| By Jon
Pahl
Professor of the History of Christianity in North America
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia
Respondents:
Peter
Childs, University of Gloucestershire
James
Farrell, St. Olaf College
Vincent
Miller, Georgetown University
James
Wellman, University of Washington
In the May issue of the web forum, Jon Pahl links field research
(a visit to the Mall of America) and theoretical inquiry in examining
the place of shopping malls in contemporary culture and the insidious
ways that malls borrow from religious categories in order to simulate
religious experience:
…malls in America today function as sacred places—as disorienting
labyrinths through which consumers are reoriented to the desire
to acquire. The desire itself is not the problem: without such
desire, human beings do not eat, think, love, work, or play. Acquisition
in itself is religiously neutral. The desire to acquire can, however,
quickly veer into violence, and the record of the shopping mall
on this score can at least be interpreted…as somewhat less than
ideal. Still, many senior citizens walk in mall corridors to exercise
because they find malls to be sanctuaries of civility in an otherwise
uncivil society. And in comparison to many traditional sacred
places, malls do keep better hours…
Read the full essay
Read the
invited commentary or respond on the discussion board
While no password is required to read the discussion board, each
user must register with a personal user ID and password in order
to be able to post a comment. Be sure to check out this month's
invited commentary by clicking on the discussion board links throughout
the Religion and Culture Web Forum site.
Web Forum Archive
Subscribe
to be notified of new content
Please contact the Web Forum
Editor with any comments or questions. |
