RLS 180 Religion & Popular Culture

This course will investigate the significant relationships between religion and popular culture. Through the lenses of philosophy and theology, ritual and ceremony, art and aesthetics this course will identify the religious dimensions of Film, Literature, Sport, and Music. The first half of the class will be dedicated to exploring the intersections between religion and popular culture and the second half of the class will be a discussion of how technology and mass media have catalyzed the possibilities of asynchronous worship. We will conclude by looking at examples of digital religions and virtual sacred spaces and the crisis points that arise between meaning and knowledge, experience and epistemology, nature and technology. Fulfills diversity requirement. (L06)

Credits

3