A Fascinating View of Spirituality in Popular Culture
The Gospel According to the Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family by Mark I. Pinsky is a seriously funny examination of the spirituality presented on the popular animated TV show. The Simpsons, after all, spend more time in church than any other TV family, though Homer can still only describe his religion as: "you know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. Uh, Christianity." This pop-culture book will be uncomfortable, perhaps at times, unbearable, to fundamentalist Christians, but it is, nonetheless, an interesting reference for our times.
Pinsky makes a compelling argument that the show's writers' views of religious expression is complicated and, at times, sympathetic, despite the lampooning of fundamentalist Ned Flanders. Springfield's apathy toward Lisa's What-Would-Jesus-Do-like social activism also rings true in an increasingly secular world. Pinsky, who is Jewish, may be a bit more immune to the Simpsonian critiques of Christian excesses than some fundamentalists, and excessive quotation from the show itself sometimes makes the book confusing and out of focus.
As in The Simpsons and Philosophy, however, those quotations are invariably laugh-out-loud funny, and in the end, no one- not even Baptist activist Tony Campolo, who contributed the foreword to this book- can keep from laughing at, and with, TV's most religious family.
The Gospel According to the Simpsons is not for everyone, particularly persons who are easily offended by satirical commentary about their faith. But I would recommend the book to anyone, Christian or otherwise, who is concerned with how the Christian faith fits into our current culture.Read full review
