Popular Culture and Religious Studies

Jediriddaren - från fiktion till religion

by Markus Altena Davidsen

Published in Swedish in RetorikMagasinet nr. 47/48, pp. 15-18, March 2012.

Jediismen är en seriös och etablerad religiös rörelse baserad på George Lucas Star Wars-filmer. Jediisterna låter sig... more Jediismen är en seriös och etablerad religiös rörelse baserad på George Lucas Star Wars-filmer. Jediisterna låter sig övertygas av jedimästare som Yoda och Obi-Wan Kenobi och tror på deras utsagor om Kraften.

The Von Däniken Hypothesis: Furthering Our Understanding of Agency and UFO Religions

by Justin E. Lane

This paper was presented to the North American Undergraduate Conference for Religion and Philosophy in 2009. Awarded.
It is being prepared for publication at the moment.

Living on the Streets: The Role of the Church in Urban Renewal.

by Richard Greydanus

Co-authored with Michael van Pelt. White Paper. Work Research Foundation.

Living on the Streets suggests that established religious communities—churches, synagogues, mosques, and the like—are... more Living on the Streets suggests that established religious communities—churches, synagogues, mosques, and the like—are institutions with a critical role to play in the urban life of Hamilton.

Americanasana (review essay on history of yoga in America)

by Jared Farmer

Special attention given to Mark Singleton's YOGA BODY, Stefanie Syman's THE SUBTLE BODY, and Robert Love's THE GREAT OOM.

Religión, memorias y mitos.Las artes de narrar en la construcción de identidades.

by L. Nicolás Guigou

Religión, memoria y mitos. Las artes de narrar en la construcción de identidades.
Religión, memoria y mitos. Las artes de narrar en la construcción de identidades.
En: Anuario de Antropología Social. Montevideo: DAS-NORDAN, 2008. ISSN: 1510-3846

En la presente investigación se ha procurado unificar diversos ejes relacionados
con un conjunto de... more En la presente investigación se ha procurado unificar diversos ejes relacionados
con un conjunto de tematizaciones de interés antropológico,
intentando ahondar en la esfera de lo religioso en tanto eje
de construcción identitaria, a través de la indagación de las
mitologías, memorias y narrativas posibles en el marco de la
memoria colectiva y social de un grupo específico: la comunidad
rural denominada San Javier (Departamento de Río Negro,
Uruguay). La matriz religiosa de esta Colonia se afinca en su
propio proceso fundacional: San Javier fue fundado en el año
1913, en el Uruguay, por un grupo de inmigrantes rusos pertenecientes
a la “Comunidad Nueva Israel” (Novo Israilskaia
Obchina), corriente religiosa escindida de la Iglesia Ortodoxa
Rusa a mediados del siglo XVIII. En el presente artículo refiero
a la profundización en las narrativas de los habitantes de San
Javier, estudiando las diferentes temporalidades que atraviesan
a las mismas y las fragmentaciones espacio-temporales sobre
las cuales estas narrativas se construyen.

Sociabilidad campesina y cultura religiosa en el interior de la diócesis de Santiago (siglos XVI-XIX)

by Fernando Suárez Golán

Other times, other voices: Medium, message and mission in Thought for the Week

by Jean Pierre van Noppen

Il "Guerrin Meschino" e il perduto regno della Sibilla

by marco pucciarini

Delivering the Maternal Body from the Abominable: A Psychological Evaluation of the Episiotomy

by Carrie Jones

Feminist Music By Gina Messina-Dysert

by Feminism and Religion

Last week Caroline Kline shared the article “Feminist Films” and discussed the Bechdel Test as a way to identify... more Last week Caroline Kline shared the article “Feminist Films” and discussed the Bechdel Test as a way to identify whether or not a film is feminist.  It left me wondering – can we identify music as feminist in the same way?  Music generally does not offer dialogue between two women.  But there are instances where we find two women singing together about feminist issues like the 80’s classic “Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves.”  There are also women singing about or to women, like Juliana Hatfield’s “My Sister.” And there is music that acknowledges women’s struggles as women like Ani Difranco’s “I’m No Heroine,” No Doubt’s “I’m Just a Girl,” and Pink’s “Stupid Girls”.    But is this the only way to identify feminist music? 

Stand In Awe: A Parable About Love, Youth, & Change

by Horace Columbus Neal II

Draft N: December 9, 2011 - It is finished.

