Religion in Plain View - by Sally M Promey (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Religion is ever-present in American public life. Displays of religion-such as bumper stickers or Jesus fish on cars, anti-abortion billboards with Bible verses, and the Star of David on Jewish deli signage-saturate public spaces and are so ubiquitous that they constitute something like visual background noise. In Religion in Plain View, Sally M. Promey analyzes the ways religion makes itself visible and considers the key histories that shaped these modes of display. Such displays, Promey insists, are not accidental; rather, the public display of religion in the United States is a strategic site of complex and individuated religious practices. Specifically, Promey reveals these displays to be a Protestant technology of white nation formation in three key ways: the close link between Christianity's mandate to evangelize and capitalism's promotional idiom of advertising; Anglo-Protestant Christians' deliberate colonization, extirpation, and dispossession of territories occupied by Native Americans, Africans, Hawaiians, and other marginalized peoples; and the promotion of a distinctly white Protestant vision of the nation's history and religious complexion. Religion in Plain View is a revelatory and nuanced picture of the ways in which religion claims public space and, in so doing, informs the distribution of power in the US and secures deeply ingrained assumptions about the proper shape of American religion and life"--

Book Synopsis

A revelatory critique of public display in the United States.

In Religion in Plain View, Sally M. Promey analyzes religion's visible saturation of American public space and the histories that shaped this exhibitionary aesthetics. In street art, vehicle décor, signs, monuments, architecture, zoning policy, and more, Promey exposes American display's merger of evangelicalism, capitalism, and imperialism. From this convergence, display materializes a distinctly American drive to advertise, claim territory, invalidate competitors, and fabricate a tractable national heritage. Charting this aesthetics' strategic work as a Protestant technology of White nation formation, Religion in Plain View offers a dynamic critique of the ways public display perpetuates deeply ingrained assumptions about the proper shape of life and land in the United States.

Review Quotes

"This richly illustrated and lucidly written book is probably one of the most important works on American religion published in the last several years."--A. W. Klink "Choice Connect"

"An important work for students of sociology of place and religion."-- "Library Journal"

"An ambitious exploration of the public nature of religion in America. Locating an overlap between Christianity and capitalism . . . Promey's study of the ways in which power is mediated via material culture fascinates."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Religion in Plain View is nothing short of astonishing in its geographical breadth and critical depth. Promey, one of our most distinguished historians of American visual and religious cultures, brings a rare combination of scholarly erudition and everyday observation to this timely analysis of the ways that religious belief, often coupled with commercial and political interests, manifests across the United States."--Wendy Bellion, University of Delaware

"An engaging and important book, Religion in Plain View begins with a deceptively simple question: What do Americans see every day as they move through their towns and cities? With a deft hand, Promey takes readers with her on a memorable and striking visual journey across the United States."--Hillary Kaell, McGill University

"Brimming with theoretical insights, this book reveals the stakes of contests over religious and political display. Promey locates sensory culture at the center of White Protestantism's 'material establishment' and, through a groundbreaking analysis of American religion, provides readers with the tools to analyze the messages of religious 'show and tell.'"--Judith Weisenfeld, Princeton University

"In this tour de force, Promey shows how public displays of religion have, by design, shaped us to experience and accept particular constructions of 'America, the beautiful.' In massive gatherings and tiny bumper stickers, Promey unveils the testimonial aesthetics, material establishment, and heritage fabrication of American public display. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of monuments and space."--Lerone Martin, Stanford University

About the Author

Sally M. Promey is professor of American studies and religious studies as well as the Caroline Washburn Professor of Religion and Visual Culture at Yale University, where she directs the Center for the Study of Material and Visual Cultures of Religion. She is the author or editor of several books, most recently Sensational Religion: Sensory Cultures in Material Practice.