Famous for what?

CELEBRITY CULTURE
By John Drane
Rutherford House. 93 pages. £3.99
ISBN 1 904429 08 4

In reaching out to celebrities, millions of people long for their lives to be touched by ‘greatness’ and in so doing betray their own sense of insignificance and lostness as human beings.

It is with such ideas that John Drane stimulates us to consider the cult of celebrity which now dominates the Western world and increasingly beyond. Celebrities fulfil a social function in society. You can tell much about a society from the people it considers to be famous. Celebrities (for good or ill) act as role models, embodying the ideals of the masses and often become centres of unity and celebration for a nation.

The book has three chapters. We are given a brief history of fame; then the great move to the creation of ‘celebrity’ with the advent of the moving picture providing the inspiration for how to survive and enjoy life in the new (relatively anonymous) urban society; lastly there is a consideration of God and celebrity culture or how Christians should react to this phenomenon.

I thought that the book was helpful, but too brief to give us a real handle on the questions raised. Drane highlights the fact that the church tends to over-intellectualise and so by-pass ordinary people caught up in popular culture. We desperately need to take heed of this. But there was no deep analysis which takes seriously the fact of human sin or the sovereignty of God, and it left me feeling that although I had read some helpful insights and snatches of wisdom, it was rather lightweight. Perhaps I should read more of the author’s weightier offerings.