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Religion appears not only in churches, synagogues, mosques, and tem- ples; it also appears in popular culture.1 Best-selling popular music has included U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” Lady Gaga’s “Judas” and “Bloody Mary,” and Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel.” For almost three decades the animated television program The Simpsons has regularly included religion in its episodes, either in passing or as a featured topic, with Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and Wiccan characters and even personal appear- ances by God and the devil. Millions of Americans have embraced yoga, a practice with roots in Hinduism, as a path to improve health and well-being. Angels, demons, witches, vampires, zombies (arising from Haitian Vodou), and occult phenomena seem to be everywhere in popular culture. Superhero comic books and their associated movies and television shows portray cosmic battles between good and evil. Batman has been portrayed in a crucifi x pose on the covers of at least seven comic books over the years. What does it all mean?

Other examples of intersections between religion and popular cul- ture are quite di# erent in character. When preaching workshops for ministers include advice that sermons should be shortened, to accom- modate the television-infl uenced attention span of seven or eight

Introduction Finding Religion in Unexpected Places

bruce david forbes

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 7 . U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a P r e s s .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w .

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2 / Introduction

minutes between commercials, popular culture apparently a" ects the shape of institutional religion. At other times, aspects of popular cul- ture seem to become a religion: the national hoopla surrounding the Super Bowl has suggested to more than one scholar that this January event has all the trappings of a religious festival. When fans virtually organize their lives around football or basketball, might we say that sport is a religion?

All of these examples both pertain to religion and are drawn from the realm of popular culture, which some people would dismiss as triv- ial, faddish, or “just entertainment,” but which a growing body of schol- ars fi nds to be a signifi cant focus for refl ection and analysis. This essay, and this book, are about the connections between the two: popular cul- ture and religion. Looking at the various ways in which these two sub- ject areas interact provides a way to refl ect on religion that is quite dif- ferent from studying religious institutions, their scriptures, and their formal theologians. Approaching the study of religion through popular culture can help us learn more about the role religion plays in people’s everyday lives and about widespread perceptions of it. The analysis of popular culture also can provide insights into how religions change and are changed by the cultures in which they are embedded. To help frame the discussion of such avenues of inquiry, this introductory essay will attempt to defi ne popular culture, summarize some of the basic terminology and strategies of popular culture analysis, and introduce four di" erent ways that popular culture and religion relate to one another.

defining popular culture

What is popular culture? Most of us already have a rough idea from the very phrase itself, but some clarifi cation might be helpful. Scholars in the fi eld frequently distinguish popular culture from both high (or elite) culture and folk culture. To employ suggestive examples from the realm of food: high culture is a gourmet meal, folk culture is grandma’s

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 3

casserole, and popular culture is a McDonald’s hamburger.2 All three are forms of “culture,” which is intended here as a neutral term that includes the whole range of human products and thoughts that sur- round our lives, providing the context in which we live. Although some advocates of high culture would like to use the word “culture” in a more restricted sense, arguing that the word should be applied only to those human works that are of higher sophistication and quality—so, for instance, a symphony orchestra might be an example of “culture” while a polka band would not—analysts of popular culture use the word “culture” in a wider sense, without making judgments of value, quality, or taste, so that comic books and Faulkner novels, tuxedos and torn jeans, radio talk shows and university lectures, and the three meals mentioned above are all parts of “culture.”

The distinctions between the three classifi cations of culture (high, folk, and popular) have to do especially with the size of the respective cultures’ audiences, and perhaps also the means by which they are transmitted. High or elite culture, often transmitted in written form (a literary magazine, the score of an opera, a gourmet cookbook), has a limited audience by its very intention and is addressed to persons who are perceived to have superior backgrounds or more sophisticated taste. Folk culture, often transmitted orally (family recipes, local legends, regional marriage customs), also has a limited audience, because the oral communication is roughly limited to the more immediate family, community, or other local or regional group. Popular culture might be communicated in many ways, but it most often becomes widespread, and thus popular, through mass media (television, radio, movies, books, magazines, and cyber-communication). As its very name implies, pop- ular culture is marked by its larger audience.

At this point a disagreement has arisen among scholars of popular culture about its further defi nition. How indispensable are the mass media to the concept of popular culture? One circle of scholars is rep- resented by Ray Browne, a key fi gure in the founding of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association. They

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consider popular culture to be the broad “way of life of a people” that “has existed since the most primitive times”: in other words, even before the advent of the printing press and other developments of mass media.3 Athenians laughing at the plays of Aristophanes would be a historical example. This approach to the defi nition makes it possible to discuss the existence of popular culture throughout virtually the entire range of human history. When this defi nition is used, popular culture and folk culture sometimes merge and are di" cult to distinguish in earlier time periods, although they still contrast with high culture.

