REL480: Religion & Pop Culture
Wofford College, Fall 2008
TTh, 9:30-10:50
Main 206
Dr. Dan Mathewson
Office: Main 207
Phone Extension: 4560
Email: mathewsondb@wofford.edu
Office Hours:
COURSE DESCRIPTION
At first glance, the two “subjects” of this course, religion and pop culture, seem to have little to
do with each other. The former supposedly pertains to the realm of ultimate meaning, of
transcendence, of that which provides structure and guidance to our lives, while the latter
supposedly pertains to those frivolous things that amuse and entertain us. The former
contemplates God or Brahman or the truth of dukkha, while the latter gossips about Britney
Spears’ latest meltdown or laughs at Eric Cartman or cheers for Ironman or the Hulk. The former
is weighty and deeply meaningful; the latter is frivolous and of no deep importance. Or so one
might think…
This course sets as its goal to complicate this neat dualism. In this course we will attempt to
analyze religion and pop culture not as polar opposites, but as complementary and/or competing
sources from which contemporary individuals shape their own senses of identity, spirituality, and
meaning. At times this process is magnified and obvious, as was the case with the general
reaction to Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. Audiences were deeply moved by this popular
film, and many drew very deep personal meaning from watching it. Other obvious examples –
obvious because of their explicitly religious content -- include the television show Touched by an
Angel, the novel The Da Vinci Code, even the cartoon Veggie Tales. But there are examples from
the realm of pop culture that do not necessarily include overtly religious content: The Oprah
Winfrey Show, the music of U2, various 12-step programs, diet manuals, and exercise regimes.
And what about Star Trek conventions or Duke Basketball games? Are these also not sources
from which contemporary audiences draw meaning, and to which they pledge ultimate
allegiance?
If it appears that religion seems to pop up in different and sometimes unexpected places in pop
culture, the opposite is also true. Contemporary religion frequently absorbs the forms and
messages of pop culture: so-called mega churches that have Wi-Fi equipped coffee bars and rock
climbing walls; yoga DVDs created for explicitly western audiences in need of exercise;
romance novels written for Christian audiences; Christian rock, rap, and death metal. Just what’s
the difference between Pat Robertson’s 700 Club and the Oprah Winfrey Show? Isn’t the
Christian Broadcasting Network an imitation of mainstream niche networks (Discovery Channel,
Food Network, etc.)?
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Something interesting is going on here in the relation of religion and pop culture, something that
is unique to the particular social and cultural forces at work in contemporary society. This
“something” is what this course is about. There are four basic parts to the course. After an
introductory unit, we will turn our attention to religion and the interesting and non-traditional
ways that contemporary audiences articulate their understandings of spirituality. We will find
that ways of being religious have changed dramatically over the last few decades. One change is
that in contemporary society the media is ubiquitous, and people increasingly and inevitably
conceptualize and live the religious life via the media. Religion in the media age will be the topic
of the third part of the course. Another change in the way people practice religion involves the
predominance of consumerism in contemporary society. Part four of the course will trace the
implications of consumer culture for religion, and what happens when we consume religion just
like we consume the products of pop culture.
This course, therefore, has several goals:
1. To provide a critical introduction to the study of popular culture;
2. To examine the rise of consumer culture, the predominance of the media, and the shifting
conceptions of spirituality in the contemporary moment;
3. To trace the confluence of religion and pop culture in various media and consumer
products;
4. To evaluate the effects of consumerism, mediated experience, and contemporary
spirituality on the processes of identity formation and meaning-making.
READINGS
Required:
Stewart M. Hoover, Religion in the Media Age
Vincent Miller, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture
Robert Wuthnow, After Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the 1950s
Other readings will be distributed in class or read online.
COURSEWORK AND GRADES
Class Attendance and Participation:
Class participation is vital to the success of this course. You must be prepared to discuss the
readings assigned for each class. An accumulation of absences from class will affect your grade
adversely. You are permitted one unexcused absence. Each unexcused absence beyond this will
result in a deduction of a single percent (out of a total of 10) from your attendance and
participation grade. Attendance and participation comprise 20% of your final grade.
Class Assignments:
Seven class assignments will be due at various points during the semester. The assignments will
constitute 60% of your final grade and the due dates are listed in the course schedule. All
assignments are due at the start of class, and you should email all assignments. (No hard copies,
please.) If you turn in an assignment late you will receive a deduction of a full letter grade per
day late. (NOTE: A 24-hour day begins at the start of the class for which the assignment is due.)
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The topics and descriptions of each assignment are as follows:
Assignment #1: The Passion of the Christ Paper
Write a short paper (3-4 pages) that analyzes The Passion as either a religious or pop
cultural product (or both). Relying on the arguments of the readings, discuss whether this
film ought to be considered a religious product that has “crossed-over” into the realm of
pop culture, a pop cultural product that contains religious themes, or whether the labels of
“religion” and “pop culture” are inadequate to account for the film (or another possibility
if you can think of one).
