Bully Pulpit Books launches with book on the marriage of pop culture and spirituality: Pop Goes Religion: Faith and Culture in America

(Los Angeles) What do U2, The Simpsons, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of The Rings and John Grisham all have in common? They're all part of a new wave of religious-themed media that is flooding mainstream American pop culture and the subject of veteran journalist Terry Mattingly's first book Pop Goes Religion.

The book will be published by W Publishing Group in association with Mark Joseph, general editor of Bully Pulpit Books, a series that will explore topics at the intersection of faith and popular culture.

Mattingly, a longtime religion columnist for Scripps Howard News Service and editor of GetReligion.org, has documented the sea change in American attitudes toward religion in pop culture and the increasing willingness of entertainment tastemakers to allow popular cultural icons -- think The Simpsons -- to be arenas for spiritual stories and debates.

"Religion was all over the place in popular media during the golden '50s era, but it kind of faded away or turned strange during the rebellious '60s and '70s. Religion was a very dangerous subject to discuss," says Mattingly. "But times have changed, to some degree. Now it isn't uncommon to see religious issues come up frequently in hip places like The Simpsons on MTV and in other almost unthinkable places."

Hollywood veterans are also seeing the same trend. "The message is everywhere including cartoons, comic books, rock music, movies, books, television, the Internet, and any other means of communication available to us today," noted Ralph Winter, producer of the X-Men series and The Fantastic Four, who wrote the foreword to the book.

"From VeggieTales to The Simpsons, Harry Potter to The Matrix, Terry Mattingly chronicles just how common it has become to find God in popular culture."

Pop Goes Religion is broken into several sections including God and Popular Music; Faith and the Big Screen; God on TV; Pop Culture, Real Life and more, bringing together some of Mattingly's best work from the last decade.

"I have followed Terry's writing closely for a decade now," said Bully Pulpit general editor Mark Joseph. "He is at the top of his game. There is no other working journalist in America with his broad knowledge and experience in this area. Terry thinks spirituality and religion are too important to stay in churches and synagogues and has chronicled its emergence from the cultural ghetto into the mainstream of American pop cultural life."