Another circle of scholars is represented by Russel Nye, also a cen- tral fi gure in the development of popular cultural analysis as an aca- demic fi eld. They contend that truly popular culture requires a mass audience (created by urbanization and democratization) and technolo- gies of mass distribution (the printing press and the various forms of mass media that followed). Popular culture thus “describes a cultural condition that could not have appeared in Western civilization before the late eighteenth century,” Nye asserts.4 In essence, mass mediation is a basic part of the defi nition for this group of scholars and not for the other. When we move beyond historical questions and consider the present, however, both perspectives agree that popular culture refers to “that which is (or has been) accepted or approved of by large groups of people,” and that the mass media are today of central importance in its transmission.5 Thus popular culture includes television programs, movies, popular music, comic books, social media, video games, maga- zines, popular fi ction (romance, detective, graphic novels), and much more.

The question remains: how widespread must something be in order to be considered popular? For example, in previous decades, popular music often was measured in general “top forty” lists, but these have given way to more specifi c categories of music for more targeted audi- ences: adult contemporary, rock, country, R&B/hip-hop, latin, jazz, blues, and on and on. Some music may still be broadly recognized, but are not the more specifi c kinds of music examples of popular culture as

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well, within what we might call sub-universes or subcultures of the larger national or international cultures? We are dealing with spec- trums of popularity, and it is di" cult to draw clear lines. Yet these very degrees of popularity can be one of the subjects of our analysis: why is it that certain popular cultural forms fl ourish in some subgroups and not in others?

These comments, then, do not leave us with an absolutely clear defi - nition. The contrasts between popular culture, folk culture, and high culture are instead simply a suggestive typology, and the pure types do not always precisely fi t actual examples. Furthermore, an example of popular culture in one time period or geographical location might be high culture in another setting, such as medieval European morality plays, which may have been popular culture when performed by street players centuries ago but become high culture when presented in an American university theater today. In short, as Ray Browne writes, popular culture “is an indistinct term whose edges blur into impreci- sion,”6 but, even with its imprecision, the notion of “popular culture” draws our attention to the widespread, common, frequently commer- cial, and often entertaining aspects of our cultural context as worthy of attention and refl ection.

analyzing popular culture

Why should we pay attention to popular culture, even studying it in academic settings? What could we learn? Put most simply, popular cul- ture both refl ects us and shapes us, and the implications of that twofold dynamic are profound.

On one hand, popular culture refl ects us. This strikes many as com- mon sense, because it is the general public that makes something popular. For example, creators and producers o1 er new television series to the public every year, but their manipulation of publicity and time slots can- not automatically guarantee that a show will be a hit; the public decides, sometimes surprising the pundits. “We” make something popular when it

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touches a chord within us, perhaps expressing our assumptions and val- ues, or portraying our yearnings, or providing moments of escape. There has to be a reason (or reasons) why great numbers of people choose to watch one television show and not another. The trick, of course, is to fi g- ure out what the reason is. In the process, we are essentially trying to learn about ourselves.

Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lause, in their introduction to popular cul- ture analysis at the beginning of Popular Culture: An Introductory Text, o" er a “Popular Culture Formula” that exemplifi es this approach. Their formula states simply that “the popularity of a given cultural element (object, person or event) is directly proportional to the degree to which that element is refl ective of audience beliefs and values.” Thus, we examine elements of popular culture “not as ends in themselves but as means of unlocking their meaning in the culture as a whole.” It is a “quest for meaning” to ask “why audiences choose one cultural element over another” and try to discern what this choice says about those audi- ences.7 In a widely used metaphor, popular culture is like a mirror, refl ecting who we are. Yet when we look into the mirror, the images are somewhat altered or distorted, because only portions of our realities, interests, values, and desires are refl ected back to us, with a selectivity that is infl uenced by the personal perceptions and intentions of the cre- ative forces behind popular culture. As a result, Nachbar and Lause and others refer to popular culture as a funhouse mirror.8

Because popular culture surrounds us, it seems reasonable to assume that its messages and subtle themes infl uence us as well as refl ect us. If popular culture refl ects values we already hold, that refl ection also serves to reinforce our values and deepen our commitment to them. If selective images emphasize certain groups or experiences and neglect others, our perceptions of reality may be altered. Television programs and commercials of the 1950s, in which African Americans seldom appeared, provide an example. Consistent viewing of such pro- gramming helped the dominant white society ignore or forget that African Americans were part of the nation’s community, and let Afri-

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 7

can American viewers receive and internalize the message that they were marginal.

