Jesus in Disneyland: Religion in Postmodern Times

I've been interested in the postmodern for a while now (metanarratives, floating signifiers and all that). But this book has changed the way I look at it. For one thing, David Lyon is less interested in rarified philosophical discussions than he is in investigating the social structures in which we live. He's less interested in the ivory tower discussions on postmodernism than in our shared cultural and social context -- where we actually live. David Lyon is a Christian sociologist who has studied religion for decades, and so he approaches the subject matter as a sympathetic professional. He has also done a lot of work on the idea of postmodernity and information technologies (especially how new technologies enable surveillance). He has a knack for drawing on a wide range of scholarship, and making subtle and complex ideas accessible for the intelligent non-expert. His book on secularization from 1985, The Steeple's Shadow, has helped me more than any other single book in understanding the social dynamics of this secular age (and he covers some of the same ground in Jesus in Disneyland). He made the effect of modernity on religion clearer. In Jesus in Disneyland, he provides the same, useful service here, but in regard to postmodernity rather than moderntiy. He begins his analysis by telling about a Christian event held at Disneyland at Anaheim, California, USA. Some saw an unholy mingling of the holy with the secular, of the Savior with the Mouse. The participants saw it as a way of using a popular venue to reach others for Christ. Who was right? Does using Disneyland trivialize the faith, or make it more accessible to seekers? The answer, which he spends the rest of the book unraveling, is, of course, "Yes"- that is, both are true. Disney becomes a metaphor for the way postmodernity, with its accent on image, consumption, entertainment, globalization, etc. changes the way we understand what is deepest about reality. One of the reasons I trust Lyon to guide me through this complex terrain is his balance. He doesn't play a cheerleader for postmodernity, announcing its arrival with a sort of breathless, quivering excitement (Douglas Ruskoff is the quintessential example, but it's also a pitfall that Brian McLaren falls into quite a few times). Neither does Lyon play the prophet of doom and gloom, announcing the end of all that is good and true and bright (a role I've seen Christian analysts play far too often). Rather, he soberly assesses both the corrosive effects of the new social situation and the potential opportunities. So what is postmodernity? For Lyon, it is a complex social situation where some of the dynamics inherited from modernity are emphasized, some are de-emphasized, and some are distorted beyond recognition. He cites two dynamics as key for understanding postmodernity: the advent of computer information technologies, and consumerism. Computers have made the world smaller, faster. And they have made ident