Great Awakenings: Popular Religion and Popular Culture (Haworth Popular Culture) - Hardcover

Hoffmann, Frank; Fishwick, Marshall; Ramirez, Beulah B

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1560248645 ISBN 13: 9781560248644

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

Synopsis

As religious fervor grows, Dr. Fishwick, a recipient of the Ray and Pat Browne Award for Lifetime Achievement from The American Culture Association, takes a sweeping look at religion in the United States--the country with the highest church attendance in the Western world. Popular religion can take many shapes and forms. It can wax and wane, but it cannot be eliminated or ignored. That is what prompted him to write Great Awakenings: Popular Religion and Popular Culture.

He ponders how religion affects American life and popular culture, and why religion has become a major force in contemporary politics. How has the Electronic Revolution furthered the religious right? What does popular religion tell us about popular culture? And about our faith?

He identifies and explores five great religious revivals or “Great Awakenings:”

• the Atlantic Seaboard Awakening
• the Urban Awakening
• the Modernist Awakening
• the Celebrity Preacher Awakening
• the Electronic Awakening
  
  Fishwick explores the current events preceding and during each awakening, its leaders, followers, and critics. Great Awakenings gives a new understanding of the American religious past and leaves us with an anticipation for the next great awakening.

About this title

From Library Journal:

Fishwick (humanities and communications studies, Virginia Polytechnic) states that popular religious revivals rise and recede in predictable patterns in the United States. The present one began with Reagan's election and has no end in sight. Fishwick reviews the major examples of his thesis, beginning with the Puritans, but concentrates on this century. Portraits of charismatic leaders (Fr. Coughlin, Aimee Semple McPherson, Jerry Falwell, etc.) dominate. Fishwick's indulgence in smug condescension toward these persons and their followers mars his argument, which is somewhat redeemed by a perceptive final chapter highlighting the dangers such revivals can present. Not a necessary purchase for most collections.
Richard S. Watts, San Bernardino Cty. Lib., Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

Popular religion and popular culture are examined in a historical sweep of American religious history. But how does religion really affect American life? Fishwick's goes beyond the usual limited survey to embrace the basic concepts behind religious involvement in this country, probing the extent of American religious sentiment. -- Midwest Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 1560248645
• ISBN 13: 9781560248644
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300