Michael Real provides another example of how popular culture shapes us. His book Mass-Mediated Culture argues that

Mass-mediated culture primarily serves the interests of the relatively small political-economic power elite that sits atop the social pyramid. It does so by programming mass consciousness. . . . For example, while alleg- edly “giving people what they want,” commercial television maximizes private corporate profi t, restricts choices, fragments consciousness, and masks alienation.9

Kenneth Myers, an evangelical Christian and a journalist, o" ers a dif- ferent critique of the subtle infl uences of popular culture when he emphasizes “the erosion of character, the spoiling of innocent pleas- ures, and the cheapening of life itself.”10

Almost all arguments about popular culture’s infl uence, however, include the hope that once we analyze popular culture’s subtle dynam- ics and raise them to a level of consciousness, they will no longer a" ect us, at least not as powerfully as before, making us more resistant to manipulation. Trusting in this new awareness, activists work to blunt popular culture’s e" ects and perhaps even change the production of popular culture in directions they fi nd more appropriate. This is an indication of a more general confl ict between the creators of popular culture and their critics, which illustrates the twofold claim that popu- lar culture both refl ects us and shapes us. When crusaders argue that movies, advertisements, video games, and other products of popular culture prompt violence, or demean women, or encourage materialism, popular culture’s producers often answer that they are merely refl ect- ing society. On the much debated subject of violence, for instance, crit- ics complain that the frequency of violence in movies or on television has helped create a more violent society, while producers argue that their programs simply express the realities of an already violent soci- ety. From the perspective of this essay, such a disagreement presents a

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8 / Introduction

false choice, because both claims may be true; it remains appropriate, however, to argue which claim is more signifi cant than the other.

To examine popular culture as both a refl ection and a shaping force, what specifi c strategies or methodologies might we employ to try to discern the underlying meanings and infl uences of popular culture? The essays in this book will provide examples of a variety of approaches. However, let me fi rst make two general points.

First of all, some discussions that purport to be popular culture analysis limit themselves to a consideration of the intentions of the cre- ators and the nature of the popular culture text or artifact itself. These discussions are valuable, and are akin to literary analyses, but unless we add a focus on audience reception, on how and why the public receives and responds to the element of popular culture, we miss the special insights that the study of popular culture can bring. For example, it may be interesting to hear the inside stories told by producers and cast members of the various Star Trek television series, including descrip- tions of their personal backgrounds and motivations, but the central question for popular culture analysis is why and how Star Trek became popular. What attracted the audience? What does its popularity say about the audience? How does it infl uence the audience?

Secondly, we are likely to discern more about the meanings of popular culture when we examine patterns rather than isolated examples. A critic might discuss a unique, groundbreaking novel by a particular mystery writer, but this novel becomes more signifi cant for popular culture analy- sis when examined in light of detective fi ction as a genre, particularly when it represents a continuing or changing pattern rather than a single anomaly. Single examples tend to focus upon creative uniqueness; pat- terns and genres point to broader themes and popular response.

recognizing religion

The academic examination of popular culture has fl ourished in recent decades, with the founding of the Popular Culture Association in 1971

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 9

and the American Culture Association in 1979, a number of presenta- tions about popular culture at other scholarly conventions like the Modern Language Association and the American Studies Association, and the advent of popular culture commentators in the national media. In the early years religion often was underrepresented in these popular culture discussions. For example, an introductory undergraduate text about popular culture published by the Popular Culture Association in 1992 contained twenty-nine articles, none of which pertained directly to religion.11 The fi rst session of a Religion and Popular Culture group at a national meeting of the American Academy of Religion did not occur until 1995, with a theme issue in the AAR’s journal the following year;12 some of the essays presented or published there appeared in the fi rst edition of this volume. Thereafter the quantity of scholarship exploring the topic of religion in relation to popular culture has exploded, in books, articles, presentations, and college courses too numerous to count.

Now that religion is included in the discussion, it is important to emphasize that what we call religion can be perceived at several levels. The most readily recognizable manifestation is institutional religion: major religions of the world such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hin- duism, Buddhism, and indigenous spiritualities, among others, plus any number of smaller groups. Beyond the institutionalized religions, one often can detect some broad societal assumptions or tendencies about what is holy or what is valued most highly. Examples might include the common assumption that wealth is a measure of success or the tension Americans feel between individualism and the assumed valued of the family. Furthermore, many individuals have their own somewhat unique, personal religious beliefs and practices that do not fi t with any particular group. It has become commonplace for many to call the insti- tutionalized groups “religions” and to use the label “spirituality” to refer to general movements and private expressions, thus the prevalent phrase “spiritual but not religious.” However, many scholars in reli- gious studies would use “religion” in a broader sense, to include the

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10 / Introduction

institutionalized groups, general cultural tendencies, and individual expressions as well.

Thus, some defi nitions of religion are very inclusive, beyond what is the ordinary meaning of “religion” for many people. When the Chris- tian theologian Paul Tillich calls religion “ultimate concern,” or when the authors of an undergraduate text defi ne it as “any person’s reliance upon a pivotal value,” they see religion as the organizing principle in a person’s life, whatever is most important, the value or concern to which everything else is subordinate.13 While such a defi nition defi nitely includes major world religions, it also might include many other pas- sions or priorities for an individual or a society, such as nationalism, or materialism, or sports. Defi ned this broadly, the topic of religion cer- tainly ought to arise in the process of analyzing popular culture, because popularity is seen as an indication of what the public values, and that might be called their “religion” in its broadest sense.

