Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America

A collection of essays for you this morning. The authors of these studies of American religious literature are academics, but they write here in an accessible and sometimes even zippy manner. Some of the articles are broad surveys of the Bibles, tracts, and paperbacks produced over the years; others focus on specific topics. The cover gives a good flavor of what’s inside. That In His Steps is a 1973 comic-book version of the nineteenth-century novel that popularized the expression “What Would Jesus Do?” Megiddo Message (who could resist a cover like that? Click on the thumbnail to see it in more detail) was the output of an early twentieth-century sect whose literature reeled in devoted followers from around the world.

Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer, eds. Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America. University of Wisconsin Press, 2008. Paperback. 392 pages. ISBN 0299225747. $29.95.