Page - 146 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/02

146 | Stefanie Knauss www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 143–148 memorials, by contrast, underlines the differences between the ways in which the Puritan antecedents to civil religion established sacred space as hierarchical, rooted in an ahistorical view of time and theocratic understandings of politics and power, and how this happens in the monuments of (democratic, nation- al, historically situated) civil religion, such as the National Mall in Washington D.C. Only gradually did the Mall (and with it, Washington D.C.) develop into the central symbol of the nation, which previously had been symbolized primarily through its vast natural spaces. Yet in the second half of the 20th century, the symbol of national unity became one of separation and protest, exposing “the violence inextricably linked to the nation’s consolidation” (390). Maya Lin’s Vi- etnam Veterans Memorial (1982) marks the beginning of a new form of monu- ments to civil religion that no longer try to evoke a mythical national unity, but instead focus on individual, emotional experience through horizontal space and time, a trend that is further reinforced in the decentralization and proliferation of memorials across the nation. The last section finally shifts attention to the “profound symbiotic relation- ship” between religious traditions and institutions and popular culture (397), which leaves both changed. With chapters (arranged in alphabetical order) on Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, Con- temporary Paganism and Protestantism, this section comprises a range of tradi- tions “that have been portrayed more often in popular culture, especially in the West” (3). Yet the chapters in this section are even more specifically focused on North American popular culture (occasionally including references to the United Kingdom or to the impact of Indian media on the Hindu diaspora in the United States). A similar bias toward North American media is also noticeable in chapters in the other sections, and while I – reading this Companion as a Ger- man living in the United States – certainly agree that it is impossible to cover everything everywhere, I am somewhat disturbed by the implicit identification of “popular culture” with “American culture”. Chapters on, for example, the representation of Judaism would have looked vastly different if they had been written with regard to German popular culture. Or how about the representa- tion of Islam in popular culture in North Africa? While American popular culture is certainly known and “popular” beyond the United States, it is by no means the only form of popular culture that religion(s) encounter(s). Maybe it would have been more honest to call the volume “Religion and American Popular Cul- ture”, then, adding to the chapter on “Definitions” a due reflection on what “American” means, given the heterogeneity and global distribution of its popu- lar culture. In addition, chapters in this section seem to return to a somewhat limited understanding of popular culture as audio-visual, electronic media (as discussed in the first section), with little attention to material culture or space (sections two and three). An exception is provided in Rodger M. Payne’s chap-