Take a pilgrimage through Disney's parks, films, and characters, and discover the spiritual world at work inside its most enduring stories
Disney and Religion: A Small Spiritual World, After All is the first edited volume to examine Disney's theme parks and films using the tools of religious studies. From Hong Kong Disneyland to Walt Disney's birthplace in Chicago, the scholars in this volume journey across the globe drawing insights from spiritual figures as diverse as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Augustine of Hippo. This book explores questions of devotion, ritual, pilgrimage, and meaning-making at the border where lived religion meets consumer culture:
- Can fireworks shows be sites of conversion?
- Does drinking "around the world" at Epcot reframe how we sample world religions?
- Is a return trip to a Disney Vacation Club resort a pilgrimage?
- What do Disney films borrow from theology, myth, and moral instruction?
- Can admiration and critique of the Magic Kingdom coexist in a single response?
Written by scholars who have brought Disney into their own undergraduate classrooms, this volume pairs pedagogical insight with theoretical framing for courses in religious studies, religion and popular culture, and American studies, and for readers in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and Disney studies. Whether you're a Disney fan or a Disney skeptic, Disney and Religion opens a whole new world of frameworks for understanding the spiritual dimensions of the Disney phenomenon.