Religion and Popular Culture
Popular Religion
What is Religion?
Religion, “a system of thought, feeling, and
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Belief, ritual,
experience, doctrine,
worldview, community,
institution…
action that is shared by a group and that gives
the members an object of devotion; a code of
behavior by which individuals may judge the
personal and social consequences of their
actions; and a frame of reference by which
individuals may relate to their group and their
universe. Usually, religion concerns itself with
that which transcends the known, the natural, or
the expected; it is an acknowledgment of the
extraordinary, the mysterious, and the
supernatural. The religious consciousness
generally recognizes a transcendent, sacred
order and elaborates a technique to deal with the
inexplicable or unpredictable elements of human
experience in the world or beyond it.”
Popular Religion
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Popular Religion: “non-official, non-elite, unorganized, eclectic and
lived religion… It does not emphasize the importance of scriptures,
literary tradition, institution, clergies or doctrinal purity. It is syncretistic
and implicit in its nature.”
Religion, Television & Belief
• Explicitly “religious”
dramas - Touched by an
Angel, etc.
• “Flattens” religious
doctrine?
• Theological messages:
God is love, God has a
plan (unknowable), God
exists… Evil isn’t God’s
fault… anything else?
Religion,Television, and Belief
• Talk shows…
– Attesting to the
Supernatural
•
•
•
•
Demonic possession
Angel visitations
Near Death Experiences
Hauntings
Religion,Television, and Belief
• Dramas, “Reality”
shows…
–
–
–
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Ghost Whisperer
Ghost Hunters
Ghost Trackers
Supernatural
– Retellings of folkloric, pop
culture beliefs, reivigorating
supernatural in modern
world?
Religion and Television
portrayals of Religious Affiliation
• Law and Order
– Religion as short-hand
for character traits
(religious stereotyping)
– Religion as moral
reasoning (Justice vs
Law…)
– Religion as destructive
force (fanatics, cultists,
terrorists…)
Religion, Television, and Ritual
• Television as surrogate
religious ritual?
– Judge Judy and Dr.
Laura - modern day
confessionals?
– “substitutionary
catharsis?”
Religion, Ritual and Pop Culture
• Pop Culture Tourism
as Religious Ritual Pilgrimage?
– Pilgrimage to
Graceland?
– Pilgrimage to Star Trek
conventions?
– Pilgrimage to Grateful
Dead concerts?
Is Popular Religion really ‘pop’?
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Vs
“Chevrolet Presents: Come
Together and Worship - 16
WWJD?
(What would Jesus Drive?)
concerts with top Christian rock
bands across the Southeast and
the preaching of Texas pastor, Rev.
Max Lucado.”
Trickle down, Trickle up?
• Theories of popular religion - the trickle down
theory - religion starts with orthodoxy, trickles
down to the masses, who reinterpret, appropriate
for own uses, etc. - pop religion as “degraded”
form of “orthodox” religion.
• Trickle up - religion starts with folk belief,
practice, becomes codified over time, subject to
continual renewal from popular level.
Popular Religion and Popular
Culture
• Lowest common
denominator - “mass
culture”?
• Cultural mirror?Maintaining the Status
quo?
• Subversive of
orthodoxy?