The Altars Where We Worship: The Religious Significance of Popular Culture

The Altars Where We Worship by Mark G. Toulouse, Juan M. Floyd-Thomas and Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, reviewed by Brian Arthur BrownNew Canadian Mark Toulouse and his Floyd-Thomas Texas colleagues are doing for “religion” what N.T. Wright and Sarah Coakley are doing for theology these days, establishing the fundamentals to set the context for study of religion (and theology) in our time.I did not know that three people could grasp the profound implications of every detail of The Game of (Religious) Trivia as well as the details themselves. This is in a world where almost every societal trend attracts devotion which borders on “religious” – at a time when traditional religions appear to be waning. Of course, the current era may be a “watershed moment,” in this regard, as the writers claim, but it is far from the first for the church. Indeed, this is but one of many such eras over the centuries, and the authors could be reminded that we have been here before.During the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation, for example, in the fateful year of Luther’s 1517 theses, the communion register at Westminster Abby reports that only 18 adults received Easter Communion, as compared to about 5,000+ in recent years. And even before the religious watershed of the French Revolution, in 1764 Voltaire was writing in the first “Encyclopedie” that “children who have never been in a church should visit one for their education, since this may be the last generation in which there is any church in Paris.” He was almost right, and Notre Dame itself was soon desecrated and used for other purposes. But today in Paris there are 150 very substantial Roman Catholic churches, innumerable “struggling” chapels, 43 Protestant and Orthodox churches (all seemingly still dying), 20 mosques and 28 synagogues … to count the places of worship in Paris online.Introduction: The book holds forth the presumption that “all things religious are created and perpetuated by humans,” a conjecture perhaps applying to these false religions under study (“false” being a traditional term for them, but perhaps “alternative religions” would now be preferred). This could be the nub of the issue, since “true” religions believe themselves to have been revealed or “given,” rather than “made by humans” (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, etc.), and the issue is simply whether traditional religions are right about that or not. Certainly the golden calves of modern or ancient cultures do not create themselves, but to presume that Moses imagined his experience on Sinai is a more substantial question, as with Buddha under the Bodhi tree, Krishna confronting Arjuna in the chariot, or Muhammad surprised and terrified by his experience of revelation on Mt. Hira.It is true that “human experiences before these altars contain religious characteristics in common with experiences before more traditional altars.” This is true of all examples in the book, and the illustrations are very helpful in understanding our culture and the need of its people for something very much like religion. As the book says, the false (or alternative) religions “naturally connect with our human desire to locate the religious impulse in something we perceive to be greater than ourselves.”Body and Sex: Centred on the sad story of Marilyn Monroe, this is perhaps least valuable of five good chapters, except that it establishes a format for what follows. It is a given that our society is “sex-crazed” but here we begin to appreciate the religious dimension of the pursuit of physical gratification.Big Business: My favorite chapter only because of my close association with John Kenneth Galbraith (heir to John Maynard Keynes), when he was ill and sometimes wished he had not wasted his life on economics, when he could have become a Presbyterian minister.Entertainment: Brilliant in presenting Walt Disney and the ability of the media to fascinate. This chapter touches on Rudolph Otto where the numinosity of a traditional God as dwelling in mysterium tremendum is acknowledged. Whether traditional religion is still et fascinans or not is up in the air for now, at least until the vacuous nature of false religions becomes apparent to those who “create and perpetuate them” as religions.Politics: The American political system brings the thesis of the book into high relief at present, though things may yet turn out to work well as the system deals with a new government. Time will tell if the new president can Trump the system. The other five categories should be tested as well … they may be similarly verging on inadequacy. The one aspect I thought was missing here is a reference to the pilgrimages to presidential libraries … which are designed to be quite “moving.”Sports: …this is where I thought the writers succeeded best in affirming that “human experiences before these altars contain religious characteristics in common with experiences before more traditional altars.” The sentence which leapt out at me was “… the experience can produce a high, a sense of radical transcendence, of feeling as if one has reached another plane of existence.” The point is that this is just like religion, and religion is like that in Orthodox, Catholic and Pentecostal services, where people experience God rather than just hear about God. The protestant mainstream, represented by these writers, which is right about many other things, has a problem in this particular area at present. The Pentecostal movement has moved forward into that gap for many well-educated young adults and others, but sex, money, entertainment, politics, sports and technology are giving chase to the mainstream, as documented here.Science and Technology: Marshall McLuhan predicted the World Wide Web (and named it) at the University of Toronto thirty years before it was invented. He was also good at the question of “What happens when humans bite the apple or build the tower.” I believe we are compelled to do these things for reasons best explained by Karl Jung in his explanation of the meaning of the doctrine of original sin. In this chapter I especially appreciated the reference to i-this and i-that, possibly eclipsing I-Thou at the moment.In my opinion, this book correctly explicates the nature of “altars” and temples where many people do now worship. It could have perhaps done more about where those needs could be more truly fulfilled, but that could be the next volume. Mark Toulouse, with Juan and Stacy Flood-Thomas have done us a great service. The book is good reading for all interested in the seemingly changing place of religion in the public sphere. It should be required reading in seminary and university courses in the newer discipline of Public Theology.

Good description of the current situation in our society with the six altars examined in great detail by the authors. I read it in a group and it spurned lively discussions.

Powerfully convicting for those of us (all of us?) who find ourselves falling into some form of idolatry at one point or another, //The Altars Where We Worship: The Religious Experience of Popular Culture// by Juan M. Floyd-Thomas, Stacey M Floyd-Thomas, and Mark G. Toulouse exposes six aspects of American culture as altars and religions. The book’s chapters follow these aspects: (1) Body and Sex, (2) Big Business, (3) Entertainment, (4) Politics, (5) Sports, and (6) Science and Technology. Using Ninian Smart’s seven dimensions of religion as outline in //The Religious Experience of Mankind//, the authors demonstrate each of the aforementioned by including supporting data for the following: mythology, doctrine, ethics, ritual, experience, institutions, and materiality.The authors write, “Rather than trying to debunk these altars in any fashion, we believe it is important to recognize that these altars naturally connect with our human desire to locate the religious impulse in something we perceive to be greater than ourselves” (p.7). Just as the apostle Paul did not deny the perceived existence of many gods (1 Cor 8:5), the authors do not want us to deny that these exist and turn a blind eye to those that pull at us (or have completely taken hold, as the case may be). The authors continue:-----We want to make clear that our approach is not interested in trying to define which religious experiences are true and which are not. In the chapters that follow, we examine six aspects of American culture that function essentially as “altars” where Americans gather to worship and produce meaning for their lives. At these altars, Americans reconcile themselves to a “serviceable God” who promises to meet their every desire. By examining the major players, fads, trends, movements, and events associated with each of these altars, each chapter will examine the religious inner workings of the popular cultural phenomenon associated with them. (p.13)-----While their overall approach does not attempt to delineate those experiences as true or not true, the authors certainly make their opinions known when subjects concern their respective theologies. However, regardless of how these are read, it is important to take the book for what it is and as it is intended: describing six aspects of American culture in religious terms. Readers may find themselves convicted by an entire chapter(s), or perhaps just a few tidbits here and there. While it may be easy for some of us to recognize some things as merely practical participation in a thing without a necessary connection to a religious experience, these again should be understood as parts of a whole that support the way each of these greater culture aspects can—indeed do—very much function as altars and religions.There’s a lot of good food for thought here, and I’m sure others will continue to find the same things in other aspects of their respective cultures.*I received a temporary digital copy for review from Westminster John Knox Press via NetGalley.