Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces: Putting God in Place

by Jon Pahl

Overview

Christian historian Sidney Mead has observed: "In America space has played the part that time has played in older cultures of the world." In Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces, Jon Pahl examines this provocative statement in conversation with what he calls the "spatial character" of American theology. He argues that places are always imaginatively constructed by the human beings who inhabit them. Sometimes this spatial theology works to our benefit; other times it poses spiritual risks. What happens when our banal "clothing of the sacred" violates our genuine need for comfort and intimacy? Or when we remember that the fleeting pleasures of a shopping trip or a Disneyland escape are designed to fill someone else's pocket rather than the spiritual emptiness in our own hearts? Pahl develops several ways to "clothe the divine from within the Christian tradition." He introduces a theology of place that reveals aspects of God's character through biblical metaphors drawn from physical spaces, such as the true vine, the rock, and the living water. Accessible and thought provoking, this enlightening book provides a better grasp of our particularly American way of lending religious significance to spaces of all kinds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781725224650
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	12/29/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	69 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jon Pahl teaches theology and is an associate professor of American religious history at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
Jon Pahl is Professor of the History of Christianity in North America at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He has written many articles and reviews and is the author of 'Youth Ministry in Modern America', 'Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces', and 'Paradox Lost: Free Will and Political Liberty in American Culture, 1630-1760'. He lives with his family near Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Part 1 Discovering God 15

1 Does God Wear Clothes? 17

The Fashion System 19

Fashions for God 25

Clothing God and Human Suffering 34

2 Seeking Sacred Places 41

Letting Be and Taking Place 45

Two Films: The Christian Problem 48

Poetics, Politics, and Pilgrims 53

3 The Shopping Mall as "Stairway to Heaven," Leading Nowhere 65

The Religion of the Market 67

Shopping Malls as Sacred Places 70

True Shopping? Pilgrimage to the Mall of America 75

4 Worshiping the Golden Mouse: Walt Disney World and American Civil Religion 83

A Mickey Mouse Mecca 85

The "Magic" Unveiled: Selling Denials of Death 90

"Magic" as Control: The Inevitable Failure of Corporate Reassurance 95

5 Private Possessions: American Domestic Religion and the Suburban Household 103

American Domestic Religion 106

The Demons of Tidiness and Toro 108

The Public Shame of Private Theologies 116

6 God Naked: The Violence of Banality and the Crisis of Affordable Housing in America 121

The Desire to Acquire 123

The Violence of Banality 127

The Crisis of Affordable Housing in America 130

Part 2 God's Clothing 139

7 Living Waters 141

The Waters of Eden 143

The Flood of Justice 150

Clothed with Compassion 156

8 The Light of the World 163

The Energy of Grace 165

The Refiner's Fire 169

The Color of Wisdom 173

9 The Rock of Salvation 181

Permanent Gift 184

The Challenge, Temptation, and Task of Being "Landed" 187

Wonderful Life 192

10 The True Vine 199

The Tree of Life: God as Life-Bearer 203

Fruitful yet Fragile 208

Greening Power and "the Flesh" 213

11 One Body 219

The Anima of Animals 222

Limits and Liberation228

One Body 232

12 Cities of God 239

Cities of Peace and Plenty 245

A "Society of Aliens" and an Abundance of Friends 249

"A Harmonious Unity in Plurality" 253

Epilogue Pilgrims' Process: Salvation by Grace through Place 259

Notes 263

Photo Credits 281

Index (including biblical references) 284

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Well worth reading. . . . As many commentators have noted, American civil religion has become, over the last half-century or so, a do-it-yourself phenomenon as the focus of people's ultimate concern has migrated from congregations gathered on the Sabbath toward places like football stadiums, movie houses, and, as Jon Pahl documents, the shopping mall, the theme park, and the proverbial home in the suburbs. . . . At the heart of this project is what he describes in one salient sentence as 'a justification by grace through the ordinary gifts of place.'"
—Charles Henderson, executive director, ARIL/CrossCurrents

"An honest, challenging look at America's real religion."
—Rebecca Alpert, Temple University

Editorial Reviews

"Well worth reading. . . . As many commentators have noted, American civil religion has become, over the last half-century or so, a do-it-yourself phenomenon as the focus of people's ultimate concern has migrated from congregations gathered on the Sabbath toward places like football stadiums, movie houses, and, as Jon Pahl documents, the shopping mall, the theme park, and the proverbial home in the suburbs. . . . At the heart of this project is what he describes in one salient sentence as 'a justification by grace through the ordinary gifts of place.'"
—Charles Henderson, executive director, ARIL/CrossCurrents

"An honest, challenging look at America's real religion."
—Rebecca Alpert, Temple University

From the Publisher