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Contribution to Book
Religious Controversies over Christmas
Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture
  • Jennifer Rycenga, San Jose State University
Publication Date
1-1-2008
Document Type
Contribution to a Book
Editor
Sheila Whiteley
DOI
10.3366/edinburgh/9780748628087.003.0005
Abstract

This chapter illustrates that the tussle between paganism and Christianity is still very much alive. The analytical case study opens out the religious discourses surrounding Christmas and its relationship to contemporary America in a lively discussion of the controversy between the consumer hegemon, Wal-Mart, and Bill Donohue of the Catholic League. It also reveals how the ‘majoritarian outrage at having their common sense challenged leads to a reinvigoration of a Christian compulsion to dominate’. Christmas in America has now become a stage for both commercial excess and majoritarian Christian identity. All sources agree that the celebration of Christmas was not central to the earliest centuries of Christianity. Christmas gained legitimacy in the post-Constantinian church. The ultimate roots of common sense unite the impulses of the Protestant Reformation and the American Revolution.

Keywords
  • paganism,
  • Christianity,
  • Christmas,
  • America,
  • Wal-Mart,
  • Bill Donohue,
  • Protestant Reformation,
  • American Revolution
Comments

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Citation Information
Jennifer Rycenga. "Religious Controversies over Christmas" Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture (2008) p. 71 - 87
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jennifer-rycenga/20/