Sociology of religion: Popular culture re-enchants religion. Discuss.

POPULAR CULTURE RE-ENCHANTS RELIGION
By: Name
Institution
Course
Tutor
Date
Popular Culture Re-Enchants Religion
Culture and religion, although different in definition and scope, are closely tied. It is hard to talk about culture and fail to mention religion. Culture refers to the system and set of beliefs, practices, ethics, art, and other aspects that constitute a people’s way of life. Religion, on the other hand, is a system of beliefs, rules and practices that people engage in as a way of worshipping a deity. From these definitions, it is evident that religion is an important part of culture. As such, culture and religion influence on another. More specifically, culture, having a larger scope, molds religion. In particular, popular culture, as the name suggests, is the way of life that is acceptable to the majority of the people in society. Popular culture comprises generally accepted ideas, knowledge, practices and beliefs that many of the people in a given location at a given period identify with. Due to its wide acceptance and prevalent practice, popular culture re-enchants religion.
The prevailing cultural systems in a society influence the shape that the religion of that society takes. For instance, a change in the popular culture of the people after the Second World War led to the commodification of religion (Carrette and King, 2005, 41). According to Jeremy Carrette and Richard King, after World War II, people became more concerned with affluence, personal freedom, and aspirations (2005, 41).

The culture of the people shifted towards consumerism. As popular culture changed, so did religion. In their book, Selling Religion: The Silent Takeover of Religion, Carrette and King (2005) say that religious principles were reconceptualized in such a way that they could fit the new consumerism culture (48). This was proof that religion is not necessarily or completely independent of cultural influence. In fact, as the writers articulate, any ideas or set of ideas that humans follow, as much as they may seem pretty obvious or commonsensical, are influenced by the prevailing sociopolitical conditions, among other factors such as economics (Carrette and King, 2005, 45-53).
According to Carrette and King, the modern religious system came out the cocoon of old institutional spiritualism after the cultural systems adopted the use of science, psychology, and economics to explain common sense (2005, 124-136). As a result, religion shifted its focus from a group perspective to a personal one. The individual became the center of spirituality. Religion’s interpretation of the world thus became more of to how an individual sees things and less how spirituality dictates that they should see it. Carrette and King illustrate this shift of focus through the repackaging of Buddhism’s First Noble Truth by Scott Peck, titled The Road Less Travelled. The Buddhist view of suffering, as Scott depicted, changed from matters that are problematic to the world at large such a social injustice to more personal sufferance (Carrette and King, 2005, 124-136).
In his book, Jesus in Disneyland: Religion in Postmodern Times, David Lyon examines the influence that postmodernity has on spirituality. The allegory of Jesus in Disneyland refers to the fact that, in the modern day, Disney characters are much more popular than the followers of Jesus (Lyon, 2000). In this analytical book, Lyon (2000) explores the aspects of modern popular culture, including personal and social identity, consumerism, and technology, and the effect they have on religion (11). The writer uses case studies of the modern-day Christian society to highlight the relationship between postmodern culture and spirituality. For instance, Lyon notes that the current state of religion has people starting and waging religious wars over the internet. According to the writer, popular culture has made people create their own smaller religions based on self-identity quests. Consequently, the traditional institutional spirituality plays a feudal role (Lyon, 2000, 143-147).
Lyon’s effort at illuminating the difference that the postmodern world has made to religion is successful. Cultural principles guiding the day-to-day lives of human beings have changed, and so has the peoples’ interpretation of religious principles (2000, 143). This change is evident in the enchantment of religion, as seen through the renaissance and reconstitution of spiritual practices and ways of life. As Lyon puts it, “Religious life is not shrinking, collapsing, or evaporating, as predicted by modernistic secularization theorists. Rather, in deregulated and post-institutional forms, the religious life draws upon multifarious resources with consequences, for better or worse, that are hard to predict, but that cry out for understanding” (Lyon, 2000, 19).
John Drane further illustrates the enchantment of religion by popular culture in his book, The McDonaldization of the Church. According to Drane (2000, 13)), it is not possible for people in the modern world to hang on to the same belief systems and patterns that people in the olden days followed. The writer says that ancient societies did a good job at molding religion according to the cultural systems of their days. It is, therefore, upon the modern man to do the same with the modern cultural system. In doing so, Drane notes, the modern man has had to disconnect from the dreams and visions of the forefathers so that he can forge his own spiritual journey befitting the present times.
As Drane argues, it is not that postmodernism has lost meaning as far as spiritualism is concerned. Rather, postmodernism has brought about a newfound meaning of spiritualism, different from the one that was popular in the earlier cultures (2000, 28). The new meaning has its basis on values like freedom, individualism, self-worth, logic and rationality, free-choice, etc. The older meaning, on the other hand, constituted of values such as collectiveness, acceptance, social morality, hierarchy, and so on. Consequently, today’s popular culture had made people so rational and logical, as well as rather self-centered and liberal (Drane, 2000, 125).
Frances King plunges into examining the connection between material identity and religion. In the book, Material Religion and Popular Culture, King investigates the cultural and spiritual lives of the Northern Irish people, especially the Catholics. King’s aim is to identify the various relationships between popular culture and religion. King’s take is that material possessions have a lot of meaning for people, especially the modern-day Christians (post-Vatican II Catholics, as he refers to them) (2009, 196-205). The writer argues that as much as people ignore the relationship between religion and material possession, there is evidence that collective identity becomes stronger when material objects are involved (King, 2009, 203-205). King articulates that material possessions are an important part of an individual’s identity, whether at home or in the religious circles. Material wealth, according to the writer, is the indicator of a person’s social rank, and to some level, the same signifies their spiritual affluence. As it is, the culture of material possession and religion are intertwined (King, 2009, 205).
The Politics of Contemporary Enchantment by Lynne Hume and Kathleen McPhillips perfectly captures the influence of popular culture on religion. The writers expressively say that contrary to common opinion, postmodernism, and popular culture has not created a secular spiritual system that lacks morality of commitment to spiritual beliefs. Rather, the modern religious system only needs to accept the shift from the old institutional religious patterns and practices (Hume and McPhillips, 2009, 65-68). According to Hume and McPhillips (2009), it is important that the modern religion restructures its indulgence of religion so that there is harmony between spiritualism and the revolutionized cultural systems. In this book, it is clear that popular culture and religion are never meant to collide. Instead, with the right attitude, popular culture and religion are mutually enriching and enchanting (Hume and McPhillips, 2009, 63). Clearly, popular culture has caused a revolution in the religious realms.
References
Carrette, J. and King, R. (2005). Selling spirituality. London: Routledge.
Drane, J. (2000). The McDonaldization of the church. London: Darton Longman & Todd.
Hume, L. and McPhillips, K. (2006). Popular spiritualities. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
King, E. (2009). Material religion and popular culture. New York: Routledge.
Lyon, D. (2000). Jesus in Disneyland. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers.
Ritzer, G. (1999). Enchanting a disenchanted world. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge Press.