of the field to date and provides a guide for the work of future scholars. It explores:

• key issues of definition and of methodology
• religious encounters with popular culture across media, material culture and space, ranging from videogames and social networks to cooking and kitsch, architecture and national monuments
• representations of religious traditions in the media and popular culture, including important non-Western spheres such as Bollywood

This Companion will serve as an enjoyable and informative resource for students and a stimulus to future scholarly work.

About the Author

John C. Lyden

is the Liberal Arts Core Director and Professor of Liberal Arts at Grand View University, USA. He is editor of The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film (Routledge 2009).

Eric Michael Mazur

is Gloria and David Furman Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Wesleyan College, USA. He is co-editor of God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture with Kate McCarthy (Routledge, 2nd edition 2010).

Reviews

"Overall, this is an impressive collection of essays that encapsulates many of the important points of interface between religion and popular culture. It will become an important marker in the development of the field and its introduction at this point is timely."

Steve Knowles, University of Chester, UK

"Lyden and Mazur offer a fascinating collection of essays from a wide range of contributors exploring religion and popular culture. This is a terrific resource for the classroom and scholars will be impressed with their contribution to the field."

Gina Messina-Dysert, Claremont Graduate University, USA

"Overall, this is an impressive collection of essays that encapsulates many of the important points of interface between religion and popular culture. It will become an important marker in the development of the field and its introduction at this point is timely."

Steve Knowles, University of Chester, UK

"Lyden and Mazur offer a fascinating collection of essays from a wide range of contributors exploring religion and popular culture. This is a terrific resource for the classroom and scholars will be impressed with their contribution to the field."

Gina Messina-Dysert, Claremont Graduate University, USA

This excellent, thoroughly indexed volume provides a much-needed overview of religion and popular culture, a growing area of study that draws upon a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. (...) Scholars will appreciate the breadth of coverage this work offers, and students will enjoy the many contemporary references (e.g., Miley Cyrus, South Park) that illustrate the editors' themes. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels; general readers."

S. Rokusek, Florida Gulf Coast University in CHOICE

Book Information
ISBN 9781138322738
Author John C. Lyden
Format Paperback
Page Count 602
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 1018g