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Academic Year 2005/2006

Theology of Popular Culture
RELI 498 SP

This course will explore various theological and religious meanings that are carried in popular culture, and specifically in phenomena that are not ordinarily though of as religious. Through reading several "theologians of culture," we will examine contemporary novels, films, music, television, and tourism with the intent of developing ways to discern transcendent longings, anxieties, and visions of good and evil that operate below the surface of our common cultural life in the U.S.

MAJOR READINGS

Martha Bayles, HOLE IN OUR SOUL
Douglas Coupland, LIFE AFTER GOD
Mircea Eliade, MYTH AND REALITY
Thomas Hibbs, SHOWS ABOUT NOTHING
Dominic Strinati, AN INTRODUCTION TO THEORIES OF POPULAR CULTURE
Paul Tillich, DYNAMICS OF FAITH
James Twitchell, LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION: THE TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN MATERIALISM
Theodor Adorno, "On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression of Listening"
Walter Bengamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"
John Fiske, "Commodities and Culture"

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Weekly readings; two shorter essays on readings; one research paper.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS RELI    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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