Making the American Religious Fringe: Exotics, Subversives, and Journalists, 1955-1993

In an examination of religion coverage in Time, Newsweek, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Ebony, Christianity Today, National Review, and other news and special interest magazines, Sean McCloud combines religious history and social theory to analyze how and why mass-market magazines depicted religions as "mainstream" or "fringe" in the post-World War II United States. McCloud argues that in assuming an American mainstream that was white, middle class, and religiously liberal, journalists in the largest magazines, under the guise of objective reporting, offered a spiritual apologetics for the dominant social order.

McCloud analyzes articles on a wide range of religious movements from the 1950s through the early 1990s, including Pentecostalism, the Nation of Islam, California cults, the Jesus movement, South Asian gurus, and occult spirituality. He shows that, in portraying certain beliefs as "fringe," magazines evoked long-standing debates in American religious history about emotional versus rational religion, exotic versus familiar spirituality, and normal versus abnormal levels of piety. He also traces the shifting line between mainstream and fringe, showing how such boundary shifts coincided with larger changes in society, culture, and the magazine industry. McCloud's astute analysis helps us understand both broad conceptions of religion in the United States and the role of mass media in American society.

Author: Sean McCloud
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 03/01/2004
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.54h x 5.56w x 0.78d
ISBN: 9780807854969

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/19/2004 pg. 72
Choice 10/01/2004 pg. 311

About the Author
Sean McCloud is assistant professor of religion and modern culture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.