During the 1980s and 1990s, a series of public disputes erupted between artists, lawmakers, and conservative Christians. Situated within the Reagan-era political culture, the attacks came on artists who were exploring issues of race, gender, sexual preference, and cultural power by employing Christian images. The news media as well as some scholars concluded that a “culture war” had begun. In their version, religion was safely ensconced on the side of conservative critics against elite, secular artists. Anthony Petro in Provoking Religion rejects this simple binary. Instead, he offers readers a nuanced historical examination of the controversy. He also delivers insightful reflections on the place of Christianity in modern art, conservative aesthetics, queer religion, and the history of feminist and gay activism.

Provoking Religion also is an economic story. According to conservatives, the government was using tax-payer monies to support perverse art. Of course, the involvement of the federal government in funding for the fine arts has never been robust. Petro reminds readers that in 2016, Congress allocated the National Endowment for the Arts $148 million while that same year the military bands of the armed services enjoyed $500 million from the Department of Defense (p. 4). Still, money and patronage fueled the arts controversy.

Petro builds five hefty chapters around case studies of artists who “got in trouble with the Christian Right” (p. 18). Some artists, like Judy Chicago (chapter two), are well known. Others like performance artist Bob Flanagan (chapter one) and the video art produced by DIVA TV (chapter four), less so. Renée Cox’s photography is the focus of chapter five. David Wojnarowicz (chapter three) worked across multiple mediums, including photography, painting, film, and performance art. Controversial artists Andres Serrano, Chris Ofili, and Robert Mapplethorpe make cameo appearances.

Each chapter proceeds in roughly the same way. They begin with a thick description of the art or performance pieces. This is no easy task because the art is complicated and edgy. Then, there is a historical contextualization of both the artist as well as the negative response generated by the art. David Wojnarowicz’s art is cut-up and reassembled by Donald Wildmon to make a pamphlet for the American Family Association. Renée Cox’s Yo Mama’s Last Supper is attacked by then-New York mayor Rudolf Giuliani. Here, Petro draws from the published reflections of the artists as well as unpublished archival materials. He returns to news media stories of the time, pointing out that critics on both the left and the right had issues with the art. Most of the artists and their detractors worked within the context of the AIDS crisis. Trial records provide additional evidence. Petro’s interpretive analysis makes up the last third of each chapter. This section relies on a vast variety of theoretical literature ranging from the thoughts of Andrew Greeley on the “Catholic imagination” (p. 29) to the insights on blasphemy by Saba Mahmood (p. 174). Here Petro ranges widely, speculating on the nature of art, religion, and the construction of politics.

Provoking Religion perceptively sorts out the various ways that cultural actors understand religion. The controversial artists were not secularists. They actually were pushing against modernist canons of art by using religious images. Petro helps us understand how artists’ spirituality tended towards the metaphysical and symbolic. Artists, for instance, did not hold that humor, parody, and playfulness (not to mention critique and transgression) need be banned from the religious playing field. True, a piece of art could teach, but artists saw their work as layered and open-ended. Artists (and author Petro) see art as having many meanings, and so it resists being fixed and defined. By unpacking the complicated ways that modern artists engage with religion, Petro makes a major contribution to the growing body of literature on spirituality and on secularism.

Conservatives understood art and religion differently. They believed art to be a straight-forward language that is “representational and sincere” (p. 98). A realistic art should be constructed so that it was in the service of the good, the true, and the beautiful – not to mention the political order. This literal orientation also shaped conservative legal theory and biblical exegesis. Significantly, it was when modern art turned away from the abstract and towards realism in the 1980s that artists and conservatives came into conflict. Petro argues that this literal orientation is not natural but, as with a modern artistic orientation, is constructed and must be maintained. And, it was conservatives themselves who – as they condemned certain art – came to promote it.

Provoking Religion rightly sees “Catholicisms” (p. 148) as central to the so-called culture wars. Artists constantly employ Catholic “forms” (p. 27f ) in ways that range from the sincere, to the critical, to pure camp. Petro carefully explores how artists claim and re-work Catholic images, refusing to allow conservatives to have the last word about the tradition. Artists collapse the boundaries between religion, art, and politics, pushing religion into the public sphere, but not in the ways that conservatives would approve (p. 181). Other Catholic laymen and church leaders then attack their art as anti-Catholic.

Anthony Petro has produced a richly textured analysis of the so-called culture wars. Provoking Religion also helps us think through the many categories of religion itself. While the inclusion of the insights of literary theorists, religious historians, and art critics might be a bit daunting for undergraduates, graduate students and faculty will appreciate the pragmatic approach that Petro takes in using theory to clarify the politics of art and religion. Conservative Christians are given voice and Petro hears their objections, but his is not a blandly neutral account. There is a conversational feel to the text that makes it engaging. Provoking Religion excels in juggling a variety of topics and should be mandatory reading for those seeking to understand modern American culture.