Prime-Time Bishop

Fulton J. Sheen and Religious Celebrity in America

By examining intersections of the sacred and the secular in the autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979), his television series, and his cultural afterlife, Part-Time Bishop argues that aspects of modern sanctity cannot be understood without also considering aspects of celebrity.

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) was a television and radio personality, a bestselling author, and a bishop in the American Catholic Church. Between 1930 and 1950 Sheen presented the Catholic Hour radio program, offering spiritual solutions to millions of listeners. He went on to host a weekly prime-time television show, Life Is Worth Living, which at its peak reached a national audience of more than twenty million viewers and earned him an Emmy Award. Sheen remains a towering figure in American Catholicism whose canonization cause continues to grab headlines.

In Prime-Time Bishop Alexander Nachaj uses the life of Fulton Sheen to argue that sanctity is a form of celebrity and to propose a new framework for studying modern religious figures. Although religious and secular modes of fame are usually considered mutually exclusive and even taboo to pair together, saints and celebrities have certain things in common: they are the focus of adoration, they have cults of followers, and they deploy charisma to effect emotional responses in the devoted. By examining intersections of the sacred and the secular celebrity in Sheen’s autobiography Treasure in Clay, in his immensely popular television series, in his cause for canonization, and in his body and masculinity, Nachaj emphasizes how intertwined religious sanctity and fame can be for religious celebrities in the modern era.

Through the life and afterlife of Fulton Sheen, Prime-Time Bishop shows convincingly that modes of fame are reflections of the cultures sustaining them.

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