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Between Sacred & Profane: Researching Religion & Popular Culture

Author:	Gordon Lynch (Editor)
Published By:	I B Tauris (London)
Pages:	185
Price:	£16.99
ISBN:	978 1 84511 540

Reviewed by Luke Penkett.

As a priest interested in understanding why people think, say and do what they do, and as a monk praying for a world in which spirituality seems to be replacing religion, Between Sacred and Profane has provided me with an honest overview of the interface between religion, media and popular culture.

The book is edited by Gordon Lynch, Professor in the Sociology of Religion at Birkbeck, University of London. He is an experienced and deservedly well-known authority on the developing and much-needed interdisciplinary study of religion and contemporary culture.

He has an outstanding team of leading writers in the field who address a wide range of questions, ranging from the rationale for engaging in such research through looking at the recent past to posing questions for future discussion.

At a time of tremendous change, when reflection on the church’s place in society can still prove to be elitist for those on the outside, as well as the inside, this book offers plenty of insights and enables the reader to engage critically and in an informed way with some of the issues arising from a study of the relationship between religion and society. And if this leads to greater understanding on both sides, it will have done its job.