Theology and Popular Culture

Montreal-based indie-rock band “Arcade Fire” have been lauded as the most important band of the last decade. In terms of their cultural and potentially theological significance it has been argued that Arcade Fire is to Gen Y what U2 is to Gen X. This chapter explores the music and content of their latest album Reflektor, released in October 2013. The main influences in this album are Haitian “rara” music, the 1959 film Black Orpheus, and an essay by Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard entitled ”The Present Age,” in which he contrasts the “passionate age” with the “reflective age.” These influences and the resultant themes are explored, with a final reflection framed by the Apostle Paul’s interaction with his contemporary culture, and using the work of Charles Taylor, to discover ways in which this important voice from the margins might speak to and help the contemporary church as it engages in mission in the postmodern world.

What makes Christian punk “Christian”? And what makes it “punk”? Drawing on his previously published work on punk and religion, and engaging his own experiences as a musician and theologian, Iafrate’s chapter offers a theological engagement with and critique of Christian punk that interrogates the adequacy of both terms as they are typically used to describe this genre. Neither “Christianity” nor “punk rock” is monolithic, and each contains very different and even opposing ideas and practices. As a liberation theologian, Iafrate interprets both Christianity and punk relative to their ability to generate liberating communities, movements, and ways of life which are congruent with their original liberationist impulses. On these grounds, Iafrate questions the extent to which self-identified Christian punk is Christian and/or punk. Despite its laudable intention to find church outside of church walls, Christian punk’s predominantly Evangelical focus on converting the “unwashed” from the perspective of the normative “already converted” individual Christian tends to reproduce the assumption of a settled, conservative Christian identity. Iafrate finds certain expressions of secular punk, namely the political “do-it-yourself” DIY punk perhaps best exemplified in the 1990s punk scene of Washington D.C., more punk, more Christian, and more theologically satisfying. Rather than proselytizing an already settled Christian message, the liberating impulse of punk tends to go beyond a style of music toward an entire way of life lived through liberationist praxis, a continual process of conversion grasping toward “integral liberation” from “all servitudes,” including political, ethical, and religious liberations. Iafrate argues that these expressions of punk contain elements of a liberationist “gospel” and arguably could be considered more deeply “Christian.” Such a view seems counterintuitive when evaluating a genre with a propensity towards irreverence and blasphemy, yet Iafrate asserts that Christian communities have not adequately grappled with the fact that their adherents worship a divine person who was executed, in part, for the crime of religious and political blasphemy. In particular, the religious liberations provoked by punk and by liberationist Christianity may in fact rely on blasphemy as a theologically relevant category. Likewise, Christian punk, if it is to be true to both Christianity and punk, must include a wider understanding of conversion and liberation, one that may even include blasphemy as a possible “sacrament” of religious and ethical liberation.

Draft paper to be published eventually as Till, Rupert (2012) Metal and the Beast: The adoption of apocalyptic imagery in heavy metal music. In: Anthems of Apocalypse: Popular Music and Apocalyptic Thought. Bible in the Modern World (42). Sheffield Phoenix Press, Sheffield. ISBN 978-1-907534-34-8

Popular music is no stranger to apocalyptic discourse. Whether focusing on biblical or secular apocalypses, musicians often want to tell us things about the end of the world we may not have wanted to know in ways we may not have thought about before. This volume seeks to introduce readers to some of these messengers and their anthems of apocalypse.

Roland Boer’s discussion of Nick Cave indicates that references to the portents and monsters of the apocalypse have been used to refer, not to an age to come, but to the authorities and demons of the present world. Likewise, Kennet Granholm’s chapter on the vegan straight edge band Earth Crisis shows that biblical apocalyptic provides a lens through which to examine environmental politics. This is also true of the work of Rage against the Machine’s Tom Morello, who, as Michael Gilmour discusses, provides a powerful socialist critique of capitalism, American imperialism, new left-activism and identity politics.

Along with these ‘secular’ uses of biblical apocalyptic are, of course, the more conspicuously Christian theological treatments: Mark Sweetnam discusses dispensationalism in Johnny Cash’s music; Marcus Moberg explores eschatological themes in Christian heavy metal; and Steve Knowles looks at the uses of apocalyptic imagery in the music of Extreme. Alongside these are the perennially popular esoteric interpretations of biblical apocalyptic thought. These are explored in Rupert Till’s analysis of heavy metal and Sérgio Fava’s discussion of apocalyptic folk.