Other scholars would use the word religion in a narrower way, to refer to human expressions that are closer to the traditional religions most people recognize. Julia Mitchell Corbett’s working defi nition of religion in her textbook Religion in America is that a “religion is an inte- grated system of belief, lifestyle, ritual activities, and institutions by which individuals give meaning to (or fi nd meaning in) their lives by orienting themselves to what they take to be holy, sacred, or of the highest value.”14 This defi nition still is broad enough to include uncon- ventional religions, or twelve-step programs, or what used to be called the new age movement, but it is more restrictive than the previous defi - nitions cited. Even when defi ned more narrowly, religion certainly appears frequently in popular culture.

As with our discussion of the concept of “popular culture,” we need not arrive here at one conclusive defi nition of the term “religion,” although there is further discussion of defi nitions in the following sec- tions, especially when we ask whether a feature of popular culture like sports might be considered a religion. For now, it is helpful to see the spectrum of subject matter that is associated with the topic of religion.

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 11

In learning about religion and popular culture, we will fi nd ourselves discussing not only the institutional religions we readily recognize, with rabbis, and cathedrals, and revivals. Religion also may be present in discussions of the roles superheroes play as deliverers, or refl ections on the struggles of life, or in devotional acts to a celebrity, or in ritual patterns of television viewers.

four relationships between religion and popular culture

The topic of religion and popular culture has seen an explosion of interest in recent decades among scholars from very diverse formal educational backgrounds (e.g., theology, history, biblical studies, litera- ture, cultural studies, anthropology, and media studies), who are often unaware of one another’s work. It remains an area of study in need of defi nition, articulated methodologies, and fuller awareness of the diverse contributions already made. This book hopes to contribute to the process with its continuing revisions.

One step is to recognize that religion and popular culture relate to each other in at least four di4 erent ways, and each merits examination:

1. Religion in popular culture

2. Popular culture in religion

3. Popular culture as religion

4. Religion and popular culture in dialogue15

Religion in Popular Culture

When people hear about religion and popular culture, the examples in this category probably are what fi rst come to mind when religious char- acters, images, themes, language, and subject matter appear in elements of popular culture. For instance, how often do Catholic nuns, or Bud- dhist monks, or revivalist preachers appear in movies, and how are they

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12 / Introduction

portrayed? Other examples might include the redeemer role played by comic book superheroes, or the frequency of apocalyptic themes, or an apparent public fascination with witches, angels, vampires, and zombies in television series. How does religion appear in expressions of popular culture? How is it portrayed? At what points in popular culture is reli- gion strikingly absent? What does it mean?

Movies, which have received more attention from religion scholars than any other feature of popular culture, can provide helpful illustra- tions of how religion might appear in popular culture, both explicitly and implicitly. First, there are those fi lms that explicitly focus on reli- gion: The Passion of the Christ (2004), The Ten Commandments (1956), The Chosen (1981), Gandhi (1982), and Little Buddha (1993) are obvious examples. In addition, many movies include explicit representations of religion or religious fi gures, although they may not be the focus of the fi lms: priests, monks and nuns, rabbis, evangelists, sun dancers, gothic cathe- drals, Muslim prayer rugs, exorcisms, and so on. In all such cases, one might attempt to discern patterns in these portrayals of religion, asking what the patterns reveal about the creative forces behind the images and the audiences who respond.

Religion also makes implicit appearances. For instance, many theo- logically oriented viewers fi nd allegorical Christ fi gures in movies, such as the extraterrestrial in E.T. (1982), a special being with healing powers who descends to earth, is loved by many, misunderstood and feared by the authorities, and fi nally undergoes death and resurrection. Many of the Superman movies can be interpreted in this way, most obviously Superman Returns (2006). Average viewers may detect nothing religious at all in the movie, but the examples are not subtle. Zach Sny- der, the director of the following Superman movie, Man of Steel (2013), with similar parallels, commented, “The Christ-like parallels, I didn’t make that stu* up. We weren’t like, ‘Hey, let’s add this!’ That stu* is there, in the mythology. That is the tried-and-true Superman meta- phor.”16 However, as an essay by Dan Clanton in this volume points out, the Jewish themes in Superman are equally strong.17 Neo in the Matrix

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 13

trilogy of movies (1999–2003) generated considerable debate about whether the implicit religious metaphors are Christian, Buddhist, Jew- ish, or Gnostic.

