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Small Screen, Big Picture: Television and Lived Religion
A pioneering study at the intersection of religion and media, Small Screen, Big Picture treats television as a virtual meeting place where Americans across racial, ethnic, economic and religious lines find instructive and inspirational narratives. An interdisciplinary tour de force, this book describes how television converts social concerns, cultural conundrums and metaphysical questions into stories that explore and even shape who we are and would like to be--the building blocks of religious speculation.
- GenresNonfiction
535 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 30, 2010
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God and television have been together from the start—from the theologically explicit “Lamp Unto My Feet” and “Life Is Worth Living” to the I-can-walk-again schmaltz of “Highway to Heaven” and “Touched By an Angel.” Small Screen, Big Picture, however, concentrates on more recent and complex examples of the partnership. This rich and compelling book describes the remarkable flowering of religious themes in the high-quality television melodramas of the new century. It discusses with both sanity and intelligence two subjects that are often discussed with neither.
—Robert Thompson, Professor of Television and Popular Culture, Syracuse University
DAVID: I really like the way you define spirituality in your book.
Regular readers of ReadTheSpirit know that we frequently describe “spirituality” as answering three questions: Why should I climb out of bed in the morning? How can I make it through another stressful day? And, at the end of the day, did anything I do really matter? And we’ve explained to readers that these really are questions that go back through Tolstoy and a host of other writers to the ancient questions about life. You’ve got a nearly identical definition of spirituality.
DIANE: To me, the most basic spiritual questions are: What am I doing here? How can I make a difference? And, what happens when I die? Those three questions are a great starting point for getting a discussion going in your small group about “Battlestar Galactica” or “Sopranos” or many of these other series.
Diane Winston in an interview with ReadtheSpirit.com
http://www.baylorpress.com/index.php?...
God and television have been together from the start—from the theologically explicit “Lamp Unto My Feet” and “Life Is Worth Living” to the I-can-walk-again schmaltz of “Highway to Heaven” and “Touched By an Angel.” Small Screen, Big Picture, however, concentrates on more recent and complex examples of the partnership. This rich and compelling book describes the remarkable flowering of religious themes in the high-quality television melodramas of the new century. It discusses with both sanity and intelligence two subjects that are often discussed with neither.
—Robert Thompson, Professor of Television and Popular Culture, Syracuse University
DAVID: I really like the way you define spirituality in your book.
Regular readers of ReadTheSpirit know that we frequently describe “spirituality” as answering three questions: Why should I climb out of bed in the morning? How can I make it through another stressful day? And, at the end of the day, did anything I do really matter? And we’ve explained to readers that these really are questions that go back through Tolstoy and a host of other writers to the ancient questions about life. You’ve got a nearly identical definition of spirituality.
DIANE: To me, the most basic spiritual questions are: What am I doing here? How can I make a difference? And, what happens when I die? Those three questions are a great starting point for getting a discussion going in your small group about “Battlestar Galactica” or “Sopranos” or many of these other series.
Diane Winston in an interview with ReadtheSpirit.com
December 7, 2012
This is a solid academic work covering a number of television series that lend themselves to a discussion of 'lived religion' and its intersection with media and popular culture studies.
One quotation from the epilogue by the book's editor, Diane Winston, I think, is one that keeps me mulling over the overall content of the book: "Becoming intentional about media consumption is a critical skill for citizens of the twenty-first century. The ability to reflect on what we read, see and hear - and to bring to the surface the assumptions at work in these experiences enables media consumers to adapt and use information rather than simply be influenced or controlled by it." (page 429)
One quotation from the epilogue by the book's editor, Diane Winston, I think, is one that keeps me mulling over the overall content of the book: "Becoming intentional about media consumption is a critical skill for citizens of the twenty-first century. The ability to reflect on what we read, see and hear - and to bring to the surface the assumptions at work in these experiences enables media consumers to adapt and use information rather than simply be influenced or controlled by it." (page 429)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews