The Bible in Popular Culture Theology 101/101G Week 1 Monday 21 July Semester 2, 2016

Week 1 • Course overview – Course outline – Lecture schedule – Required reading – Assessments

• Culture, popular culture and religion – Definitions and intersections

Course lecturers • Dr Caroline Blyth (course co-ordinator) – Email: [email protected] – Office hours Tuesday 3-5pm, or by appointment

• Dr Robert Myles Email: [email protected] – Office hours by appointment

Are you enrolled correctly? • Dual purpose course • Theology 101G – General Education course – Open Schedule

• Theology 101 – Students doing it as a non-General Education course.

Course description An exploration of biblical themes, images, and characters within popular culture. It will show you some tools and methods used for analyzing religion (particularly the Bible) within various modes of popular culture, including music, film, TV, art, advertising, and the media.

Learning outcomes Upon completion of this course, you should: • Have learned basic theories of analysing popular culture and be able to apply these to cultural texts, including those encountered in class; • Be able to explain how the Bible influences popular culture and how popular culture influences interpretations of the biblical texts; • Be familiar with the ways in which the Bible functions as a cultural resource in a wide variety of contemporary contexts and cultures;

Learning outcomes (2) • Be able to identify some significant Biblical themes and characters as they appear in popular culture texts, including film, music, art, advertising, and television; • Have learned the skills of planning a research essay, including writing an essay proposal and searching for appropriate resources using library searches and online databases. • To enjoy the course!

Common questions • Do I have to be ‘religious’ to do this course? • Do I have to know the Bible to do this course? • Do I have to be an expert in popular culture to do this course?

Common questions (2) • Can I use my preferred translation of the Bible? – See www.biblegateway.com

• Do you record this course? • Do I have to do the ‘essential readings’ on Canvas? – Weekly biblical texts.

• Will the lecture slides be available on Canvas? • Will I find the course material offensive?

Lecture schedule • Three lecture slots each week – Mondays, 1-2pm; Tuesdays, 2-3pm; Wednesdays 1-2pm. • Check SSO for any late changes to lecture scheduling – currently, we are in different rooms for each lecture. • Each week will deal with a particular topic: – Monday and Tuesday lectures we’ll go over it in detail – Wednesdays, we’ll look at more examples and think about applying subject to essay and exam questions.

Lectures Week 1-6 1.

Introduction to the Course – Theories of popular culture

2.

Introduction to the Bible as a cultural text – How does the Bible interact with popular culture?

3.

Methods in studying the Bible and popular culture 1 – Noah as a Case Study

4.

Biblical characters and their cultural afterlives – Delilah as a case study

5.

Methods in studying the Bible and popular culture 2 – Political Bible, Cultural Bible, Radical Bible

6.

Prophecy in the Bible and popular culture – Contemporary prophets in politics and culture

Lectures Week 7-12 7.

The Jesus industry – Jesus in art, film, TV, music and advertising

8.

Jesus in film

9.

Biblical messiahs, popular messiahs and the American Monomyth.

10. The Bible and violence – Biblical themes in crime film, TV and fiction 11. It’s the end of the world/semester – Themes of apocalypse in popular culture 12. Summing up: Exam revision

Weekly Reading • Set readings from the Bible each week (starting week 3) – Online Bible available at https://www.biblegateway.com/

• Weekly required readings available on Canvas reading list. • Further readings listed each week – to help with essay and exam. • Videos and AV material may be posted on Canvas too.

Assessment a.

Quiz – open book [On Canvas] – – –

15% total grade 8-16 September 2016 Lecture material and required reading from weeks 1-6, and course outline This test is optional.

b. Essay proposal worksheet

c.

– 10% total grade. c.500 words Due: 26 September 2016 – Targeted learning session 21 September before lecture. – This proposal is compulsory.

1500-word essay

– – – –

d.

25% total grade 1500 words Due: 10 October 2016 Pick one of the essay questions on Canvas (they are also in course outline) Submit hard copy and on Turnitin. The essay is compulsory.

2-hour examination – –

50% total grade Date: TBA This exam is compulsory

Help with essays Canvas Pages: “Essay questions and essay help” pages: – Guidelines to each essay question – FAQs – Guide to writing Arts/Humanities style essay More on essay in week 7 lecture. Essay targeted learning session for essay proposal on 21 September – more details nearer the time. Essay workshops – TBA Tuākana Just ask!

