Shaking the World for Jesus

It’s not just that The Passion of the Christ is breaking box-office records—that’s what successful movies are supposed to do. It’s more that people are actually buying official “Passion” nails to wear as jewelry, the sort of commodification that puts the Roman soldiers’ gambling for Christ’s clothes to shame. Hendershot, a professor at the City University of New York, has written a scholarly book, subtitled “Media and Conservative Evangelical Culture,” that’s surprisingly readable and addresses the phenomenon of the consumer power that conservative Christianity has taken on in recent years. From kids’ TV (Veggie Tales, Bibleman) to the juggernaut that is the “Left Behind” series, this exhaustively documented book examines the worldview behind products that are sold in the name of God.