The Religious and the Mediatic
What is religion? [Religion is] a system of symbols which acts to 2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long- lasting moods and motivations in men by 3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and 4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that 5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.” Clifford Geertz Religion is a cultural system- Ritual view Culture is a web of significance spun by humanity: organized religion, self-help therapies, personal spirituality and fandom, etc.
What is Religion? “An integrated system of beliefs, lifestyle, ritual activities, and institutions by which individuals give meaning to (or find meaning in) their lives by orienting themselves to what they take to be holy, sacred, or of the highest value.” Julia Corbett
What is Religion? “...is the organizing principle in a person’s life, the value or concern to which everything else is subordinate.”
Culturalist View What religion does to its adherents: provide a coherent, ordered meaning to life Studying religion is about meaning making: not an experimental science in search of law. James Carey’s transmission versus ritual view of communication
Culturalist View On Mediation... Media are not delivery devices but creaters of experiences, shared consciousness, and community. This mediation of religion is not controlled by theologians or religious organizations. Proliferation of religious voices and actors
Culturalist View Critique of religion as system of symbols: Talal Asad: risk of isolating religion as a self-contained, autonomous domain of human activity. Can you really find a universal definition of religion? Isn’t it contingent on the human experience Should we study belief as unchanging or should we study how it is articulated within social processes: consumption, politics, globalization, etc.?
Mediation Media Event: celebrating unity, an imagined community that is mediated. Media provide us a sense of togetherness that is real in only as far as it is mediated and imagined.
Media as Culture and Religion as Media Popular culture is no longer non-elite culture but common culture. Religion never went away in modernity Religion is not only culture but also MEDIA Media: a large inventory of old, new, personal and communal aesthetics.
What is a Medium? a wheel, a mirror (McLuhan); a school class, a soccer ball, a waiting room; the electoral system, a general strike, the street; a horse, a camel, the elephant; money, power and influence; art, belief and love (Luhmann) …
Religion in Popular Culture American Monomyth
Popular Culture in Religion
Pop Culture as Religion
Religion and Pop Culture in Dialogue