God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture

Rating:
Summary: Good Idea and OK Attempt
Review: This book is an attempt to highlight venues in American popular culture that contain elements of religion or replace it all together. The thesis sounds very intriguing and caught my attention right off. At times, however, the essays that compose the book seem to be too much of a stretch. They can seem to force the analogy of religion to some topics. Not all the meat of the essays is unfounded. Many points that are raised are worth reading. I perhaps had higher expectations of the book and was therefore a little disappointed in what insight it had being surrounded by superfluous discussion. The essays are intelligently written and carry a heavily academic tone. Overall, I gained a few insights, but not what I would consider 313 pages worth.