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The origins of our postsecular present, revealed in a vivid, groundbreaking account of the moment when popular culture became the site of religious conflict.
The 1980s are usually seen as a slick, shrill decade. The Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers urged ""Death to America""; Ronald Reagan was in the White House, backed by the Moral Majority; John Paul II was asserting Catholic traditionalism and denouncing homosexuality, as were the televangelists on cable TV. And yet ""crypto-religious"" artists pushed back against the spirit of the age, venturing into vexed areas where politicians and clergy were loath to go—and anticipating the postsecular age we are living in today.
That is the story Paul Elie tells in this enthralling group portrait. Here's Leonard Cohen writing ""Hallelujah"" in a Times Square hotel room; Andy Warhol adapting Leonardo's The Last Supper in response to the AIDS crisis; Prince making the cross and altar into ""signs of the times."" Through Toni Morrison the spirits of the enslaved speak from the grave; Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen deepen the tent-revival intensity of their work; U2, Morrissey, and Sinéad O'Connor give voice to the anguish of young people who were raised religious; Wim Wenders offers an angel's-eye view of Berlin. And Martin Scorsese overcomes fundamentalist opposition to make The Last Temptation of Christ—a struggle that anticipates Salman Rushdie's struggle with Islam in The Satanic Verses.
The 1980s are usually seen as a slick, shrill decade. The Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers urged ""Death to America""; Ronald Reagan was in the White House, backed by the Moral Majority; John Paul II was asserting Catholic traditionalism and denouncing homosexuality, as were the televangelists on cable TV. And yet ""crypto-religious"" artists pushed back against the spirit of the age, venturing into vexed areas where politicians and clergy were loath to go—and anticipating the postsecular age we are living in today.
That is the story Paul Elie tells in this enthralling group portrait. Here's Leonard Cohen writing ""Hallelujah"" in a Times Square hotel room; Andy Warhol adapting Leonardo's The Last Supper in response to the AIDS crisis; Prince making the cross and altar into ""signs of the times."" Through Toni Morrison the spirits of the enslaved speak from the grave; Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen deepen the tent-revival intensity of their work; U2, Morrissey, and Sinéad O'Connor give voice to the anguish of young people who were raised religious; Wim Wenders offers an angel's-eye view of Berlin. And Martin Scorsese overcomes fundamentalist opposition to make The Last Temptation of Christ—a struggle that anticipates Salman Rushdie's struggle with Islam in The Satanic Verses.
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Reviews
"Fascinating [and] engrossing . . . Elie persuasively chronicles the way writers, musicians and artists leveraged religious themes and responded to attacks . . . Elie's book feels delightfully comprehensive, shifting from big exemplars of his themes to small representatives of crypto-religiosity."
Mark Athitakis, The Washington Post
"Elie's synthesis of the era is virtuosic and revelatory. And his mini-narratives are set pieces, laid out with such intricate detail that the book, at times, feels as finely chiseled as a work carved from Carrara marble."
David Friend, Vanity Fair