Contents
Christopher Partridge, Introduction: Popular Music and Apocalyptic Discourse
1. Roland Boer, Some Routine Atrocity, or, Letting the Curse of God Roar: Nick Cave and Apocalyptic
2. Mark S. Sweetnam, Evangelical Millennialism in the Lyrics of Johnny Cash
3. Kennet Granholm, Metal, the End of the World, and Radical Environmentalism: Ecological Apocalypse in the Lyrics of Earth Crisis
4. Michael J. Gilmour, Raging against the Machine: Tom Morello’s Nightwatchman Persona and the Sound of Apocalypse-Inspired Schadenfreude
5. Marcus Moberg, Portrayals of the End Times, the Apocalypse, and the Last Judgment in Christian Metal Music
6. Sérgio Fava, ‘When Rome Falls, Falls the World’: Current 93 and Apocalyptic Folk
7. Rupert Till, The Number of the Beast: The Adoption of Apocalyptic Imagery in Heavy Metal
8. Steven Knowles, Who Cares? Apocalyptic Thought in Extreme’s III Sides to Every Story

Noah! Exodus: Gods & Kings! Meninjau trend yang dimulai di tahun 2014 untuk mengangkat kisah-kisah Alkitab sebagai film layar lebar. Paper ini meninjau teologi yang diangkat budpop vs teologi alkitab dan berusaha melihat bagaimana film-film ini dapat berfungsi untuk kehidupan komunitas orang percaya

Players of videogames are talking about religion. Despite longstanding theories of Western religious decline, recent scholarship has assessed that religious traditions and narratives feature prominently in videogames. In order to answer how player communities in game culture deal with religion in games, this study analyzes online discussions  (N=100) and interviews with strategically selected players (N=20) to assess which games provoke discussions about religion, which religious topics are discussed about these games and what implications this has for theories of religious privatization. Based on the analysis, players are divided into four ideal-typical positions: players of all beliefs either Reject, Debunk, Debate or actively Connect with the worldviews presented in the games they play. In all, this online engagement with religion, gods and the nature of holy texts, presents a “pop theology” of amateurs showing an interest in and having a public conversation about religion in the face of a post-secular society.

The paper—"Frank Viola's 'Organic' Ecclesiology: A Case Study for Perspectival Analysis"—demonstrates a perspectival approach to ecclesiology by using Frank Viola's 2008 book Reimagining Church as a case study. The demonstration has two parts. Part I illustrates how a metaphor in theology can become a selective perspective that influences exegesis. In focus are Viola’s organism metaphor and its influence upon his exegesis of two passages in Matthew’s Gospel. Then Part II commends perspectivalism’s principle that sound exegetical ecclesiology requires biblical perspectives. This part comes in two subsections: first is a critique of Viola’s perspective; and second is an outline of correctives for a biblical perspective that will yield sound exegetical conclusions.

This paper won first prize at the 2019 ETS Eastern Region's student paper competition. The ETS Eastern Region's Meeting was held April 5–6, 2019, at Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity, Lynchburg, Virginia, USA. The criteria for the student paper competition are copied below:

"Any undergraduate or graduate student within the Eastern Region (Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and the District of Columbia) may submit a paper. Students need not be members of ETS to participate, but should be aware that successful papers will be consonant with the ETS doctrinal basis (below). Complete papers must be submitted electronically as a PDF by February 8, 2019, and should be no longer than 10 pages. Please email submissions (and direct any questions) to (President) Rusty Small. Recognition and prizes will be given to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place papers."

Till, Rupert (2011) 21st Century Trance Cult: Electronic Dance Music Culture as a Form of Possession Trance, and its Role in Replacing the Traditional Roles of Religions Within Western European Popular Youth Culture. In: Religion and Popular Music in Europe: New Expressions of Sacred and Secular Identity. I. B. Tauris Library of Modern Religion (18). I. B. Tauris, London/New York, pp. 145-162. ISBN 9781848858091

This chapter asks in what ways apocalyptic imagery, characters, and other material from the Book of Revelation, and more specifically reference to the Devil or Satan, are evident in heavy metal occulture. It asks in what way the original meanings of the text have been sustained or altered, and why it is that this is the case. It asks what implications this has for our understanding of how religion and meaning operate within contemporary society, and what this tells us about changing patterns of belief and consciousness in popular culture.

