God on Broadway
eBook - ePub

God on Broadway

Revealing the Sacred in the Spectacle

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

God on Broadway

Revealing the Sacred in the Spectacle

About this book

What has Broadway to do with Jerusalem? God on Broadway explores the theological questions cracked open by commercial theatre. It shows how the Great White Way--that apex of tourist consumerism and a synonym for the business of spectacle--can be a place for theophany and critical reflection on religion. God is ready to be part of the show. God takes the stage as the clowning Jesus Christ of Godspell and in the comedian of An Act of God; God seems to overhear Tevye's soliloquy-prayers from the balcony; God gets invoked in Backstage traditions and superstitions, in the booming voice of a director calling cues with a "god mic" and in the mystifying rules about a Scottish King's name. Broadway has a God "waiting in the wings."

Broadway shows operate in wider culture as a secular catechist. They instruct us about God outside the walls of an institutional church. God on Broadway sits out in the house--where an audience of paying customers and strangers transform into co-players--and shows how God is revealed in the small choices of a playwright and in the flashy song-and-dance numbers of musicals.

Looking for God "on Broadway" is a way of doing theology, a method for interpreting and talking about God for and with a mixed, public, and inclusive audience. A commercial theology performson Broadway. This book invites theatre-lovers and theologians to play along.

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Yes, you can access God on Broadway by Charles A. Gillespie in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Theatre History & Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Praise for God on Broadway
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Introduction
  8. 1. Broadway’s Commercial Theology
  9. 2. Paying Attention to Spectacle and Revelation
  10. 3. Playing with Dangerous Memories
  11. In-One: On Instrumentalizing
  12. 4. Tradition and Traditions
  13. In-One: On Blasphemy
  14. 5. Angels and America and Apocalypse
  15. 6. Staging Sacramental Spectacles
  16. 7. Variations on a Theme
  17. Acknowledgments: Curtain Call
  18. Bibliography
  19. Notes
  20. Index