Such religious allegories are found not only in characters like E.T. or Superman, but also in plot structures. Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence make such an argument in their book The American Monomyth, later republished in substantially revised form as The Myth of the Ameri- can Superhero. They note that Joseph Campbell wrote about a “classical monomyth,” a single archetypal plot in which a hero “ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” This plot is based on rites of initiation and is seen in the stories of Ulysses, Aeneas, St. George and the dragon, and countless others. Yet Jewett and Lawrence are convinced that most of American popular culture follows a di& erent singular plot, a distinc- tively American monomyth: “A community in a harmonious paradise is threatened by evil: normal institutions fail to contend with this threat: a selfl ess superhero emerges to renounce temptations and carry out the redemptive task: aided by fate, his decisive victory restores the commu- nity to its paradisal condition: the superhero then recedes into obscu- rity.” Western movies in which the hero rides into the sunset at the con- clusion, as well as the stories of comic book superheroes, provide ready illustrations of this plot. Jewett and Lawrence note that the American monomyth is essentially a secularization of Judeo-Christian redemp- tion dramas: “The supersaviors in pop culture function as replacements for the Christ fi gure, whose credibility was eroded by scientifi c ration- alism,” they write. “But their superhuman abilities refl ect a hope of divine, redemptive powers that science has never eradicated from the popular mind.”18

The American monomyth is only one example of what might be called a mythological approach, borrowing from the study of compara- tive religion. Films can be examined for “cross-cultural forms, including

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14 / Introduction

myth, ritual, systems of purity, and gods,” and studied for “the ways Hollywood reinterprets, appropriates, invents, or rejects” these archetypes.19

Finally, in addition to characters and plot structures, there are also implicitly religious themes in popular culture stories. Theologians, often Jewish and Christian theologians, have for years been eager to discuss what they see as implicit theological themes in fi lm: love, mean- ing, forgiveness, sin, and death and resurrection. Through the arts and the responses of their audiences, human beings ask questions of iden- tity and purpose and wrestle with possible answers to these questions. Many theologians are interested in viewing movies to see how “the world” poses the questions, are intrigued when the answers seem to parallel their own faith traditions, and o# er critiques when they disa- gree with the implicit answers. A considerable body of theological lit- erature takes this approach. Andrew M. Greeley, a Catholic priest, sociologist, and prolifi c author, goes a step further, seeing popular cul- ture in general, and fi lm in particular, as a locus in which one may encounter God. “The fi lm is the sacramental art par excellence; either as a fi ne or lively art nothing is quite so vivid as fi lm for revealing the presence of God.”20

Movies thus illustrate how religion might appear on several di# erent levels: through explicit representations, allegorical parallels, and implicit theological themes. Of course, the same variety of manifesta- tions can be found in country music, television comedies, music videos, comic strips, spy stories, science fi ction, romance novels, and so forth; religion is represented or expressed in many ways in all of these popu- lar cultural forms.

Popular Culture in Religion

This category refers to the appropriation of aspects of popular culture by religious groups and institutions. Even more, this category considers the impact of popular culture upon traditionally recognized religious

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 15

groups, infl uencing what they believe and how they operate. For instance, when churches or synagogues borrow popular musical styles, or organizational or advertising techniques, or popular culture slogans and icons, are the popular culture appropriations totally neutral, or do they change the religion and the message in some ways? As another example, when the Dalai Lama appears on a billboard, do the religion and the message change or not? What are the dynamics involved?

These infl uences can be subtle. The thesis of Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business provides an interesting example of a cultural infl uence that is both pervasive and yet largely unrecognized. Postman argues that American culture has moved from a print-dominated age to an age of television, and that the shift has literally changed our ways of thinking and the content of our culture. Echoing Marshall McLuhan’s aphorism that the medium is the message, Postman maintains that print culture (the age of typography, of exposi- tion), by the very nature of its mode of communication, encouraged coherent, orderly, serious, rational discourse with propositional content. Television, he says, shifts us to an image-based culture that features explosions of images, fragmented rather than coherent, emphasizing sensation and feeling rather than rationality. Postman calls the televi- sion era the age of show business, because entertainment is its highest value. He devotes an entire chapter to television’s impact on religion, arguing that religion on television is presented simply as entertainment, not because of defi ciencies in the televangelists but because of the nature of the medium itself: anything presented on television becomes enter- tainment. Furthermore, because the pervasiveness of television has shaped the expectations of the entire culture, even when a religious practice (such as a small local church’s weekly worship service) is not on television, it is pressured to measure up to entertainment standards. When religion is presented as entertainment, does the basic content and character of religion change? “The danger is not that religion has become the content of television shows,” Postman writes, “but that television shows may become the content of religion.”21

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Postman’s book is a classic and has been widely infl uential, but it was published in 1985, and technological changes since then have been breathtaking. In an era of computers, tablets, and smartphones, is the cyber-communication in today’s popular culture landscape a further extension of the characteristics of the television age Postman described, or have we entered into another new age with di& erent dynamics? If so, how does that impact the beliefs and practices of religion?

What are other ways in which religions consciously or unconsciously borrow examples, images, language, themes, and assumptions from popular culture as tools for their own purposes? Does such borrowing infl uence the religion, for good or for ill, sometimes in ways it may not recognize? For example, what does it mean when the supposedly dis- tinctive music of an evangelical Christian youth subculture is expressed in hard rock, heavy metal, alternative, or meditative (“new age”) musi- cal styles? As another example, what are the implications of the trend, currently so popular in the culture, of casting religion as a self-help program, for wellness or for prosperity?22 One more question: when religious groups adopt “the strategies and techniques of modern mar- keting” from the business world, and “the audience becomes a market and the gospel is transformed into a product,” should religious people view these infl uences as e& ective adaptation or a threatening transfor- mation?23 Of the four relationships between religion and popular cul- ture, this one, the impact of popular culture upon religion, has been the least examined.

