Overview

The American landscape is host to numerous works of religious architecture, sometimes questionable in taste and large, if not titanic, in scale. In her lively study of satire and religious architecture, Margaret Grubiak challenges how we typically view such sites by shifting the focus from believers to doubters, and from producers to consumers. Grubiak considers an array of sacred architectural constructions—from ""Touchdown Jesus"" at the University of Notre Dame to The Wizard of Oz Mormon temple outside Washington D.C. to the renamed ""Gumby Jesus"" of the Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and how they are confronted by the doubt and dismissiveness articulated by the more skeptical of their viewers. These responses of doubt activate our religious built environment in ways unanticipated but illuminating, asking us, at times forcefully, to consider and clarify what it is we believe. Opening up new avenues of thinking about how people deal with theological questions in the vernacular, Grubiak's book shows how religious doubt is made manifest in the humorous, satirical, blasphemous, and popular culture responses to religious architecture and image in modern America.

Full Product Details

9780813943749

Table of Contents

Reviews

"Monumental Jesus: Landscapes of Faith and Doubt in Modern America is a fascinating exploration of some of the most iconic American Christian landmarks of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries including Notre Dame's famous, ""Touchdown Jesus,"" Answers in Genesis's Creation Museum and Ark Experience, and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's now defunct Christian amusement park, Heritage USA. -- ""American Catholic Studies"" Elegant, original, and intellectually rigorous, Monumental Jesus is a timely contribution to the field of modern religious architectural history. --Joseph M. Siry, Wesleyan University, author of Beth Sholom Synagogue: Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture Grubiak's accessible writing style serves her topic well. She engages the ""monumental"" depictions of Jesus that occupy significant architectural landmarks in the US landscape, from the campuses of the University of Notre Dame and Oral Roberts University to theme parks in Middle America and the various Christian pavilions at the 1964 World's Fair.... Central of her study is the question of how specific Christian content operates with meaning and value in the postsecular culture of 21st-century America. -- ""CHOICE"""

Elegant, original, and intellectually rigorous, Monumental Jesus is a timely contribution to the field of modern religious architectural history. --Joseph M. Siry, Wesleyan University, author of Beth Sholom Synagogue: Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture

Elegant, original, and intellectually rigorous, Monumental Jesus is a timely contribution to the field of modern religious architectural history. --Joseph M. Siry, Wesleyan University, author of Beth Sholom Synagogue: Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture

Author Information

Margaret M. Grubiak is Associate Professor of Architectural History at Villanova University and the author of White Elephants on Campus: The Decline of the University Chapel in America, 1920–1960.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available