Shira Gabriel is an assistant professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y., who has conducted three studies on celebrity worship, one of which focused on how it boosts the worshipper’s self-esteem.

Read a July 1, 2004, article by Carlin Flora about celebrity worship syndrome. It’s posted on the Psychology Today Web site.

Read a July 12, 2009, essay at ReligionDispatches.org about the aftermath of Michael Jackson’s death by Pauline Hope Cheong, an associate professor at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.

Read a June 29, 2009, post at the First Things blog by Richard Scott Nokes, who argues that the singer is “a martyr to our culture’s true god: Celebrity.”

Read a June 26, 2009, Beliefnet column remembering Michael Jackson by Deepak Chopra.

Read a June 26, 2009, commentary on Michael Jackson’s death at The Huffington Post by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the popular writer and a friend of Jackson’s.

Read a June 25, 2009, column at ReligionDispatches.org about the passing of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett by Anthea Butler, a historian of American and African-American religion who specializes in popular culture. In the piece, she describes Jackson as “a pop theologian.”

Rebecca Greenwood is co-founder and president of Christian Harvest International and Strategic Prayer Action Network (SPAN). She is the author of Destined to Rule: Spiritual Strategies for Advancing the Kingdom of God (2007), in which she discusses the role and responsibilities of Christians as “rulers” over creation.

Cassandra Carmichael is the executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. Previously, she served as director of the National Council of Churches’ Eco-Justice Programs and has written numerous articles on faith and the environment.