Popular Culture as Religion

A third category involves the argument that popular culture serves as religion or functions like religion for many people. Crucial to these discussions, of course, is one’s defi nition of religion, which we already have considered in a preliminary way. Catherine Albanese has pro- vided a helpful, concise summary of three types of defi nitions: substan- tive, functional, and formal.

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 17

Substantive defi nitions of religion focus on the inner core, essence, or nature of religion and defi ne it by this thing-in-itself. They tend to empha- size a relationship with a higher being or beings (God or the Gods) and to be favored by theologians and philosophers. Functional defi nitions of reli- gion emphasize the e# ects of religion in actual life. They stress the systems of meaning-making the religion provides and how it helps people deal with the ills, insecurities, and catastrophes of living. Functional defi nitions are favored by scholars in the social sciences. Lastly, formal defi nitions of reli- gion look for typically religious forms gleaned from the comparative study of religions and fi nd the presence of religion where such forms can be iden- tifi ed. Religious forms include sacred stories, rituals, moral codes, and communities; and formal defi nitions of religion tend to be favored by histo- rians of religions.24

Most claims about popular culture as religion are based upon func- tional or formal defi nitions, but it is possible to fi nd some appeals to substantive defi nitions as well.

One of the most common examples that might be examined in this way are various “fandoms,” subcultures of fans who form communities through social networks and/or at conventions to share their enthusi- asm and extend the experience, with costumes, newly created stories and videos, detailed expertise, reenactments, and more. Star Trek fans, Trekkies, are among the best known and are the subject of one of this volume’s essays, but there are many others, surrounding Harry Potter, Twilight, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, Disney, Star Wars, comic book superheroes, and the Beatles, to name a few. One might mention the devotion of those who followed the Grateful Dead from concert to concert, or Graceland as an Elvis shrine and pilgrimage site. In all of these cases, one might comment that the devotion of the fans seems almost religious, but could that be a serious claim? It would depend on the defi nition of religion one uses. In light of the defi nition chosen, do the groups provide public rituals, private rites, myths and symbol sys- tems through which their followers interpret the world, the way tradi- tional religions do? Do they provide meaning and purpose for partici- pants? Are belief systems involved, with basic worldviews and values?

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18 / Introduction

In the end, whether one concludes that the various examples are reli- gions or not, the discussion sheds light on various needs, patterns, and desires of human existence.

In addition to such comparisons with specifi c features of popular culture, one might also assert that the sum total of American popular culture expresses an overall cultural religion. John Wiley Nelson, in Your God Is Alive and Well and Appearing in Popular Culture, another classic book, makes just this claim: “Popular culture is to what most Americans believe as worship services are to what the members of institutional religions believe.” Nelson, a theologian, describes what he sees as American cultural religion, with a belief system regarding the nature and source of problems (evil), the source of deliverance, the nature of a resolved situation, and the proper path to the future. In his view, the beliefs of this American cultural religion are generally not consistent with the formal religions to which many Americans claim to adhere. He argues that the Western movie “is the classic ritual form, the ‘High Mass,’ of the predominant American belief system.” Unlike high art, he says, which “challenges one’s self-understanding towards self-criticism and insight,” the primary function of popular culture as “worship” is “to a# rm already held beliefs and values.” The mythic pattern of a Western is pervasive, he believes, appearing in Casablanca and modern crime dramas as well as stories set in the pioneer American West. The pattern of this basic storyline is important because it reveals and reaf- fi rms what the dominant culture really believes, such as the general public’s conviction that they are relatively innocent and that evil comes from outside. “Those institutions normally called ‘religions’ are explicit in announcing precisely what they believe and in scheduling the ritual dramas of rea# rmation, that is, the worship services. American cul- tural religion is much less recognizably explicit, but no less powerfully persuasive in our lives,” Nelson writes.25

When Nelson describes what he sees as an “American cultural reli- gion,” he focuses upon its beliefs, especially its assumptions about what is unsatisfactory in our present existence and the source of our eventual

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 19

deliverance. Other scholars give more emphasis to the forms of religion, and the parallel forms that appear in popular culture: rituals, symbols, myths, and icons. Yet another approach is to notice that popular culture and traditional religions function in similar ways, providing meaning and helping people cope with life’s problems. Whether the emphasis is upon essential religious beliefs, religious forms, or religious functions, each avenue of discussion makes it possible to suggest that aspects of popular culture (sports, weight loss programs, shopping, celebrities, and more) might constitute a religion for their most devoted followers.

