Introduction: Entertaining Judgment: How We Understand The
Afterlife
1. In Between: Death And The Undead
2. Denizens Of The Afterlife: Angels, Demons, And The Devil
3. Heaven: The Pearly Gates
4. Hell: The Fiery Inferno
5. Purgatory: Working Out Our Salvation
Conclusion: The Dead And The Living
Appendix: Literary And Cultural Works Consulted
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Greg Garrett is 2013 Centennial Professor at Baylor University,
where he teaches classes in fiction and screenwriting, literature,
film and popular culture, and theology. The author or co-author of
three dozen short stories, a dozen scholarly articles, and twenty
books of fiction, nonfiction, and memoir, Dr. Garrett is also
Residential Scholar at Gladstone's Library in Wales and a licensed
lay preacher in the Episcopal Church. He lives with his
family in Austin, Texas.
"eminently interesting, affirming, and accessible study of popular
religiosity in the modern media age." -- Helen Frisby, Folklore
"This book merges two exciting topics: views of afterlife and
popular culture. The author, based at Baylor University, USA, is an
expert in popular culture and theology." -- Martin Hoondert, The
Mortality Journal
"A strikingly thorough inventory...A useful guide to popular
culture and a handy starting place for conversations about the
topics it covers."--Christianity Today
"[A] wide-ranging, accessible and lively study."--New Statesmen
"An entertaining and highly readable addition to the field of
popular culture studies.."--Publishers Weekly
"A highly engaging journey."--Network Review
"A fun and informative romp."--Theology
"Greg Garrett has given us a scintillating-and deeply
informed-portrait of the many (and often surprising) ways the
afterlife figures in popular American culture. The result is a
convincing and revealing diagnosis of the beliefs and longings that
animate twenty-first-century Americans, both Christian and
post-Christian." --Carol Zaleski, Professor of World Religions,
Smith College
"Our popular culture is utterly absorbed with the afterlife, and in
Greg Garrett's book, we are offered incisive and imaginative
insights into how to read and understand this emerging cultural
turn. There can be few scholars with Garrett's intellectual gifts,
who can grasp the themes in contemporary culture so clearly-through
movies, novels, TV, radio, music, poetry, art, architecture,
graphic novels, computer games, and drama-and emerge with such a
prescient
understanding of our persistent absorption with the afterlife.
Garrett has set a course for future studies in this vital area of
scholarly enterprise." --The Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy,
Dean
of Christ Church, Oxford
"In Entertaining Judgment Greg Garrett skillfully leads his readers
through a wide range of portrayals of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory,
showing how they continue to populate contemporary imaginings.
Going beyond well-known routes, this voyage of discovery includes
popular films and television series, novels and comics, pop music
and biblical stories. Fresh perspectives are brought to light on
the journey, through discussions of various imaginative
landscapes related to the afterlife. Garrett offers attentive
descriptions, thoughtful interpretations and nuanced insights. The
result is an engaging expedition that will enrich debates about
understandings of life
and what may or may not lie beyond."
--Jolyon Mitchell, Director, Center for Theological and Public
Issues, and Academic Director, The Institute for Advanced Studies
in the Humanities at The University of Edinburgh
"Entertaining Judgement's stronger insights relate to our
imaginations of the malevolent afterlife, and how they act as
flexible metaphors for whatever most frightens up at any given
time. What we fear most is usually the future--the life to come, in
one form or another." -- Resurgence and Ecologist
"...[T]his lively study will make a compelling addition to course
syllabi in religious studies. Garrett s book is an amusing, thought
provoking, informative read. Undergraduate students will recognize
and appreciate many of the movies and shows mentioned throughout
the chapters and will find the author s prose straightforward and
accessible. Entertaining Judgment is an effective quick reference
guide and compendium for scholars interested in the
afterlife in American pop culture." --Reading Religion
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
