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Articulating culture in the media age 111

somewhere between two of the cells: “traditionalist,” and “born again.” In
fact, he is a case that problematizes that taxonomy a bit, a matter we will
get to in more detail in the next two chapters. As a “traditionalist,” he
would be less likely to be looking for or finding religious or spiritual
resources in the media sphere. As a “born again,” he would be likely to
orient more toward resources from the extensive marketplace of
Evangelical pop culture. As we have seen, this is a pretty good description
of him, in terms of his media use, and the relations between media and
religion in his narrative. But, this description is a bit superficial at the same
time, because we can see that Glenn’s notions of the relations between reli-
gion/spirituality and the media are rooted not in the inductive categories
proposed by Roof, but in Glenn’s own synthesis of his personal biography
into a social-spiritual philosophy, and it is that social-spiritual philosophy
that better defines him and his motivations than his position in Roof’s
taxonomy.
This is not to argue that we discard Roof’s categories. In fact, they will
become an important part of our analysis in the next chapters. Instead, it
is to say that a taxonomy such as Roof’s is valuable at a certain level of
analysis. It is particularly helpful in looking at classes of religious identity
and religious experience, and tells us much about the cultural and histor-
ical moment. Further, such labels make sense in a real way, and can be and
are part of people’s own narratives. They connect with, and predict action
and ideas on a certain level (as they did with reference to Glenn’s use of
various media). At the same time, though, we need to recognize that on
deeper levels, in individual cases and their “plausible narratives of the
self,” other combinations and consequences will be seen. Which level we
look at is part a matter of what we have available, part a matter of what
we have the capacity to look at, and part a matter of which questions we
are asking. As we shall see, Glenn’s case illustrates that by looking at
narratives both in their own terms and through the lenses of theory-
derived classifications such as Roof’s, we can learn a great deal.
In the following chapters, we will of necessity be looking at individual
narratives in less detail as we address the question of how media and reli-
gion can and do relate in contemporary social experience. We will be
looking at a larger number of narratives, and classifying them in ways that
aid our interpretations. We should remember, though, that each of these is
a “Glenn,” with its own unique set of conditions and attributes. What
Glenn has helped us see, though, is the status of these narratives. There is
good reason to believe that, as we hear from these informants, we are
hearing self-descriptions that are significant of the way media and religion
relate in their identity constructions.
The next three chapters focus on the presentation and analysis of “plau-
sible narratives of the self.” In Chapter 5, we will look at a set of
narratives that will help us describe the role that the media play in the