Popular Culture and Religion

Kultura popularna dekontekstualizuje elementy religijne, „wyrywa” je z podstawowego, pierwotnego kontekstu i tła kulturowego, a następnie rekontekstualizuje je (nadaje im nowy kontekst i znaczenie), tworząc z nich odmienne całości. Z tych elementów niczym z puzzli budowana jest współczesna duchowość. Tak jak wielkie narracje kultury ulegają hybrydyzacji, tak spetryfikowane wielkie religie zostają poddane procesowi dekonstrukcji. Uczestnicy kultury popularnej wybierają z nich odpowiadające im, przemawiające do nich elementy i czynią z nich swoją własność, osadzając je w swoim kontekście życiowym. Można na to zjawisko spojrzeć jako na pewien kulturotwórczy proces o uniwersalnym charakterze.

Chłopski antyklerykalizm w Polsce to zjawisko znane i często opisywane dla drugiej połowy XIX i pierwszej połowy XX w. Zdaniem badaczy wynikał on z silnego antagonizmu klasowego na wsi, który przybrał formy krytyczne w okresie narodotwórczym, w ostatnich dziesięcioleciach XIX w., i znalazł odbicie w ideologii stronnictw chłopskich. Na poziomie codziennym ludowy antyklerykalizm wyrażał się w krytyce luksusowego (z punktu widzenia chłopów) stylu życia księży, popełnianych przez nich przestępstw obyczajowych różnego typu, zaniedbań duszpasterskich czy wyniosłego stosunku do parafian. Na poziomie politycznym księża zaczęli być postrzegani jako znaczące przeszkody w unowocześnianiu wsi, odzyskiwaniu głosu przez chłopów, w tym w ich aktywności publicznej. Jednocześnie, jak podkreślają badacze, ludowy antyklerykalizm nie przekształcał się nigdy w antykatolicyzm czy antyreligijność. Ludowy antyklerykalizm można zatem interpretować jako pochodną emancypacji politycznej chłopów u schyłku XIX i w początkach XX w., analogicznie do przedstawionej przez Urszulę Augustyniak interpretacji antyklerykalizmu szlacheckiego w Rzeczypospolitej XVI-XVII w. jako oręża w walce politycznej szlachty o jej rolę w państwie.

Resumo: Neste artigo se argumenta a relevância do estudo da religiosidade popular para entender as novas formas da religiosidade contemporânea no contexto latino-americano. Diferente das posturas teóricas dos sociólogos da religião europeia, que assinalam a pertinência do indivíduo como unidade analítica para entender as transformações religiosas próprias da pós-modernidade, este artigo argumenta que a religiosidade popular – entendida como " entre-meio " entre o tradicional e o emergente, entre o local e o transnacional, entre o social e o individual e entre a sacralidade profana e a profanação da religiosidade tradicional – permite entender os fenômenos em que a religiosidade se pratica nas margens da instituição (próprias das expressões new age e neoesotéricas), mas sem desatender os processos em que se legitimam as novas formas desinstitucionalizadas da religiosidade, buscando âncoras e linhagens que geram a continuidade do peso da tradição da religiosidade popular. Abstract: In this paper it is proposed that the study of popular religiosity is relevant to understanding new forms of contemporary religiosity as they emerge in Latin America. Whereas the theoretical positions held by sociologists of religion in Europe assume that the individual is the most suitable unit for analysis in order to understand the religious transformations of postmodern times, it is argued in this paper that popular religion, understood as being " in between " the traditional and the newly arising, between the local and the transnational, between the social and the individual and between the holiness of the worldly and the worldliness of the sacred, makes it possible to take into account the phenomena of religion practised on the margins of the institutions (as in its new age and neo-esoteric expressions); while attending to the processes by which the * Profesora-Investigadora del Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (Ciesas) de Occidente. Es miembro del SNI Nivel II, y de la Academia Nacional de la Ciencia. El actual artículo retoma varios elementos de las conclusiones de su libro más reciente (De la Torre 2012). <[email protected]>

Prince's few references to politics revolve around explicit—and cryptic—references to Communism and the Cold War in his lyrics ("1999", "America," etc.). This paper traces those references, showing how they track trends in his own theological conceptions of technology, nature, the just social order, and the possible dystopia. In Prince's corpus, dualisms of politics and theology are related, but fail to adequately resolve themselves. This paper also suggests that concepts from Jewish thought can help illuminate a resolution of the theological-political tensions in Prince, as well as reframe Prince's own play with letters, names, and transformative visions.