This assignment is worth 7% of your final grade.
Assignment #2: My Spirituality
We have read analyses of the current status of religion and spirituality from two
prominent scholars on the topic. What’s particularly interesting is that you are the
demographic (mostly) that they’re analyzing. For this assignment I want you to do some
serious self-reflection about your own spirituality and about the realities of the world in
which you live. Do Wuthnow and Roof have it right? Specifically, I want you to
comment on your own sense of the real-world challenges that you face now and will face
upon graduation. Does what Wuthnow describes ring true? I want you also to reflect on
your own understanding of what the spiritual life consists of. Does Wuthnow characterize
you accurately? Finally, I’d like for you to locate yourself in Roof’s description of the
new religious landscape. Do his categories account for your own sense of religion and
spirituality?
Address these issues in a short paper (3-5 pages). I want you to refer explicitly to the
arguments of Wuthnow and Roof and to engage them in a critical fashion.
This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade.
Assignment #3: The Media and Me
Starting immediately after class on Oct 16 and ending when you go to bed on Oct 19 (or
20th) document every instance of your own interaction with the media. Record the day
and time, the specific type of media you accessed (name of TV show, name of website,
etc.), duration of your interaction, and purpose of your interaction. At the end of each
day, type up a brief reflection (paragraph or two) on your media interactions. Things you
may want to consider: your sense of the value of your media interactions, of your
productivity, of the usefulness of the media, etc. For class on Oct 21 you should do two
things:
1. Email me your documentation of your media interactions and your reflections
2. Bring to class a copy of your documentations for your classmates to read
This assignment is worth 5% of your final grade.
Assignment #4: The Media and Religion at Wofford
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For this assignment I would like for you to conduct interviews similar to the ones in
Hoover with your fellow Wofford students. Find three Wofford students who are willing
to sit down with you to discuss their own spiritual lives and media habits. Your goal is to
have them articulate those places in the media where they learn spiritual lessons or learn
lessons for ethical living. Rely on Hoover’s discussion (chaps. 6-7) to shape your
conversations. You will compose a paper (4 pages or so) that summarizes and analyzes
these conversations. In your analysis you should note any trends in what your fellow
students told you, how your friends compared to those in Hoover’s categories of religious
people (Born Agains, Mainstreamers, etc.), or whatever else you found interesting or
noteworthy. Email me your paper for class on Oct 23.
This assignment is worth 9% of your final grade.
Assignment #5: The Media’s Symbolic Inventory and Me
Identify one (or two, if you like) places/products in/of the media that function as part of
the symbolic inventory for your own spirituality (whether you think of yourself as
religious or not). This could be a TV show, a musician, a movie, a website, etc. I want
you to compose a paper (3-4 pages) that analyzes what it is precisely about this
show/musician/etc. that inspires you or encourages you spiritually or teaches you ethical
lessons. I want you to discuss also how this show/musician/etc. factors into your own
“style” of being religious (by “style” I’m referring to Roof’s categories, which you
reflected upon in Assignment #1). Email me the paper for class on Oct 30.
This assignment is worth 7% of your final grade.
Assignment #6: Commodity Study
Based on Miller’s discussion of “products from nowhere,” I want you to work in groups
of two to produce a commodity study of an artifact from popular culture. You should
research its origins, the natural resources required to produce it, its impact on the
environment, its labor and production conditions, and so forth. You should write all this
up in a paper (3-4 pages) to email before class on Nov 6. You should also be prepared to
give a 5-minute presentation of your findings in class on the 6th. (Note: I’ve stolen this
assignment from Prof. Tyler Williams at Taylor University. Blame him if you don’t like
it…)
This assignment is worth 9% of your final grade.
Assignment #7: Religious Bricolage
Work in pairs to identify a bricolage in the world of popular religion. The bricolage
should be in the same vein as the one Miller discusses (devotion to St. Jude). We will
discuss in class on Nov 13 what the concept of a bricolage implies, and I want each pair
to examine their popular religious subject in these terms explicitly. For class on Nov 20
each pair should do two things:
1. Write a short paper (4 pages or so) that discusses the your religious subject as a
bricolage
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2. Be prepared to present your subject as a bricolage to the class (5-7 minute
presentation)
The paper portion of this assignment is worth 9% of your final grade. The presentation
portion is worth 4%.
