Post-Christian Religion in Popular Culture: Theology through Exegesis
Ebook
Post-Christian Religion in Popular Culture: Theology through Exegesis analyzes several theological exegeses of contemporary popular culture as post-Christian scripture. It includes analyses of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Lion King, and Cloud Atlas, the television shows Lucifer and Shameless, and contemporary pop punk and alternative music. Through an application of three hermeneutical methods (re-enchantment, resourcement, and rescription), a prophetic and apocalyptic critique of modernity, and an analysis of the late-modern human condition, Andrew D. Thrasher argues how popular culture recites post-Christian religious and theological messages marked by a post-disenchantment theology constituted by the consumption of these messages shapes and informs what the contemporary world finds believable, credible, and desirable in a post-Christian context.
Dedication
Foreword by Matthew William Brake
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Theoretical Frameworks
Chapter One: Consuming a Post-Christian Canon?
Chapter Two: The Consumptive Poetics of Belief
Part II: Methodology through Practice
Chapter Three: Marveling Re-enchantment?
Chapter Four: Deconstructing Inter-Religious Resourcement in The Lion King
Chapter Five: Rescripting Theology in Lucifer
Part III: Problems and Prophecies of Modernity
Chapter Six: The Tragedy and Trajectory of Modernity in Cloud Atlas
Chapter Seven: Grieving in the Wake of Wakanda
Part IV: Rescripting Sin as Brokenness
Chapter Eight: Doxologies of Brokenness
Chapter Nine: The Poverty of Sin in Shameless
Part V: Constructive Conclusions
Chapter Ten: Messages of Post-Christian Theology
Bibliography
Andrew D. Thrasher invites us to consider the place and value of popular culture works to theology and faith in a post-Christian culture dominated by disenchantment. This book helpfully moves beyond simple acceptance or critique of popular culture by offering critical methodologies rooted in re-enchantment, resourcement, and resciption. Thrasher’s attentive analysis of cultural and theological elements makes the valuable discussions on music, movies, and media an imaginative investigation imbued with hope and belief.
Andrew Thrasher skillfully draws on philosophical insights from Charles Taylor and others to argue that the cultural liturgies of pop culture mediate a social imaginary that is fundamentally post-Christian. That is, the stories and songs of the pop-cultural mind reveal a different overarching story about the world that echoes but moves beyond Christian ideas. Even so, Thrasher offers resources for how to engage this new landscape in a way that modern social imaginary, as reflected in the pop culture imagination is post-Christian.
Andrew D. Thrasher has written a fascinating book which looks at implicit religious beliefs within contemporary popular culture and seeks to discern their significance for the construction of a "post-disenchantment theology." Working at the intersection of philosophy, sociology, religious studies, and theology, he provides important insights at every turn. No one who is interested in how theology can or should interrogate contemporary beliefs and values in wider society will wish to ignore this book. It is an important account that deals with fundamental questions on the nature of society and the human condition. I recommend it most warmly to students and scholars of religion and popular culture.
- Title: Post-Christian Religion in Popular Culture: Theology through Exegesis
- Authors: Andrew D. Thrasher, Matthew Brake
- Publisher: Fortress Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781978715882, 9781978715875, 1978715870, 1978715889
- Resource ID: LLS:9781978715882
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-08-30T07:27:54Z
Andrew D. Thrasher is adjunct professor of religions studies at George Mason University and in the Virginia Community College System.