Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

New Religions and Pop Culture

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Matt Stone

2005-09-16

John Morehead made a comment to one of my recent posts which I’d like to draw out further:

“…the line between popular culture and spirituality is fluid, and it is time for evangelicals to move beyond merely downplaying its significance or fighting every aspect of it…”

Firstly, have you noticed how much sci-fi has emerged as a genre for exploring spirituality, and at times seems to function as a nuevo-apocalyptic genre?

Take the recent TV series “Battle Star Galactica” for example. Commencing with the destruction of the human civilization in far away part of the galaxy, the human survivors are relentlessly persued by the robotic Cylons who seek their anihilation. This becomes a platform for exploring a host of philosophical and indeed theological concepts such as the nature of the soul and the philisophical differences between “a polytheistic culture and a monotheistic enemy” as one reviewer put it. Taking the shows original Mormon theology and revisiting it in the shadow of September 11, the remake can in many ways be seen as a critique of monotheistic fundamentalism.

But what about when people take this to the next level, where sci-fi moves beyond philosophical exploration to actually provide a vehicle for religious exploration? Matrixism is an obvious example, but how many Christians are aware of the foundations of Scientology? John Travolta’s production of L Ron Hubbard’s “Battlefield Earth” was more an exercise in B-Grade Sci-Fi. It was first and foremost an act of religious homage!

As John says above, the line is fluid and we need to look beyond old dichotomies.

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4 responses to “New Religions and Pop Culture”

bec

2005-09-16

I find Alias’ Rambaldi prophecy really interesting – I think partly because while there’s often been a spiritual dimension to sci-fi, it’s not so common in spy dramas…
I’m noticing more and more references to spirituality, especially musings on the meaning of life, creeping into US law and crime dramas too – particularly CSI (the original).

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Fernando Gros

2005-09-17

tou might be interested in checking out a book i proofread a few years back, Richard Burridge’s Faith Odyssey. It is a series of Bible Studies for Lent, but he goes at from the perpsective of SciFi and Fantasy “questing,” with allusions to Greek Classical literature as well. It’s really quite good at dealing with the way SciFi handles the spirituality and the urges of the soul and makes for a creatively different kind of Bible Study.

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John Morehead

2005-09-17

Matt, thanks for picking up on something in my comments and exploring it further. An area of great interest for me for further research and academic study is the relationship between religion/spirituality and popular culture. I think this can be promising for evangelicals in a number of areas, including both the emerging spiritualities that draw upon sci fi, fantasy, and horror in popular culture, as well as the general exploration and critique of spirituality and popular culture in the media.
As an example of religion and popular culture among new religions, you are right to note the connection between Mormonism and sci fi. I am engaged in a personal research project exploring this connection, and I also note their interest in fantasy as articulated by C. S. Lewis. We are engaged in a relationship and dialogue project here in Utah that will bring LDS and evangelicals together to explore themes in Lewis through the upcoming Narnia film. I would also like to explore a Spirituality and Sci Fi film and dialogue event in this culture.
Concerning spirituality and popular culture in more general tersm, I have also been interested in drawing upon films that touch upon key issues that are (or should be) of interest to both evangelicals and those in the modern and postmodern West. I have in mind films like Fight Club with its strong critique of consumer culture and the definition and reconstruction of personal identity in this context.
Rather than fighting things like Harry Potter and wardrobe malfunctions at Superbowl half-time shows, how might we more creatively understand and engage our culture on spirituality by drawing upon the hyper-real testament (Adam Possami’s term) of popular culture?

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Matt Stone

2005-09-17

John
I trust in that case that as part of the personal research project you’ll be taking a peak at Orson Scott Card’s “Ender” series and “Homecoming” saga. They are widely regarded as the pinnacle of Mormon science fiction.
Particular favorites of mine are Dan Simmons’ “Hyperion” series, Frank Herbert’s “Dune” sequence and Robert A. Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land”. As for movies, yes “Fight Club” is up near the top of my list, as is “12 Monkeys”, another Brad Pitt movie that explores the issues of prophecy, insanity, apocalypse and fate. Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” and “Holy Grail” are also essential viewing – I mean we must learn to laugh at ourselves!
My wife, more the fantasy buff than myself, has read Starhawk’s “The Fifth Sacred Thing” and Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “The Mists of Avalon” which, as you no doubt know, are heavy on goddess spirituality.
Neither of us are big readers of the horror genre but Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles” are an obvious starting point.
I could go on and on, but to wrap up I recommend you check out Adherents.com – Religions in Literature at http://www.adherents.com/lit/. This site looks like a real goldmine for research. The blurb states, “This list contains 34,420 citations from literature (primarily science fiction and fantasy novels and stories) referring to actual churches, religions and tribes.”
PS. While we are on the subject, I am on the lookout for a copy of Pier’s Anthony’s “Tarot” omnibus. I read it back in my New Age days and since I am currently researching Qabbalah/Tarot pathworking over at http://mattstone.blogs.com/ekstasis I’d dealy love to get hold of it again if any of my Aussie readers can help out.

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