No Sympathy for the Devil
Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
In this cultural history of evangelical Christianity and popular music, David Stowe demonstrates how mainstream rock of the 1960s and 1970s has influenced conservative evangelical Christianity through the development of Christian pop music. The chart-topping, spiritually inflected music created a space in popular culture for talk of Jesus, God, and Christianity, thus lessening for baby boomers and their children the stigma associated with religion while helping to fill churches and create new modes of worship. Stowe shows how evangelicals' increasing acceptance of Christian pop music ultimately has reinforced a variety of conservative cultural, economic, theological, and political messages.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Few would deny the social and political power that evangelical Christianity wields in the United States. But still fewer would have guessed that the genesis of this surge of influence was so closely tied to rock and roll music. Stowe, professor of English and religious studies at Michigan State University, offers a serious and impressive examination of how rock and roll music, once derided as evil by conservative Christians, was slowly integrated into their religious agenda. The advent of Christian rock, with roots in the Jesus Movement of the 1960s, provided a space within popular culture for Christian discourse. Such high-profile mainstream musicians as Bob Dylan, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye helped cement an evangelical influence on popular culture with their highly publicized Christian conversion stories and song lyrics infused with religion. The author argues persuasively that Christian rock helped moor baby boomer Christians to their evangelical roots by making their religion more individualistic and less judgmental. Anyone even remotely interested in American or religious studies will be captivated by this study.
