Chris Willman

Pop Goes Religion

Arts & Literature

“Terry Mattingly is probably the only religion writer in America who's as much at home in floor seats at a U2 show as he is on the floor of the annual convocation for any given denomination. He clearly has an affinity for pop culture, and no one makes a better case for the church needing to become more aware of the media its congregants are consuming. But Mattingly also possesses a healthy skepticism about the mingling of faith and entertainment, and he isn't one of those guys who's naive enough to imagine the problems of the church being solved by more sermons about movies. If anyone is equipped to keep an eye on this balancing act of spirituality and culture, it's somebody who knows every theological distinction you could think of AND all the lyrics to "Bullet the Blue Sky.”