Essay Questions

On Canvas Pages and in course outline 1. Choose a character from the Bible and compare their biblical portrayal with one or more of their afterlives in popular culture. Weeks 3 and 4 2. With reference to both the American Monomyth and biblical understandings of the messiah, choose a contemporary figure (real or fictional) and discuss why you think they can be described as a popular messiah. Week 9 3. Using Borg's definitions of the 'biblical prophet', identify and discuss a contemporary individual or group (real or fictional) who you think has a similarly prophetic role within their own culture or context. Week 6

Essay questions (cont.) 4. How is the Bible used in contemporary politics? Week 5 5. What are the constraints and possibilities of depicting Jesus in film and/or television? Weeks 7 and 8 6. Write an essay on any aspect of the Bible and popular culture that you are interested in (speak to us first if you wish to do this ‘freeform’ essay option to check your idea is viable).

Additional things • The test is not compulsory, the essay proposal, essay and exam are compulsory. • Turnitin submission is compulsory. • For extension requests, email Caroline ([email protected]) before the assignment due date. • Late submissions – 10% off essay mark per week/part of week it is late. • Essays handed in two weeks after the due date will receive an automatic 0% as a mark.

Other notices • Class representative • Tuākana for THEOREL 101/G – For Māori and Pacific Island students – Advice, workshops, essay help – Weekly study session, Tuesdays 3-5 – For more information, email Caroline ([email protected])

Starting points for the first two weeks • What is ‘popular culture’? • What is the ‘Bible’? • How do the two things relate to each other?

What is culture?

What is culture? “the human creation and use of symbols and artifacts. Culture may be taken as constituting the ‘way of life’ of an entire society, and this will include codes of manners, dress, language, rituals, norms of behaviour and systems of belief.”

"Culture." In Collins Dictionary of Sociology, ed. David Jary and Julia Jary, 129-130. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 2000.

“[Culture] includes the whole range of human products and thoughts that surround our lives, providing the context in which we live.”

Bruce David Forbes, Religion and Popular Culture, p.2.

‘Culture is the collective programming of the mind. Culture is us’.

‘Culture is learned’.

Personal Interpersonal National Universal

Eva Haug:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me2HlTQPS40

Culture connects? • ‘The acquired pair of glasses through which we see life’. • ‘Something that unites people’. • ‘Culture is us. We make it’. • ‘A call for individuals to agree upon some common value that bind them in harmony.’ Definitions of culture from www.connect.state.gov

Culture clashes?

Contested cultures

Personal Interpersonal National Universal Eva Haug:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me2HlTQPS40

Hybridity – belonging to multiple (contesting) cultures.

Thinking about contested culture Eteuati Ete & Tofiga Fepulea’i, My God (TVNZ/Pacific Screen Ltd, 2008). – Season 1, Episode 2.

Popular Culture • Typology of ‘cultures’ (from Lynch, 2005)

High culture Folk culture Mass culture Popular culture

High culture • Classic texts, music, and works of art from the West. • “Everything popular culture isn’t”? • Defined by an elite? Created for those with ‘taste’?

Folk culture • Relates to a particular family, community, regional group. • Local meanings, practices, expressions, behaviours, and rituals.

Mass culture • Culture by mass production and consumption • Needs a mass audience and technologies of mass distribution through radio, television, magazines etc. • Related to globalization and consumerism.

Popular culture ? • “...high culture is a gourmet meal, folk culture is grandma’s casserole, and popular culture is a McDonald’s hamburger.” (Bruce David Forbes, p.2) – is it really as simple as this? • But boundaries blur between these different ideas of culture – is popular culture a hybrid of high, folk, and mass culture…and more? • Is popular culture a flat white, takeaway sushi, a glass of Pinot Noir, fish and chips, a curry, a vegan cupcake, kava, a bag of Twisties … whatever it means to you?

Popular Culture is… • Popular culture is individual and communal, context-dependent, subjective. • Popular culture is “the shared context, practices, and resources of ‘everyday life’…what it mean[s] to live an ordinary dayto-day life in a particular social and cultural context” (Gordon Lynch, pp.13-14).

