The American Spiritual Culture: And the Invention of Jazz, Football, and the Movies

by William Dean

Overview

Americans are perhaps the most openly and energetically religious of all the peoples among the developed nations. Americans are religious in all the obvious ways, belonging to churches, synagogues and mosques as well as nurturing private spiritualities. But they are religious also in public ways, aiming to find a standard large enough to frame their common life and to judge them and their country.In this book, now in paperback, William Dean describes the spiritual culture that is grounded in the emerging American story. He also explores the concept of God (or the "Ultimate") that is central to that story - a concept that is reflected in contemporary American culture, including popular culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826418968
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/22/2006
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

William Dean is Professor of Constructive Theology Emeritus at Iliff School of Theology. He is the author of 5 books and coeditor of another. His previous book, The Religious Critic in American Culture, won an AAR Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in 1995.

Table of Contents

Part I: God the Opaque1. Skepticism2. Displaced People3. Pragmatism4. MysteryPart II: America the Invisible5. Jazz6. Football7. MoviesConclusion: The Irony of Atheism

Editorial Reviews

"This book is an appropriate text for graduate and undergraduate courses in religion and culture, serving not as an introductory text outlining various methodologies but as an engaging exploration of one approach." "Religious Studies Review"

"The reader should not assume that this book will be light reading because its title speaks of jazz, football, and the movies: it is instead a serious study of American culture from a spiritual or theological point of view. Dean (Iliff School of Theology, The Religious Critic in American Culture) aruges that culture of Ameica is religious not just because so many Americans belong to churches, synagogues, temples, or mosques but also because Americans look for some standard greater than themselves by which to love adn to judge their nation. In the second part, he discusses three creations of American culture-jazz, football, the movies-and how it took a culture like America's to give birth to these phenomena. America is a new country lacking old traditions, so Americans had to improvise; a hallmark of jazz is improvisation. Americans violently took over a wilderness; football is very much organzied violence. Without Old World traditions, Americans found new ones in the movies, cowboys, war heroes, gangsters, and more. There is much depth in this engaging, well-written book. Highly recommended." Library Journal

"Dean contributes some valuable insights and new material to the discussion [of the nation's character]"
Commonweal, 5/23/03

"Who is God and what has God to do with Americans? Hard questions. But William Dean has explored them with insight and originality, opening up ways of thinking that had seemed closed and looking for light in places most scholars of religion would never look: jazz, football, and the movies. This is an intensely readable book that should reach a large audience of scholars and lay people alike."
Robert Bellah, Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley and coauthor of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society.

"A deeply challenging and thought-provoking book that ought to have considerable impact on the academic study of spirituality (and indeed on much of the field of religious studies)....Dean has much to say to the many academics and intellectual;s who currently sense that they are cut off from much of con temporary American sensibilities, and are unable to grasp why the perspectives most persuasive within universities do no resonate with the majority of the population." "Spiritus"

"Dean's approach is on the right track in two ways. Cultural practices as deeply engrained as football film and jazz are not fully grasped if we see them only as secular entertainments. They are capable of expressing yearnings for a more vital life.The second way that Dean's perspective strikes me as promising is in his insistence that any viable common culture needs a spiritual basis. Dean should be praised for raising big questions that others avoid."-Christian Century

"The study of the nation's character is a genre of American writing older than the nation itself, tracing its origins at least as far back as Crevecoeur's "Letters from an American Farmer." In the latest renewal of this tradition, theologian William Dean argues that Americans share a common spiritual culture 'that is sometimes more vividly expressed through secular activities such as jazz, football, and the movies than through the overtly sacred activities of organized religion.'" "Commonweal"

"There is much depth in this engaging, well-written book. Highly recommended." "Library Journal"

"This book offers an interesting intellectual sojourn..." -Choice

"This is an intensely readable book that should reach a large audience of scholars and lay people alike." Robert Bellah

"William Dean's splendid meditation on the spiritual character of American society is a distinctive and important contribution to the theology of culture."

From the Publisher

What is a "Spiritual Culture?" And if a nation can have one, what does America's look like? These are the questions at the heart of the latest offering from Dean, a professor at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Dean argues that the centrally defining characteristic of Americans is that they are an immigrant people, culturally displaced. The first part of the book then suggests what this means for an "American spiritual culture," while the second forays into three American popular arts-jazz, football and the movies. Early on, Dean concedes that the American spiritual culture is difficult to define. It is "so inchoate that it is barely susceptible to discussion in formal theological and philosophical categories." Therefore, Dean says, he needs to "back into" the definition. The problem is that as he's backing in, neither he nor we see where he's going. The argument stumbles along, redefining term after term in new-hewn jargon (since formal categories-i.e., standard definitions-don't work). For example: "Faith is the communal sensitivity or sensibility that discerns the sacred convention as it is manifest in history." Along the way, he quotes extensively from a wide range of sources. The erudition is impressive, but the quotes are not always helpful and are often enough misused that one doubts his use of the others. Though not for general readership, this is fine for a specialized audience-those with deep background in the social sciences and constructive theology. And much patience. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

The reader should not assume that this book will be light reading because its title speaks of jazz, football, and the movies; it is instead a serious study of American culture from a spiritual or theological point of view. Dean (Iliff Sch. of Theology; The Religious Critic in American Culture) argues that the culture of America is religious not just because so many Americans belong to churches, synagogues, temples, or mosques but also because Americans look for some standard greater than themselves by which to live and to judge their nation. In the second part, he discusses three creations of American culture-jazz, football, the movies-and how it took a culture like America's to give birth to these phenomena. America is a new country lacking old traditions, so Americans had to improvise; a hallmark of jazz is improvisation. Americans violently took over a wilderness; football is very much organized violence. Without Old World traditions, Americans found new ones in the movies, cowboys, war heroes, gangsters, and more. There is much depth in this engaging, well-written book. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries alike.-John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Lib., New York Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal