Page - 194 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

194 | Anna-Katharina Höpflinger www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 193–196 Forbes.1 Forbes distinguished four possible perspectives on relationships be- tween popular culture and religion: religion in popular culture, popular cul- ture in religion, popular culture as religion, religion and popular culture in dialogue. In addition, the editors rightly emphasise the contextuality of meth- odologies, concepts and categories as well as the cross-disciplinary questions that the handbook poses. For example, they raise the important issue of an appropriate definition of “religion” for this field of research and ask to what extent the term “sacred” is more open than “religious”: “the sacred […] con- cerns those ideas which exert a profound moral claim over people’s lives” (7). Part I, “The Study of Religion and Popular Music: Theoretical Perspectives, Methodologies and Issues”, brings together five contributions that address central theoretical, methodological or conceptual issues in religion and pop- ular music: ethnography (Andy Bennett), emotion and meaning (Christopher Partridge), protest (Ian Peddie), censorship (Michael Drewett) and feminism and gender (Alison Stone). This part of the book develops central processes in the interrelation between religion and popular music across genres and reli- gious traditions. These articles emphasise the diverse social meaning-making processes of popular music and reflect an academic view. It is particularly pos- itive that the contributions in this part highlight the transgressiveness of popu- lar music and religion: both popular music and religion are subject to process- es of negotiation, for example regarding censorship (chapter 4). Popular music (as well as religion) can reflect and legitimise dominant ideas – as discussed by Stone (chapter 5) – but also challenge them. And sometimes both processes happen at the same time. The contributions in Part I help frame the following articles and provide reference points across the other parts of the book. Part II, “Religious Perspectives”, focuses on the interrelation between pop- ular music and religious traditions, specifically Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Japanese religion, Chinese religion, Paganism, Occultism and Caribbean religions (in this order). The individual contributions and their insights are fascinating. A close look at individual religious traditions shows concisely how popular music can emerge in religious traditions, how it can be used by religions to convey worldviews and to evoke emotions, how it is shaped by religious ideas and how certain religious symbols, motifs and nar- ratives are popularised through music and, in part, received again and again. A point to ponder in relation to this part of the book, however: what we usually subsume under “popular music” originated in the “Western” cultural 1 Forbes 2000.