A dialectical relationship ‘Popular culture both reflects us and shapes us, and the implications of that twofold dynamic are profound.’ Bruce David Forbes, p.4. Popular culture is like a ‘funhouse mirror’ partly reflecting who we are but also influencing our view of ourselves and the word. Bruce David Forbes, p.5

Popular culture FAQs • Is popular culture a ‘negative’ term? • How widespread must something be to be defined as ‘popular’? • Is ‘popular’ the same as ‘contemporary’? • Is popular culture just about movies, music and TV?

How do we study popular culture? • Documentary approach – We look at ‘texts’ and cultural products or artefacts (e.g. films, art, literature, media, sport, politics, fashion, food, cityscapes, celebrities, etc). – The documentary approach ‘focuses on the significance of artefacts and texts produced by a particular society’ (e.g. film, social media site, political speech, artwork, etc.)

Gordon Lynch, pp. 15-16

• Culturalist approach – Studying the meaning of these texts within the cultures they are produced and consumed (their cultural context). – We ask how cultural artefacts and texts both shape and are shaped by a group’s beliefs, meanings, values, and activities in everyday life. – We consider how these texts are ‘consumed’ or ‘used’ by particular groups – what meanings they convey, what activities they inspire (the text’s reception). Gordon Lynch, pp.15-16

Relationships between religion and popular culture 1. Religion in Popular Culture 2. Popular Culture in Religion 3. Popular Culture as Religion 4. Religion and Popular Culture in Dialogue Bruce David Forbes, “Introduction: Finding Religion in Unexpected Places,” pp. 1-20.

Religion in Popular Culture • The appearance of religious themes, language, imagery, and subject matter in popular culture • Explicit use – Retellings of religious stories or texts. – Religious characters, settings, themes. – Use of religious iconography (imagery). – Why are these things selected, how are they used, and how does an audience respond to them?

Orange is the New Black Created by Jenji Kohan 2013-present, Netflix Explicit and implicit religious themes run through the storylines, characters, images. We’ll return to OITNB in week 10. See OITNBible blog (University of Sheffield) http://orangeisthenewbible.tumblr.com/

Religion in Popular Culture (2) • Implicit use – Plot structures, e.g. ‘classical monomyth’ (see Forbes, p.11) or ‘exodus’ story; allegories of religious figures (e.g. Christ, Moses, prophets). – Religious themes: repentance, sacrifice, sin, death and resurrection, end of the world. – In what ways do these themes parallel, complement or challenge traditional religious interpretations?

Popular Culture in Religion • Religious groups and institutions appropriating popular culture for their own purposes. – Replicating styles of popular music in worship services – Reshaping rhythms of religious life around popular culture – ‘Redeeming’ popular culture & creating a ‘mirror culture’? – Using organizational and advertising styles drawn from popular culture

Popular Culture as Religion • Examining how popular culture might serve or function as religion for people. • As surrogate for religion by providing meanings, identity and values. – Provides a framework of meaning for understanding the world – Provides help in facing life’s problems

• An example might be how sport functions for some people and communities.

Religion and Popular Culture in Dialogue • When religious individuals and communities enter into dialogue with popular culture (and vice versa) – Challenging or confirming values and beliefs in popular culture. – Critiquing the influence of popular culture. – Using popular culture to support their own cause. – Religion seeking to transform popular culture, or vice versa.

Religion and Pop Culture in Dialogue Napier's Equippers Church billboard (2012) Public complaints to ASA that it was offensive and ‘false advertising’ ASA ruled in complainants’ favour, judging that the billboard breached advertising standards. Media reporting of story included a section on Campbell Live.

Studying Religion and Pop Culture Study of religion in relation to the environment, resources and practices of everyday life. a. How has popular culture reshaped religious practices and communities, and vice versa? b. How is religion represented in popular culture? c. How do religious communities relate to popular culture seen as outside their community? d. Does pop culture serve a religious function, or vice versa? Lynch, Understanding theology and popular culture, Ch 2.

Week 2 • Introduction to the Bible as a Cultural Text. – Biblical Texts across Contexts.

• Get familiar with Canvas • Bring a Bible along if you have one. • Read the readings for Weeks 1 & 2