Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament

by Adam Possamai

Popular culture can no longer be exclusively seen as a source of escapism. It can amuse, entertain, instruct, and relax people, but what if it provides inspiration for religion?
The Church of All Worlds, the Church of Satan and Jediism from the Star Wars series are but three examples of new religious groups that have been greatly inspired by popular culture to (re)create a religious message. These are hyper-real religions, that is a simulacrum of a religion partly created out of popular culture which provides inspiration for believers/consumers. These postmodern expressions of religion are likely to be consumed and individualised, and thus have more relevance to the self than to a community and/or congregation. On the other hand, religious fundamentalist groups tend, at times, to resist this synergy between popular culture and religion, and at other times, re-appropriate popular culture to promote their own religion. Examples of this re-appropriation are Christian super-hero comics and role playing games, Bible-based PC games, and ‘White Metal’ music.
To explore these new phenomena, this book views itself as the ‘hyper-real testament’ of these new religious phenomena by addressing the theories, among many others, of Baudrillard, Jameson and Lipovetsky, and by exploring the use of fictions such as those from Harry Potter , The Matrix , Star Trek , Buffy and The Lord of the Rings .

Genres: Religion

176 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2007

Reviews

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a conceptual toolbox of terms and ideas, this is a great book with some interesting things to say, that makes a lot of useful connections between theory, religious practice, and popular culture. The actual analyses that accompany various theoretical discussions were less useful in my mind, and seemed to call on sort of disparate evidence that was never quite marshaled together in as comprehensive or convincing a way as I would have wanted. Still, Possamai has some clearly written conceptual ideas that are quite useful as steps towards further investigating the vagaries of modern mediated religion and contemporary culture. While I wish his analyses would have looked backwards into the ways that hyper-real religion and theory are changing traditional conceptions of religion, this book provides enough of a trajectory and a vocabulary for others to do that work in the future.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's safe to say most people hear the phrase "pop culture religions" and side-eye the hell out of it. It sounds like the subject of a Sick Sad World news story. Which is why I'm glad the author approached this subject matter in a decidedly neutral manner. Let's face it, it would vey easy to snigger at Jediism, but Possamai clearly didn't care about scoring any low blows.
I think the biggest question I had going into this book was why anyone would be drawn to religions or spiritualities based on entertainment media, and Possamai does go into a fair bit of detail about why this occurs. The basic idea seems to be that pop culture religions are a logical result of capitalism and consumer culture. This quote illustrates his point:

Post war consumer culture dominates the western lifestyle with its mass produced commodities and western culture. This culture, instead of building a sense of belonging for groups - e.g. class, sub-cultures, political parties - appears to create a fragmented society in which religion is only a part. Indeed, in this consuming world, the individual becomes his or her own authority; the postmodern person in the West no longer tolerates being told what to believe and what to do. Consumer choice is not limited to shopping, but is extended to education, health, politics and religion. People are now "free to choose" and the market culture might be turning us into consumers rather than citizens (Lyon, 2000:12). He or she is faced with a proliferation of "spiritual/religious/philosophical knowledges", which he or she researches and experiences. (p. 48)

As he goes on to point out, this wealth of knowledge can be a blessing and a curse. The New Age movement is a testament to the desire to draw on a number of cultures and traditions, and while this has certainly been problematic (mass cultural appropriation, for instance), it seems this has also paved the way for drawing on pop culture. The thought that these religions are a result of capitalism and consumerism sounds almost denigrative, but that's not the sense you get from the book. Pop culture religions are not seen to be shallow or unauthentic. As Possamai points out, they are not even particularly radical. They are just another place that provides people with guidance, inspiration etc like other religions, but in a way that clearly speaks better to some people.
I don't know if my own views on pop culture religion/spirituality is pertinent to the review (I don't care either way, just for the record. Live and let live), but I guess I will say that the book definitely helped me to understand where people who follow pop culture religions/spiritualities are coming from. It does raise some questions about authors and content creators, copyright, and so on. Like, if an author was weirded out by people honouring their characters and wanted them to stop ... what then? Eh, that's a subject for another time, I guess.
Overall, a concise and interesting book.