Final Project/Exam
There will be a final sort-of-exam, sort-of-project that you will help create. As a class we will
come up with a list of several items/products of contemporary culture that we think present
intriguing displays of the intersection of religion and pop culture. During the last week of the
course we will use class time (and maybe time outside of class) to view/participate in whatever
items/products the class selects. For your final project/exam you will write a paper that presents a
coherent and compelling synthesis and analysis of all of the items/products in terms of the
arguments and insights of the readings of the course. There is no page minimum or maximum for
this project/exam. It will be due at the time that our final exam is scheduled. I will have much
more to say about this project/exam toward the end of the semester.
The final exam will be worth 20% of your final grade.
Grading Breakdown:
Attendance/Participation
Class Assignments
Final Exam
20%
60%
20%
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COURSE SCHEDULE
PART ONE: Introductory Matters
Sep 2
Course Introduction
Sep 4
What Is Pop Culture?
Reading:
 Bruce David Forbes & Jeffrey Mahan, Religion and Popular Culture in
America, 1-7 (“Introduction: Finding Religion in Unexpected Places”)
 Gordon Lynch, Understanding Theology and Popular Culture, 1-19 (“What
is ‘Popular Culture’?”)
Sep 9
Ways of Thinking about Religion and Pop Culture
Reading:
 Eric Mazur & Kate McCarthy, God in the Details: American Religion in
Popular Culture, 1-13 (“Introduction: Finding Religion in American Popular
Culture”)
 Bruce David Forbes & Jeffrey Mahan, Religion and Popular Culture in
America, 9-18 (“Introduction: Finding Religion in Unexpected Places”)
 Gordon Lynch, Understanding Theology and Popular Culture, 20-42 (“Why
Should Theologians and Scholars of Religion Study Popular Culture?”)
Sep 11
An Obvious Example of Religion & Pop Culture
Reading:
 Mark Silk, “Gibson’s Passion: A Case Study in Media Manipulation?”
 Frances Flannery Dailey, “Biblical Scholarship and the Passion Surrounding
The Passion of the Christ”
Viewing: Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ
Sep 16
Discussion of The Passion
Due: Assignment #1
PART TWO: Contemporary Religious Expression
Sep 18
Shifting Spirituality
Readings:
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
Sep 23
Wuthnow, After Heaven, 1-18
Wade Clark Roof, Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of
American Religion, 77-110
Spirituality in the 1950s, 60s & 70s
Reading:
 Wuthnow, After Heaven, 19-84
Sep 25
Spirituality in the 1980s & 90s
Reading:
 Wuthnow, After Heaven, 85-167
Sep 30
Spirituality in the New Millennium
Reading:
 Robert Wuthnow, After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and ThirtySomethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion, 20-50; 112-135
Oct 2
Questing Culture and the New Religious Landscape
Reading:
 Wade Clark Roof, Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of
American Religion, 145-216
Oct 7
My Spirituality
Due: Assignment #2
PART THREE: Religion in the Media Age
Oct 9
Surveying the Media Landscape
Reading:
 Hoover, Religion in the Media Age, 7-25; 45-83
Oct 14
Media Pervasiveness
Reading:
 Hoover, Religion in the Media Age, 84-91; 96-98; 113-146
Oct 16
The Media and Born-Agains, Mainstreamers, Seekers, Dogmatists & Secularists
Reading:
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
Oct 21
Hoover, Religion in the Media Age, 147-204
John Ferre, “The Media and Popular Piety”
Media and Me
Due: Assignment #3
Oct 23
The Media and Religion at Wofford
Due: Assignment #4
Oct 28
The “Symbolic Inventory” of the Media
Reading:
 Hoover, Religion in the Media Age, 205-232; 264-290
 Lynn Schofield Clark, “The ‘Funky’ Side of Religion: An Ethnographic Study
of Adolescent Religious Identity and the Media”
Oct 30
The Media’s Symbolic Inventory and Me
Due: Assignment #5
PART FOUR: Religion in a Consumer Culture
Nov 4
The Commodification of Culture
Reading:
 Miller, Consuming Religion, 15-19; 26-31; 32-54; 66-72
Nov 6
Products from Nowhere
Due: Assignment #6
Nov 11
Religion as Commodity
Reading:
 Miller, Consuming Religion, 73-106
 Eric Mazur and Tara Koda, “The Happiest Place on Earth: Disney’s America
and the Commodification of Religion”
Nov 13
The Religious Consumer: Creating the Bricolage
Reading:
 Miller, Consuming Religion, 146-178
 Robert Viau, “Cult Multiculturalism in the Deep South: From Alienation to
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Alien Nations”
Nov 18
No Class
Work on Assignment #7
Nov 20
The Religious Bricolage
Due: Assignment #8
Nov 25
No Class – Society of Biblical Literature Meeting in Boston
Nov 27
No Class -- Thanksgiving
Dec 2
Final Project/Exam
Readings/Viewings TBA
Dec 5
Final Project/Exam
Readings/Viewings TBA
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