The Faithful Citizen
Popular Christian Media and Gendered Civic Identities
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Baylor University Press
Published:30th Sep '10
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
For decades, American popular media have instructed audiences about their roles and significance in the public sphere. In The Faithful Citizen, rhetorical critic Kristy Maddux argues that popular Christian media not only communicate avenues for civic engagement but do so in profoundly gendered terms. Her detailed interrogation of popular Christian movies, books, and television shows - the Left Behind series, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ,Amazing Grace, 7th Heaven, and the blockbuster The Da Vinci Code - exposes five competing models of how Christians should behave in the civic sphere as their gendered selves. What emerges is a typology that insightfully reveals how these varying faith-based models of engagement uniquely shape public discourse and influence the larger picture of contemporary politics.
[Maddux] presents an interesting reading of contemporary culture and offers a methodology for a more careful consideration of the interaction between media and religion. -- Paul A. Soukup, Santa Clara University -- Communication Research Trends
Maddux is a clear writer doing bread-and-butter analysis of important works that obviously have had an influence on public life. -- Brian Jackson, Brigham Young University -- Rhetoric Review
The historical, political, social, and theoretical contexts [Maddux] intertwines throughout each chapter connect material and discursive realities in ways that either capture important debates or speak back to them in important ways. And Maddux cogently depicts how ideas about Christian civic participation, gender, and popular media are woven together to create a story about what kinds of bodies and behaviours make someone a true 'citizen.' -- Amanda Rossie, The Ohio State University -- Journal of Religion and Popular Culture
ISBN: 9781602582538
Dimensions: 227mm x 154mm x 19mm
Weight: 435g
285 pages