Religion and Popular Culture in Dialogue

Other interactions between religion and popular culture do not fi t well in the three categories considered thus far. The issue of violence in the media, briefl y mentioned earlier, is a good example. When religious leaders become involved in the debate about whether portrayals of vio- lence in movies and on television are harmful to society, it is not a mat- ter of representations of religion in the media (religion in popular cul- ture), nor is it directly a matter of popular culture shaping religion (popular culture in religion). Most of the discussions do not claim that violence has become a sort of religion (popular culture as religion), although it might be possible to make that case. Rather, violence in the media and in society is an ethical issue that concerns both religions and religious people and the general population. Religion wants to take part in the broader discussion.

While this fourth category, religion and popular culture in dialogue, may seem like a catch-all to include discussions that do not belong else- where, if one imagines two parties in conversation with each other, there is a coherence to it. We might provisionally refer to two sides of the conversation, religion on one side and popular culture on the other, even though conceptually religion and popular culture are not totally separate entities, and neither does each side speak with one voice. Yet in a generalized sense, there is a dialogue between the two “sides,”

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20 / Introduction

when they (a) talk to and about the other side, and (b) when they engage in conversation about issues in which they have a shared interest. The term “dialogue” here is meant broadly, including a# rmations, denun- ciations, observations, and shared concerns.

From the religious side, denunciations often receive the most pub- licity, when Muslim-American leaders complain about the negative portrayal of Muslims in action-adventure movies, or when conserva- tive Christians criticize positive depictions of LGBT relationships in television programs. Yet religious leaders also have spoken apprecia- tively of aspects of popular culture, for bringing greater awareness of global cultures and religious diversity, or promoting stories about the less fortunate. In the other direction, popular culture voices also speak to and about religion, as when movies like Spotlight (2015) portray abu- sive activities by religious leaders or when songwriters comment on religious hypocrisy, as we hear in Green Day’s “East Jesus Nowhere.” Other creators of popular culture have been a# rming of religion, with country singers regularly including Christian hymns in their albums and movies and television telling heart-warming stories of confl ict end- ing in reconciliation. In the examples cited above, when religious lead- ers object to or praise how they are portrayed in popular culture, this dialogue overlaps with the fi rst category, religion in popular culture. When general cultural issues and values constitute the topic, however, it belongs more clearly under the heading of religion and popular cul- ture in dialogue.

The dialogue is about much more than whether religious leaders approve of American popular culture or not, or whether popular cul- tural voices criticize or a# rm religion. Popular culture represents and sometimes advances values and perspectives about gender roles, race, sexuality, economic objectives, defi nitions of success, the relative importance of youth and the elderly, and so on. These issues are not directly about religion, but they are ethical arenas to which religious values pertain, and thus religions of all kinds enter into dialogue with popular culture and its creative forces.

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 21

In the United States, Jewish and Christian representatives have his- torically been the predominant religious voices in these exchanges. The dialogues are being enriched by the addition of voices from other religious traditions, more direct (even face to face) conversations between creators of popular culture and religious representatives at conferences or workshops, and scholarly assessments of the shape of the dialogue.

conclusion

These four relationships between religion and popular culture are not exclusive categories; in fact, they might better be seen as interactive, helpful in highlighting four directions of scholarly discussion, even though discussions of one aspect can and often do shade into discus- sions of another. For example, R. Laurence Moore’s Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture describes not only how religion has borrowed commercial practices to promote religion (popular culture in religion) but also how business leaders have employed religion to advance their commercial purposes (religion in popular culture).26 Christian theologians who highlight the presence of implicit theologi- cal themes in novels or television shows (religion in popular culture) often include comparative discussions of religious and cultural assump- tions (religion in dialogue with popular culture). There is fl uidity among the relationships between religion and popular culture. Though these categories are imprecise, when a person’s refl ection fi ts almost totally into one of the categories, the outline of four relationships can be useful in suggesting additional possibilities.

Many of us come to the analysis of popular culture with a particular special interest, related to our own private enthusiasms (comic books, country music, video games, science fi ction, or whatever), and we some- times hesitate to reveal our interest and even fandom to our more “sophisticated” friends. To enter into refl ection on the meanings and infl uences of popular culture out of simple curiosity or because “it’s

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22 / Introduction

fun” is an e" ective starting point that requires no apology, and it easily leads to the conviction that we have stumbled upon something that holds promise for signifi cant insight in understanding ourselves, and in understanding religion in the context of our culture.

This volume is intended to survey and widen the discussion, which many of us know only in narrow slices. A broader view allows us to share and borrow methodologies, detect wider patterns, and stimulate our curiosity about new subject areas. The possibilities for research and refl ection are endless, because the multifaceted and constantly chang- ing nature of popular culture, and the changing faces of religion as well, assure that there will be no fi nal word.

discussion questions

1. What could a person possibly learn by analyzing popular culture?

2. Do you agree that popular culture both shapes us and refl ects us? If so, what are some examples? If not, explain.

3. This chapter and this book describe four di" erent relationships between religion and popular culture. Do these four relation- ships make sense? Would you suggest any additional categories?

