Description
Book SynopsisStates that Americans have never been more religious than they are at the dawn of the twenty-first century. This book features essays by major scholars from the fields of anthropology, history, literary criticism, and religion in order to enrich critical discourse about religion and culture.
Trade Review"An eclectic and curiously framed collection that brings together essays of genuine vibrancy."--Leigh E. Schmidt, The Journal of American History
Table of ContentsList od Contributors vii Introduction by Susan L. Mizruchi ix 1. Close Encounters of Diverse Kinds by Jonathan Z. Smith 3 2. Telling a Life through Haitian Vodou: An Essay Concerning Race, Gender, Memory, and Historical Consciousness by Karen McCarthy Brown 22 3. Unseemly Commemoration: Religion, Fragments, and the Icon by Jenny Franchot 56 4. The Place of Ritual in Our Time by Susan L Mizruchi 56 5. Human Solidarity and the Problem of Otherness 80 6. Ascetics, Aesthetics, and the Management of Desire by Geoffrey Galt Harpham 95 7. New Baptized: The Culture of Love in America, 1830s to 1950s by Richard Wightman Fox 8. "The Mystery of Life in All It's Forms": Religious Dimensions of Culture in Early American Anthropology by Gillian Feeley-Harnik 9. Global Requiem: The Apocalyptic Moment in Religion, Science, and Art by Jack Miles 192 10. The Altar of Sin: Social Multiplicity and Christian Conversion among a New Guinea People by Eytan Bercovitch 211 11. God On LIne: Locating the Pagan/Asian Soul of America in Cyberspace by Bruce B. Lawrence 236 Selected Bibliography 255 Index of Names 263
