Popcultured: Thinking Christianly about style, media
and entertainment
Steve Turner
IVP £10.99
(978-1-84474-905-8)
Church Times Bookshop £9.90 (Use code CT604
)
STEVE TURNER knows pop culture from the inside. As a rock
journalist, he has written books on the likes of U2, Eric Clapton,
Marvin Gaye, and Johnny Cash, and has interviewed countless
celebrities in the national press, from John Lennon to the
Simpsons creator, Matt Groening. Turner is also a
believer, concerned with encouraging a credible Christian witness
in the world of music and the arts. This found clearest expression
in his last book, Imagine: A vision for Christians in the
arts (IVP).
Now Turner shifts his focus from the producers and shapers of
contemporary culture to its consumers. In particular, he writes for
young Christians who are keen to assess popular culture from the
perspective of their faith. An early chapter on the Bible and
culture includes a discussion of how the apostle Paul related to
the culture and arts of his day. It also includes the illuminating
point (obvious once you think about it) that pop culture as we know
it did not exist for most of human history, as it was made possible
only by electricity.
Then follow chapters on cinema, journalism, celebrity culture,
fashion, advertising, and other key aspects of pop culture. Turner
gives a brief history of the medium in question, and then offers an
ethical critique and pointers towards what a Christian response
might look like. He even-handedly highlights much that is good in
pop culture, as well as the excesses and trivialities. He reserves
particular criticism for Christian film-makers and songwriters who
are fuelled more by propagandistic zeal than a proper understanding
of their artistic medium, and for those Christians who shun popular
culture entirely.
On this latter point, Turner's case would have been helped
significantly by a survey of historical Christian responses to
popular culture. Notably absent is any discussion of the debate
surrounding Niebuhr's seminal Christ and Culture, with its
theories of why believers have been so polarised in their responses
to the culture of their day. Turner's Evangelical stance is clear
in his laudable desire to hold pop culture in one hand and the
Bible in the other. But he never really engages with the equally
intriguing question what it is about people's theology of culture
which makes one person condemn all pop music as a tool of the
devil, and another scream gutteral vocals in a death-metal band,
both in the name of Jesus.
The Revd Mike Starkey is Tutor at the Church Army College in
Sheffield, and a freelance writer.