In this short essay I have showed one possible research on meaningfulness speech about the end of the world, which, if it is not taking into account the worldviews that structure understanding of every phenomenon and notion in my world, indicates a conceptual error when talking about various scenarios of the end of the world.

Black Panther, filmmaker Ryan Coogler's contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is one of the best reviewed films of 2018. It has grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, and has broken a 35-year ban in Saudi Arabia as both men and women sat together in a cinema to watch a Hollywood production. 1 Outstanding in its vibrant world-building, as well as for its fully realized characters, the film raises important theological and ethical questions not only about race, but also about borders and alterity. As T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) assumes his role as king of Wakanda, a fictional, technologically advanced, and isolationist African nation, critical questions arise about Wakanda's (and T'Challa's) moral responsibility. When T'Challa is challenged for the throne by Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), and thus for control of Wakandan foreign policy, it pits differing ideologies in literal combat, teasing the audience into active thought about issues of race, immigration, and justice, all in the context of political and religious traditions.

[James Patrick McGrath, Masters by Research thesis: The Lyrics of U2: A Christian Band in a Secular World? (School of English, University of Leeds, 2002).] I received huge scorn for making a 30,000 word MA project of this, but at the time, a lot of this was important to me, so I decided: Fuck it, I'll write it.

This essay reviews the “Reagan Era” (1980–1988) in the United States through works by Bruce Cockburn and, in particular, the legendary ensemble, The Call.  It focuses on ways these artists use theological language to critique the dominant politics of the era.

The first half of this paper explores some current approaches to the idea of ‘popular theology’, suggesting a reformulation of the concept in concert with recent sociological theories concerning networks (both social and cognitive) and narratives. The second half of the paper uses divine phthonos as a case study for these ideas.

Published in: Eidinow, E., Kindt, J. and Osborne, R. eds. Theologies of Ancient Greek Religion. Cambridge, CUP, 2-5-232.

This work would apply Girardian analyses on the novel to the television series Dexter. It begins by arguing that the series constitutes a dramatised novel by Dexter Morgan, in view of the constant reflections not only of his life, but also the lives of others, all of which form a narrative backdrop to each episode in the series.

Framing Dexter as a novel helps explain two interconnecting things: the prevalence of Dexter's engagement with religious motifs and his transformation from self-serving enthusiast to other-centred family man and rescuer. However, the transformation seen in Dexter as the Dexterian novel progresses falls short of a Girardian conversion in which “the last distinctions between novelistic and religious experiences are abolished”, a failure evinced by the continuation of Dexter's pattern of killing forming the primary backdrop of the whole series, even whilst the transformation is taking place. With reference to Gil Bailie's analysis of the trial of Susanna in the Book of Daniel in Violence Unveiled, this paper attributes the continuation of Dexter's pattern of violence to the continuing temporal immanence of his religious encounters and responses.

EXAMINING TWILIGHT THROUGH A BIBLICAL LENS

People around the world are asking the same question, enraptured with Edward and Bella’s forbidden romance in the Twilight Saga, a four-book serial phenomenon written by Stephenie Meyer. The bestsellers tell the story of a regular girl’s relationship with a vampire who has chosen to follow his “good” side. But the Saga isn’t just another fantasy–it’s teaching girls about love, sex, and purpose. With 48 million copies in print and a succession of upcoming blockbuster films, now is the time to ask the important question: Can vampires teach us about God’s plan for love?

Touched by a Vampire is the first book to investigate the themes of the Twilight Saga from a Biblical perspective. Some Christian readers have praised moral principles illustrated in the story, such as premarital sexual abstinence, which align with Meyer’s Mormon beliefs. But ultimately, Beth Felker Jones examines whether the story’s redemptive qualities outshine its darkness.

Till, Rupert (2011) 21st Century Trance Cult: Electronic Dance Music Culture as a Form of Possession Trance, and its Role in Replacing the Traditional Roles of Religions Within Western European Popular Youth Culture. In: Religion and Popular Music in Europe: New Expressions of Sacred and Secular Identity. I. B. Tauris Library of Modern Religion (18). I. B. Tauris, London/New York, pp. 145-162. ISBN 9781848858091