American Standard - The Bible in U.s. Popular Culture

Bring a cultural-studies toolkit to bear on the world's most interpreted text
 
The study of the Bible has adapted to the full range of analytical tools available to theologians, scholars, and researchers of every stripe. The marriage between cultural studies and Biblical studies has been especially fruitful, increasingly producing rich and provocative engagements with Biblical texts and contexts. Students of the Bible stand to profit significantly from a volume which illustrates the value of cultural studies approaches by putting these theories into practice.
 
American Standard meets the needs of these students with a series of lively essays working through cultural-studies readings of specific Biblical texts. Drawing connections between the Bible and its modern settings, American popular culture, and more, it balances theory with direct close reading to provide an accessible introduction to the vast and varied landscape of cultural studies.
 
American Standard readers will also find:
* An invaluable literature review of core cultural studies texts
* Detailed analyses incorporating fantasy gaming, the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, American diet culture, and more
* An author with an extensive teaching and publishing history in cultural and Biblical studies
 
American Standard is ideal for advanced undergraduate or seminary students taking courses in biblical interpretation, American religion, critical theory, or any related subjects.

List of contents

Acknowledgments x
 
1 A General Introduction to Cultural Studies and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Bible 1
 
Spreading the Word: The Bible's Viral Encounter with US Pop Culture 1
 
Old School: Birmingham, Marxism, and Late Capitalism 4
 
It's in the Mix: Cultural Studies as Intertextuality 12
 
Assembling the Pieces: Reception, Deleuzian Machines, Affect 17
 
The Plan of This Book 19
 
Part I From CCCS to Late Capitalism 31
 
2 Reading Readers: Modern Evangelicalism's Material (Biblical) Renaissance 33
 
The Bible in Late Capitalism 34
 
The Bible, New and Improved 39
 
A Self- Evident Book: The Bible and Nineteenth- Century United States 41
 
The Rise of the "Value- Added" Bible: The American Bible in the Age of Modernism 45
 
The American Bible in Late Capitalism 48
 
Are Bibles Read or Just Looked at? 51
 
Our Bibles, Ourselves 53
 
3 Graphic Bibles: The Word Becomes (Affecting) Image 57
 
Graphic Bibles 58
 
Robert Crumb on Genesis 60
 
"Translation" of Word into Image 64
 
The Reticence of Biblical Image 66
 
Conclusion 67
 
4 "Eat This Book": The Bible and the American Diet 72
 
The Bible and Cultural Studies 72
 
Defining "Culture" and the "Culture of Everyday Life" 75
 
The Biblical Scholarship on/and the American Diet 79
 
Biblical Eating 81
 
The Bible, Pop Culture, Food, and Consumption 86
 
Part II The Intertextual Bible 93
 
5 The Ketuvim in the Coenim: Bible and Apocalyptic in the Films of Joel and Ethan Coen 95
 
What's in Your Bible? 96
 
The Coenim 98
 
Barton Fink (1991) 99
 
Ladykillers (2004) 103
 
Jews, and Jewish Bibles, in Hollywood 106
 
(Re)reading the Coen Bible 108
 
6 "Do Not Forsake Me": Biblical Motifs in Zinnemann's High Noon 112
 
First Verse (Précis) 112
 
Second Verse 118
 
Bridge 121
 
Refrain 124
 
7 God's Dice: The Bible in/and Sci-Fi and Fantasy Gaming 128
 
Dungeons & Dragons and the Birth of a Genre 130
 
The Lore of the God- Emperor: Warhammer 40k's Narrative Frame 132
 
The Devil in the Details: Satan and the Cosmic War Motif in W40k and D&D 134
 
The "Satanic Panic" and the Dissonance Between D&D and Some US Religious Circles 137
 
The "Origins of Satan" and the Bible as Fantasy Literature 139
 
Playing (with) the Devil 145
 
Part III Affective Machines: Deleuze, Cultural Studies, and the Next Wave 151
 
8 Mysteries of the Bible Documentary: The Bible in Popular Nonfiction Documentary Film 153
 
Truth and Representation 154
 
Modes and Methods of Documentary 156
 
A (Very Brief) Introduction and Review of Bible Documentary 158
 
Mysteries of the Bible 159
 
From Jesus to Christ 160
 
Testimony of the Ark 162
 
On the Filming of Documentaries, There Is No End 163
 
9 "I (Want to) Believe, Lord; Help Me in My Unbelief": Revelation, Raëleans, Mayans, and North American Pop Eschatology 167
 
The Beginning of the End 168
 
What the Bible Raëlly Says 169
 
Discerning the Bak'tun 172
 
Converging Sight Lines 175
 
On Conspiracies of Affect(s) and Apocalyptics 178
 
Apocalypse: John's Vision of the (Sometimes Scary) Real World 181
 
Horror Movies: 28 Days Later...and the Revelation of Rage 182
 
Conspiracy 185
 
10 Bespoke Words: The Bible, Fashion, and the Mechanism(s) of Things 190
 
Theoretically Naked 190
 
Boxers and Socks 192
 
Shirt and

About the author

Robert Paul Seesengood is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Teaching Professor of Bible and Cultures at Drew Theological School, Drew University, Madison, NJ. His numerous publications include The Bible and Cultural Studies: Critical Readings and Jesse's Lineage: The Legendary Lives of David, Jesus and Jesse James.

Product details

• Authors: Robert Paul Seesengood, Robert Paul (Albright College Seesengood
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 04.04.2024
• EAN: 9781118361566
• ISBN: 978-1-118-36156-6
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity; Bibel, Volkskultur, Kulturwissenschaften, Popular Culture, Cultural Studies, Biblical Studies, Religion & Theology, Religion u. Theologie, Bibelstudien