Bu araştırmada Türkiye’de geniş kitlelerin beslendiği dini bilgi kaynaklarının başında gelen popüler dini kitaplar ekseninde nasıl bir din anlayışının gelişmekte olduğunun incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu çerçevede geniş toplum katmanlarında dolaşımda olan dini bilgilerin niteliğinin anlaşılması üzerine odaklanılmıştır. Bu amaçla Türkiye’de dini bilginin yayılım mecrası olarak kabul edilen ve dini kitapçılığın uzun yıllardır birer merkezi konumunda olan Ankara Hacı Bayram Çarşısı ve İstanbul Yümni Pasajı kitapçıları ile derinlemesine görüşmeler yapılmış, dini kitapçılık sektöründe toplumun okuryazarlık becerileri ile doğrudan muhatap olan kitapçıların görüşlerine başvurulmuştur. Bu derinlikli görüşmelerin toplumsal gerçekliğin bir kesitine ulaşılması bakımından anlamlı olduğu değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırma verileri betimsel analiz yöntemi ile tasnif edilerek tematik kategoriler oluşturulmuştur. Bu kategorik yaklaşımla geniş toplum kesimlerinin okuryazarlığı ve dini kitapla olan ilişkisi açığa çıkartılmaya çalışılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda Türk toplumunun geniş kesimlerinin dini bilgi düzeylerine dair sonuçlara ulaşılmıştır. Popüler dindarlık biçimleri, epistemolojik anlamda belirli bilgi kaynaklarını talep etmekte ve kendi dini gerçekliğine dâhil etmektedir. Bu anlamda toplumun geniş talebi uzun yıllar boyunca mistik ve menkıbevi anlatılar ile ibadet ve dua içerikli temel dini bilgi kitaplarını içermiştir. Toplumun okuryazarlık düzeyi arttıkça geleneksel dinî bilgi biçimlerine taleplerde de farklılaşma yaşanmış ve bu farklılaşma dini kitapların biçim ve içerik olarak değişimine neden olmuştur. Halen hem geleneksel hem de modern biçim ve söylemler içeren dini kitaplar geniş boyutlu ilgi görmeye devam etmektedir. Klasik dini kitaplara son yıllarda ilgi azalırken popüler kültürün farklı kanallardan etki alanını genişletmesi ile geleneksel din anlayışlarını aşan yeni türler ülke çapında yaygınlaşma eğilimi göstermektedir. Bu ise dini bilginin popülerleşmesi ve söylemsel düzeyde yeniden üretiminin canlı bir örneği olarak dikkat çekmeye devam etmektedir.

While incarcerated on Rikers Island, Grammy award-winning rapper Lil’ Wayne posted letters to a blog to maintain contact with fans. The blog entries and comments from fans express gratitude, positivity, encouragement, and a pervasive sense of spirituality and religiousness. This paper considers the content of Lil’ Wayne’s letters from Rikers, together with posted comments to the blog, in the context of spiritual communication and participatory media.

The parish register provides a unique opportunity to understand popular religion in England in the period of the Reformation. It can provide evidence of popular practice connected to the rites of passage of baptism, marriage and burial, but some parish registers contain valuable information about many aspects of parish life, including religious practice and the way in which changes in religion impacted the lives of people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The first volume of this series has equipped us with the methodological tools for examining the occult and paranormal. The second has shown us that these themes have been present since the earliest times. This third volume of the Religion, the Occult, and the Paranormal provides examples of some of the rich diversity of ideas, practices and groups engaged in various ways with these supernatural considerations. Occult practices and ideas around the paranormal are found within each of the major world religions, often in connection with the more mythical aspects of those traditions. Bibliomancy, or divination using books, thrives within many forms of Christianity, Islamic theology is resplendent with jinns that can intervene in everyday life, and no process is more mysterious than the divinatory practices that foretell the next Dalai Lama in the “Yellow Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism. Some of the chapters presented herein will explore just some of those crevices in South Asian religions.

Religions, like the individuals who practice them, seem to be utterly singular. Indeed, the attraction of identifying with and practicing any particular religion seems to be its promise of uniqueness, its being completely unlike any other. Yet, from its beginnings, the academic study of religion has proceeded as if there were some universal essence that all religions share: “the holy,” “the sacred,” “ideology,” “society,” “the unconscious,” “common sense,” “power,” or “culture.” But in recent decades, many scholars have challenged the view that there is any single, generalizable essence that might serve as a basis for comparison across the ways of life that have been called “religious.” Instead, these thinkers have tried to turn our attention to the specific technologies that persons and communities use to mediate their relationships to some transcendent reality, the present world, individuals and groups in and outside of their religion, and their very selves, and it is these relationships that sometimes can form the building blocks for what might be identified as “religion.” In this course, we will analyze a variety of these technologies: objects, images, texts, places (both “real” and “virtual”), practices of everyday life, and popular culture. We will discuss how these technologies have been used by particular people and communities to make sense of and interact with the complex world in which they live. Ultimately, this course will not only force us to listen to those religious “others,” whose beliefs and practices might seem strange, fantastical, or even sacrilegious, but it will also ask us to risk becoming objects of inquiry too, being seen as “other” by our fellow classmates and, potentially, ourselves. Hopefully, by the course’s end, greater self- and mutual understanding will be the rich, hard-won gain of such open, honest, and respectful disclosure.

At a time when many in the U.S. and around the world encounter religion as a polarizing subject, one especially revered by some and utterly contested by others, this special issue of Reconstruction explores questions arising at the intersection of religious experience and popular culture. To engage the relationship of religion and popular culture requires discipline-based, trans-disciplinary, and inter-disciplinary approaches in order to interpret these broad ranges of human experience. As a result, the articles in this issue demonstrate a myriad of methodological approaches.