Entertaining Judgment by Greg Garrett
Nowadays references to the afterlife - angels strumming harps, demons brandishing pitchforks, God enthroned on heavenly clouds - are more often encountered in New Yorker cartoons than in serious Christian theological reflection. Speculation about death and its sequel seems to embarrass many theologians; however, as Greg Garrett shows in Entertaining Judgment, popular culture in the U.S. has found rich ground for creative expression in the search for answers to the question: What lies in store for us after we die?The lyrics of Madonna, Los Lonely Boys, and Sean Combs; the plotlines of TV's Lost, South Park, and The Walking Dead; the implied theology in films such as The Dark Knight, Ghost, and Field of Dreams; the heavenly half-light of Thomas Kinkade's popular paintings; the ghosts, shades, and after-life way-stations in Harry Potter; and the characters, situations, and locations in the Hunger Games saga all speak to our hopes and fears about what comes next. In a rich survey of literature and popular media, Garrett compares cultural accounts of death and the afterlife with those found in scripture. Denizens of the imagined afterlife, whether in heaven, hell, on earth, or in purgatory, speak to what awaits us, at once shaping and reflecting our deeply held - if often somewhat nebulous - beliefs. They show us what rewards and punishments we might expect, offer us divine assistance, and even diabolically attack us. Ultimately, we are drawn to these stories of heaven, hell, and purgatory - and to stories about death and the undead - not only because they entertain us, but because they help us to create meaning and to learn about ourselves, our world, and, perhaps, the next world. Garrett's deft analysis sheds new light on what popular culture can tell us about the startlingly sharp divide between what modern people profess to believe and what they truly hope and expect to find after death - and how they use those stories to help them understand this life.
eminently interesting, affirming, and accessible study of popular religiosity in the modern media age* Helen Frisby, Folklore *
This book merges two exciting topics: views of afterlife and popular culture. The author, based at Baylor University, USA, is an expert in popular culture and theology. * Martin Hoondert, The Mortality Journal *
a bright and energetic discussion of death and what many people believe to be its consequents angels, heaven, purgatory, hell, the devil, demons, and the undead. He writes about those who create these images, and those who consume them. In writing about the undead, Garrett is writing about ourselves. * Crawford Gribben, Irish Times *
this book not only portrays conceptions of judgment in popular Western 'entertainment culture' - it also aims to uncover the sometimes implicit Christian meaning of heaven, hell and purgatory inscribed in narratives of popular culture * Religion *
a fun and informative romp * Kim Paffenroth, Theology *
a highly engaging journey. * Network Review, David Lorimer *
Greg Garrett has given us a scintillating-and deeply informed-portrait of the many (and often surprising) ways the afterlife figures in popular American culture. The result is a convincing and revealing diagnosis of the beliefs and longings that animate twenty-first-century Americans, both Christian and post-Christian. * Carol Zaleski, Professor of World Religions, Smith College *
Our popular culture is utterly absorbed with the afterlife, and in Greg Garrett's book, we are offered incisive and imaginative insights into how to read and understand this emerging cultural turn. There can be few scholars with Garrett's intellectual gifts, who can grasp the themes in contemporary culture so clearly-through movies, novels, TV, radio, music, poetry, art, architecture, graphic novels, computer games, and drama-and emerge with such a prescient understanding of our persistent absorption with the afterlife. Garrett has set a course for future studies in this vital area of scholarly enterprise. * The Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford *
In Entertaining Judgment Greg Garrett skillfully leads his readers through a wide range of portrayals of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, showing how they continue to populate contemporary imaginings. Going beyond well-known routes, this voyage of discovery includes popular films and television series, novels and comics, pop music and biblical stories. Fresh perspectives are brought to light on the journey, through discussions of various imaginative landscapes related to the afterlife. Garrett offers attentive descriptions, thoughtful interpretations and nuanced insights. The result is an engaging expedition that will enrich debates about understandings of life and what may or may not lie beyond. * Jolyon Mitchell, Director, Center for Theological and Public Issues, and Academic Director, The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at The University of Edinburgh *
This book merges two exciting topics: views of afterlife and popular culture. The author, based at Baylor University, USA, is an expert in popular culture and theology. * Martin Hoondert, The Mortality Journal *
a bright and energetic discussion of death and what many people believe to be its consequents angels, heaven, purgatory, hell, the devil, demons, and the undead. He writes about those who create these images, and those who consume them. In writing about the undead, Garrett is writing about ourselves. * Crawford Gribben, Irish Times *
this book not only portrays conceptions of judgment in popular Western 'entertainment culture' - it also aims to uncover the sometimes implicit Christian meaning of heaven, hell and purgatory inscribed in narratives of popular culture * Religion *
a fun and informative romp * Kim Paffenroth, Theology *
a highly engaging journey. * Network Review, David Lorimer *
Greg Garrett has given us a scintillating-and deeply informed-portrait of the many (and often surprising) ways the afterlife figures in popular American culture. The result is a convincing and revealing diagnosis of the beliefs and longings that animate twenty-first-century Americans, both Christian and post-Christian. * Carol Zaleski, Professor of World Religions, Smith College *
Our popular culture is utterly absorbed with the afterlife, and in Greg Garrett's book, we are offered incisive and imaginative insights into how to read and understand this emerging cultural turn. There can be few scholars with Garrett's intellectual gifts, who can grasp the themes in contemporary culture so clearly-through movies, novels, TV, radio, music, poetry, art, architecture, graphic novels, computer games, and drama-and emerge with such a prescient understanding of our persistent absorption with the afterlife. Garrett has set a course for future studies in this vital area of scholarly enterprise. * The Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford *
In Entertaining Judgment Greg Garrett skillfully leads his readers through a wide range of portrayals of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, showing how they continue to populate contemporary imaginings. Going beyond well-known routes, this voyage of discovery includes popular films and television series, novels and comics, pop music and biblical stories. Fresh perspectives are brought to light on the journey, through discussions of various imaginative landscapes related to the afterlife. Garrett offers attentive descriptions, thoughtful interpretations and nuanced insights. The result is an engaging expedition that will enrich debates about understandings of life and what may or may not lie beyond. * Jolyon Mitchell, Director, Center for Theological and Public Issues, and Academic Director, The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at The University of Edinburgh *
Greg Garrett is Professor of Religion and Culture at Baylor University.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780199335909 |
| ISBN 10 | 0199335907 |
| Title | Entertaining Judgment |
| Author | Greg Garrett |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press Inc |
| Year published | 2015-01-15 |
| Number of pages | 266 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |