American Spiritual Culture

William Dean is Professor of Constructive Theology Emeritus at Iliff School of Theology. He is the author of 5 books and coeditor of another. His previous book, The Religious Critic in American Culture, won an AAR Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in 1995.

"'Dean's approach is on the right track in two ways. Cultural practices as deeply engrained as football film and jazz are not fully grasped if we see them only as secular entertainments. They are capable of expressing yearnings for a more vital life. The second way that Dean's perspective strikes me as promising is in his insistence that any viable common culture needs a spiritual basis. Dean should be praised for raising big questions that others avoid.' Christian Century 'Who is God and what has God to do with Americans? Hard questions. But William Dean has explored them with insight and originality, opening up ways of thinking that had seemed closed and looking for light in places most scholars of religion would never look: jazz, football, and the movies. This is an intensely readable book that should reach a large audience of scholars and lay people alike.' Robert Bellah, Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley and co-author of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society. 'The reader should not assume that this book will be light reading because its title speaks of jazz, football, and the movies: it is instead a serious study of American culture from a spiritual or theological point of view. Dean (Iliff School of Theology, The Religious Critic in American Culture) argues that culture of America is religious not just because so many Americans belong to churches, synagogues, temples, or mosques but also because Americans look for some standard greater than themselves by which to love and to judge their nation. In the second part, he discusses three creations of American culture-jazz, football, the movies-and how it took a culture like America's to give birth to these phenomena. America is a new country lacking old traditions, so Americans had to improvise; a hallmark of jazz is improvisation. Americans violently took over a wilderness; football is very much organized violence. Without Old World traditions, Americans found new ones in the movies, cowboys, war heroes, gangsters, and more. There is much depth in this engaging, well-written book. Highly recommended.' Library Journal 'This book is an appropriate text for graduate and undergraduate courses in religion and culture, serving not as an introductory text outlining various methodologies but as an engaging exploration of one approach.' Russell W. Dalton, Religious Studies R 'This book offers an interesting intellectual sojourn...' Choice 'The study of the nation's character is a genre of American writing older than the nation itself, tracing its origins at least as far back as Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer. In the latest renewal of this tradition, theologian William Dean argues that Americans share a common spiritual culture 'that is sometimes more vividly expressed through secular activities such as jazz, football, and the movies than through the overtly sacred activities of organized religion.' Commonweal"

• Part I: God the Opaque; 1. Skepticism; 2. Displaced People; 3. Pragmatism; 4. Mystery; Part II: America the Invisible; 5. Jazz; 6. Football; 7. Movies; Conclusion: The Irony of Atheism.