BUDDE, Michael L(eo) 1958-

PERSONAL: Born July 27, 1958, in Joliet, IL; son of Richard L. and Marilyn J. (Meyers) Budde; married Terri L. Anderson. Education: Northwestern University, B.S.J., 1979, Ph.D., 1989; Catholic University of America, M.A., 1984.

ADDRESSES: Home—Shorewood, IL. Office—Department of Political Science, DePaul University, 2320 North Kenmore, Chicago, IL 60614.

CAREER: Auburn University, Auburn, AL, assistant professor of political science, 1990-93; DePaul University, Chicago, IL, associate professor of political science, 1993—; founder and coordinator, The Ekklesia Project.

WRITINGS:

The Two Churches: Catholicism and Capitalism in the World System, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1992.

The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 1997.

(Editor, with Robert Brimlow) The Church As Counterculture, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 2000.

(With Robert Brimlow) Christianity Incorporated: How Big Business Is Buying the Church, Brazos Press (Grand Rapids, MI), 2002.

Contributor to journals, including Sociological Analysis and World Policy Journal.

SIDELIGHTS: Political scientist Michael L. Budde has written extensively on the conflation of religion and socioeconomics. In The Two Churches: Catholicism and Capitalism in the World System, he shows that a shift from a First World to a Third World Catholic Church has begun to occur, and argues that "world Catholicism (led by the Latin American and other Third World Churches) will continue to develop in anticapitalist directions." He further argues that, in the words of American Political Science Review contributor Timothy R. Scully, "the future of worldwide Catholicism holds a colossal clash between the two Churches, pitting poor against rich." Though he found Budde's analysis provocative, Scully questioned his reliance on the Latin American Church as a model of peripheral Catholicism. He also questioned Budde's conclusion that class conflict between First World and Third World Churches would be inevitable. While he also disagreed with this point, Sociology of Religion reviewer Joseph A. Scimecca considered The Two Churches a "first rate work of scholarship" that is "right on the mark" much of the time. Scimecca concluded that "It is must reading for anyone interested in understanding what the Catholic Church is doing today in relation to the political and economic changes occurring in the world."

The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries is a "wake-up call to the Christian Church" that should alert it to the ways in which its mission is being undermined by consumer culture, according to Cross Currents contributor William T. Cavanaugh. In this book, Budde exposes the role of entertainment media, telecommunications, and marketing firms in the subversion of Christian identity. "Budde shows how culture industries present obstacles to the construction of desire in prayer, colonize any separate Church space, and poach religious symbols and narratives for use in selling products," Cavanaugh observed, concluding that the book "is a tremendous service not just to the Church but to a world which needs people formed in Gospel ways of peace and justice."

Budde expands on this theme in Christianity Incorporated: How Big Business Is Buying the Church, which a reviewer for Publishers Weekly considered a "cogent" and readable analysis filled with "alarming anecdotes and biting humor." Among these: the use of the pope's image to market french fries in Mexico, or the idea of Jesus as a model CEO. The book doesn't break any new ground, according to Library Journal reviewer L. Kriz, but its argument nevertheless bears repeating at a time when Christians may be inattentive to the ways in which big business may be eroding their values.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, June, 1993, Timothy R. Scully, review of The Two Churches: Catholicism and Capitalism in the World System, p. 511.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1994, Ted G. Jelen, review of The Two Churches, p. 184.

Comparative Politics, July, 1995, Carol Ann Drogus, review of The Two Churches, p. 465.

Cross Currents, spring, 1999, William T. Cavanaugh, review of The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries, p. 124.

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, June, 1993, Hans A. Baer, review of The Two Churches, p. 193.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, March, 2000, John Langan, review of The (Magic) Kingdom of God, p. 153.

Library Journal, February 1, 2002, L. Kriz, review of Christianity Incorporated: How Big Business Is Buying the Church, p. 106.

Modern Theology, October, 2001, Nicholas M. Healy, review of The Church As Counterculture, p. 524.

Publishers Weekly, January 28, 2002, review of Christianity Incorporated, p. 286.

Religion, July, 1993, Jon Davies, review of The Two Churches, p. 291.

Sociology of Religion, winter, 1993, Joseph A. Scimecca, review of The Two Churches, p. 433.

Times Literary Supplement, January 21, 1994, Peter Hebblethwaite, review of The Two Churches, p. 26.*