Imagining the Sacred in Popular Culture

This book explores central issues of religion in an age of globalization, questioning how religion speaks to us in contemporary society, and how representations of religion impact in popular culture. Focusing on Japanese popular culture, MacWilliams examines Japanese comic books in particular: Japanese manga or 'comic books' often explicitly deal with religion, and commercially published manga account for over 40% of total number of books and magazines published in Japan. The magic of manga lies in their potential 'to dramatise and exaggerate information and simplify a complex reality', and just like the religious iconography of an earlier age, modern manga offer a powerful visual theology of sacred reality for their audience. What 'imagined selves and worlds' do manga construct? What are some of the important visual theologies that they can convey? These are some of the questions explored in this book. Historians of religion have largely ignored popular culture as a medium of religious experience and expression; yet by neglecting popular genres, such as Japanese manga, they ignore one of the principal ways people day wrestle with contemporary moral and spiritual issues. This book redresses this neglected area, raising profound religious and moral issues that are immediately relevant for those exploring Japanese religion, media and cultural studies, and anyone trying to imagine the sacred today.