Personal Jesus (Engaging Culture): How Popular Music Shapes Our Souls

by Clive Marsh, Vaughan S. Roberts, Tom Beaudoin (Foreword by)

Overview

Pop music is now an ever-present force shaping citizens in the West. Even at funerals, pop music is often requested over hymns. But how does popular music work? And what roles does it play for listeners who engage it? This new addition to the critically acclaimed Engaging Culture series explores the theological significance of the ways pop music is listened to and used today.

The authors show that popular music is used by religious and nonreligious people alike to make meaning, enabling listeners to explore human concerns about embodiment, create communities, and tap into transcendence. They assess what is happening to Christian faith and theology as a result. The book incorporates case studies featuring noted music artists of our day--including David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Sigur Rós, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and Lady Gaga--and includes practical implications for the church, the academy, and daily musical listening. It also includes a foreword by Tom Beaudoin, author of Virtual Faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441240507
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/15/2013
Series:	Engaging Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Clive Marsh (DPhil, University of Oxford) is senior lecturer at and director of the Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester, in Leicester, England. He is the author of many books, including Cinema and Sentiment: Film's Challenge to Theology and Theology Goes to the Movies: An Introduction to Critical Christian Thinking. Vaughan S. Roberts (PhD, University of Bath) is rector at the Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Warwick, England, and an active writer on topics of religion and contemporary culture.
Clive Marsh (DPhil, University of Oxford) is senior lecturer and director of learning and teaching at the Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester, in Leicester, England. He is the author of many books, including Cinema and Sentiment: Film's Challenge to Theology and Theology Goes to the Movies: An Introduction to Critical Christian Thinking.
Vaughan S. Roberts (PhD, University of Bath) is vicar of Collegiate Church of St. Mary in Warwick, England, and an active writer on topics of religion and contemporary culture.

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Tom Beaudoin
Introduction
Part 1: Music and Religion
1. Music in Context: Contemporary Discussion about Religion and Popular Culture
2. Explorations in Affective Space: The Magisteria-Ibiza Spectrum
3. Acknowledging a Theological Interest: Popular Music from Sin to Sacramentality
Part 2: Living by Pop Music
4. Pop Music in the Marketplace
5. Pop Music and the Body
6. The Tingle Factor: Popular Music and Transcendence Today
7. Pop Music, Ritual, and Worship
8. What's on Your iPod? Classics, Canons, and the Question of What Matters
Part 3: Pop Music and Theology
9. The Discipline of Listening: How (and Why) What We're Doing with Music Matters Ultimately
10. Three Steps to Heaven? On Negotiating Meaning between Popular Music and Christian Theology
11. Embodied Social Rituals: Revisiting Theology through Popular Music
A Programmatic Postscript: Practical Consequences for Church, Academy, and Daily Living
Indexes