This is a simple three-page short story that calls for a reflection on the core need of today's troubled youth. In 36... more This is a simple three-page short story that calls for a reflection on the core need of today's troubled youth. In 36 CE, a group of rowdy, Cushite-Hebrew youths go to see the Roman crucifixions, hoping to have some fun taunting the victims. Their encounter at one man's cross causes them to stand in awe. Notes and images follow the narrative to aid the readers' conceptualization of some of the story's themes. The story is thematically multilayered to facilitate productive discussions on a number of topics.

Николов, А. К истории средневековой южнославянской полемики против Папства: "Сказание как Рим отпал от православной веры". - В: Русское богословие: традиция и современность. Сборник статьей. Москва, 2011, 123-132

by Angel Nikolov

The Greatest Super-Story Ever Told: A Review of _Mutants and Mystics_ (by Jeffrey Kripal)

by Christine Hoff Kraemer

Review for general readers at Patheos.com.

In Jeffrey Kripal's latest book, paranormal experiences are real and their message is being spread by pop culture. In Jeffrey Kripal's latest book, paranormal experiences are real and their message is being spread by pop culture.

Museums and Popular Culture Revisited: Kevin Moore and the Politics of Pop

by Tara Brabazon

Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 21, No. 4, December 2006, pp. 283-301,http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V9M-4MC0T5T-1&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2006&_rdoc=6&_fmt=summary&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%235902%232006%23999789995%23638167%23FLA%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=5902&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=12&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=bc3100cf4efd037b0a338c9cd9483325

A Key to All Methodologies: Communion, Conflict, and Commodity in Ken Wilber’s Rhetoric of DIY Science

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

I presented this paper at the 2010 RSA conference in Minneapolis, MN.  Some of the ideas in it were worked up at my blog: 

http://for-the-turnstiles.blogspot.com

"We the people" (adapted excerpt from Superstitious Regimes)

by Rebecca Nedostup

Boston College Magazine Fall 2010, 42-43.

More Than Music: Notes on "Staying Punk" in the Church and in Theology

by Michael Iafrate

in Secular Music and Sacred Theology (tentative title), Tom Beaudoin, ed. .(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012), forthcoming.

"I'm a Human, Not a Statue": Saints and Saintliness in the Church of Punk Rock

by Michael Iafrate

Paper presented at the Catholic Theological Society of America annual convention, San Jose, California, June 10, 2011.

In agreement with theologians who are noting how popular music fulfills a religious function in people's lives, this... more In agreement with theologians who are noting how popular music fulfills a religious function in people's lives, this paper gives a brief overview of the emergence of punk rock communities in the 1970s and '80s and the various ways that punk functions “religiously” for its participants. It then analyzes the way punk rock lifts up exemplars or “saints” who embody the diverse and often conflicting ideals of this movement and the ways in which punk rock “saints” challenge mainstream rock's patterns of “rock star religiosity.” Finally, it argues that this internal debate about the meaning of “saintly” figures in rock music has much to teach the Roman Catholic Church in its current debates about the meaning of saints in postmodern culture and that it can also provide an important critique of the enthusiasm with which emerging theologies of popular music approach rock music as a “religion.”

Utopian enterprise: Articulating the meanings of Star Trek's culture of consumption

by Robert Kozinets

23. Kozinets, Robert V. (2001), “Utopian Enterprise: Articulating the Meanings of Star Trek’s Culture of Consumption,” Journal of Consumer Research, 28 (June), 67-88.

In this article, I examine the cultural and subcultural construction of consumption meanings and practices as they are... more In this article, I examine the cultural and subcultural construction of consumption meanings and practices as they are negotiated from mass media images and objects. Field notes and artifacts from 20 months of fieldwork at Star Trek fan
clubs, at conventions, and in Internet groups, and 67 interviews with Star Trek fans are used as data. Star Trek’s subculture of consumption is found to be constructed as a powerful utopian refuge. Stigma, social situation, and the need for legitimacy shape the diverse subcultures’ consumption meanings and practices. Legitimizing articulations of Star Trek as a religion or myth underscore fans’ heavy investment of self in the text. These sacralizing articulations are used to distance the text from its superficial status as a commercial product. The findings emphasize and describe how consumption often fulfills the contemporary hunger for a conceptual space in which to construct a sense of self and what matters in life. They also reveal broader cultural tensions between the affective investments people make in consumption objects and the encroachment of commercialization.

Teaching the Bible and Film: Pedagogical Promises, Pitfalls, and Proposals

by Matthew Rindge

Teaching Theology and Religion 13 (2010): 140-55. With critical responses by Erin Runions and Richard Ascough.