The Faithful Citizen: Popular Christian Media and Gendered Civic Identities

by Kristy Maddux

Overview

For decades, American popular media have instructed audiences about their roles and significance in the public sphere. In The Faithful Citizen, rhetorical critic Kristy Maddux argues that popular Christian media not only communicate avenues for civic engagement but do so in profoundly gendered terms. Her detailed interrogation of popular Christian movies, books, and television shows—the Left Behind series, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Amazing Grace, 7th Heaven, and the blockbuster The Da Vinci Code—exposes five competing models of how Christians should behave in the civic sphere as their gendered selves. What emerges is a typology that insightfully reveals how these varying faith-based models of engagement uniquely shape public discourse and influence the larger picture of contemporary politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602584884
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2011
Series:	Studies in Rhetoric & Religion
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	285
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Kristy Maddux is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. Her work has been published by many journals, including Rhetoric&Public Affairs, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Philosophy&Rhetoric, Feminist Media Studies, and Women's Studies in Communication. She lives in the greater Washington, D.C., area.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Christian Media, Gender, and Civic Participation

2. Genteel Masculinity, the Prophetic Posture, and Legislative Politics

Amazing Grace

3. Violence, Divine Sanction, and Submissive Femininity

The Passion of the Christ

4. Brutish Masculinity and the War against Evil

Left Behind

5. Femininity and Secular Salvation in Social Welfare

7th Heaven

6. Biology, Heterosexuality, and the Privatization of Faithfulness

The Da Vinci Code

7. The Limits and Possibilities of Faith-Based Civic Participation

References

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

A sophisticated and provocative rhetorical critique. From careful analyses of The Passion of the Christ to The Da Vinci Code, Maddux builds an impressive case that religious faith, even in the context of media entertainment, necessarily informs politics and civic life. She nimbly navigates the two combustible themes of religion and gender without succumbing to predictable partisanship. Formidable topic. Fascinating critique.

Susan Schultz Huxman

A sophisticated and provocative rhetorical critique. From careful analyses of The Passion of the Christ to The Da Vinci Code, Maddux builds an impressive case that religious faith, even in the context of media entertainment, necessarily informs politics and civic life. She nimbly navigates the two combustible themes of religion and gender without succumbing to predictable partisanship. Formidable topic. Fascinating critique.

Editorial Reviews

The historical, political, social, and theoretical contexts [Maddux] intertwines throughout each chapter connect material and discursive realities in ways that either capture important debates or speak back to them in important ways. And Maddux cogently depicts how ideas about Christian civic participation, gender, and popular media are woven together to create a story about what kinds of bodies and behaviours make someone a true 'citizen.'

Amanda Rossie and Popular Culture

[Maddux] presents an interesting reading of contemporary culture and offers a methodology for a more careful consideration of the interaction between media and religion.

Communication Research Trends - Paul A. Soukup

Maddux is a clear writer doing bread-and-butter analysis of important works that obviously have had an influence on public life.

Rhetoric Review - Brian Jackson

The historical, political, social, and theoretical contexts [Maddux] intertwines throughout each chapter connect material and discursive realities in ways that either capture important debates or speak back to them in important ways. And Maddux cogently depicts how ideas about Christian civic participation, gender, and popular media are woven together to create a story about what kinds of bodies and behaviours make someone a true ‘citizen.’

Journal of Religion and Popular Culture - Amanda Rossie