4. Various defi nitions of religion are mentioned in this chapter, including Catherine Albanese’s three kinds of defi nitions. What defi nition of religion, or which kind of defi nition, would you support as most accurate or most helpful? Why?

notes

1. This sentence echoes the title of John Wiley Nelson’s classic book on the subject, Your God Is Alive and Well and Appearing in Popular Culture (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976).

2. See Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lause, “An Introduction to the Study of Pop- ular Culture: What Is This Stu" that Dreams Are Made Of?” in Popular Culture:

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Religion in Unexpected Places / 23

An Introductory Text, ed. Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lause (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1992), 1–35, esp. 16–17.

3. Ibid., 11. 4. Russel B. Nye, “Notes on a Rationale for Popular Culture,” in The Popu-

lar Culture Reader, ed. Jack Nachbar and John L. Wright (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1977), 10–16, quotation from 10.

5. Nachbar and Lause, eds., Popular Culture Reader, “Introduction,” 5–6. 6. Ray B. Browne, “Popular Culture: Notes Toward a Defi nition,” in Nach-

bar and Wright, eds., Popular Culture Reader, 1–9, quotation from 1. 7. Nachbar and Lause, eds., Popular Culture Reader, “Introduction,” 5–6. 8. Ibid., 7; examples of the common use of the phrase “funhouse mirror” to

describe popular culture include Michael Medved, Hollywood vs. America: Popu- lar Culture and the War on Traditional Values (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 253, and Melissa Ames and Sarah Burcon, How Pop Culture Shapes the Stages of a Woman’s Life: From Toddlers-in-Tiaras to Cougars-on-the-Prowl (New York: Pal- grave Macmillan, 2016), with an Introduction titled “Funhouse Mirrors— Popular Culture’s Distorted View of Girl/Womanhood.”

9. Michael R. Real, Mass-Mediated Culture (Englewood Cli+ s, NJ: Prentice- Hall, 1977), xi.

10. Kenneth A. Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), xiii.

11. Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lause, eds., Popular Culture: An Introductory Text (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1992).

12. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 61, no. 3 (Fall 1996). 13. Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper & Row, 1957), 1–4;

Robert C. Monk et al., Exploring Religious Meaning, 3rd ed. (Englewood Cli+ s, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987), 3.

14. Julia Mitchell Corbett, Religion in America, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997), 7.

15. In addition to the four relationships between religion and popular cul- ture considered here, one might argue for a fi fth possibility, religion as popu- lar culture. If popular culture sometimes functions as religion, can the inverse be true as well? Can religious activity or production not only take on the fea- tures of popular culture, but function fully as popular culture? This might apply especially to historical situations where a single religion is central to a culture as a whole, prior to the complications of secularization and religious diversity. Pre-Lenten carnivals in medieval Europe or camp meetings in nine- teenth-century America could be viewed as examples of religious activity and popular culture at the same time; the widespread wearing of crosses or Taoist

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24 / Introduction

symbols as jewelry might be cited as modern examples. Yet all of these could be considered extensions of “religion in popular culture,” although they near the limits of the category. We recognize the fl uidity of these categories and the possibility that at various points others will fi nd additional categories possible.

16. Jennifer Vineyard, “‘Man of Steel’ director Zack Snyder on Superman’s Christ-like parallels,” www.cnn.com/2013/06/14/showbiz/zack-snyder-man- of-steel.

17. See Simcha Weinstein, Up, Up, and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero (Baltimore: Leviathan Press, 2006) as one of several books about the Jewish infl uence on comic books in general.

18. Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence, The American Monomyth (Gar- den City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1977), xix–xx. Their quotation from Joseph Campbell is from his The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New York: Merid- ian, 1956), 30. Lawrence and Jewett’s revised volume (the names are reversed for this edition) is The Myth of the American Superhero (Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerd- mans, 2002.).

19. See the discussion of “mythological criticism” in Joel W. Martin and Conrad E. Oswalt Jr., eds., Screening the Sacred: Religion, Myth, and Ideology in Pop- ular American Film (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), 6.

20. Andrew Greeley, God in Popular Culture (Chicago: Thomas More Press, 1988), 245–46.

21. Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Penguin Books, 1985), 124.

22. Three examples from dramatically di+ erent perspectives are Leonard Sweet, The Jesus Prescription for a Healthy Life (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996); David W. Jones and Russell S. Woodbridge, Health, Wealth, and Happiness: Has the Prosperity Gospel Overshadowed the Gospel of Christ? (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2010); Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gos- pel (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

23. Quentin J. Schultze expresses concerns about such developments in Tel- evangelism and American Culture: The Business of Popular Religion (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991), 14–17.

24. Catherine L. Albanese, America: Religions and Religion (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1981), xxi.

25. John Wiley Nelson, Your God Is Alive and Well and Appearing in Popular Culture (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), 16, 30, 196, 19.

26. R. Laurence Moore, Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Cul- ture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

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