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9781554588435

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“Taylor’s new exciting volume gets at the heart of where most Westerners are engaging religious and spiritual life today: the realm of popular culture. The book’s contributors lead us on a compelling journey through a complex cultural ecology of religion, politics, fan forums, ethics, ecotopian promise, corporate violence, and troubling notions of the ‘native.’ At the end, we emerge with an altered eye, appreciating the power of narrative brought alive through the transformative semiotics of visual culture. Accessible for the uninitiated and yet interesting to the specialist, Avatar and Nature Spirituality is just one of a new generation of books that are shifting the very way we conceive of religion. As traditional congregational studies gather dust, vanguard scholarship that attends to the global ‘congregation’ of mass culture will bring the study of religion into a new era, and this volume contributes to that important turn.” - Sarah McFarland Taylor, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Environmental Policy and Culture, Northwestern University

Taylor's new exciting volume gets at the heart of where most Westerners are engaging religious and spiritual life today: the realm of popular culture. The book's contributors lead us on a compelling journey through a complex cultural ecology of religion, politics, fan forums, ethics, ecotopian promise, corporate violence, and troubling notions of the 'native.' At the end, we emerge with an altered eye, appreciating the power of narrative brought alive through the transformative semiotics of visual culture. Accessible for the uninitiated and yet interesting to the specialist, 'Avatar and Nature Spirituality' is just one of a new generation of books that are shifting the very way we conceive of religion. As traditional congregational studies gather dust, vanguard scholarship that attends to the global 'congregation' of mass culture will bring the study of religion into a new era, and this volume contributes to that important turn. -- Sarah McFarland Taylor, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Environmental Policy and Culture, Northwestern University Taylor's collection is first-rate.... The contributors assembled in Avatar and Nature Spirituality are knowledgeable, well-researched, and carefully reasoned. Each furthers the stated editorial goal of cross-disciplinary appraisal. The scholarship includes work in religious and mythological studies, philology, and musicology, geography and environmental studies, and sociology and film studies. On the path of civil evolution towards a stable climate and a recovered planet, Avatar is a cultural, spiritual, and artistic milestone, and Avatar and Nature Spirituality is a highly recommended scholarly companion. -- Martin SchAnfeld, University of South Florida -- ID: International Dialogue

Author Information

Bron Taylor is a professor at the University of Florida and a fellow of the Rachel Carson Center in Munich. His books include Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (2010), and he is the editor of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (2005) and the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. His website is www.brontaylor.com.

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