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According to Ostwalt, what happens when individuals, not institutions, define religious expression? How have you seen this in your personal experiences?
As religious institutions adopt an individualistic secular orientation, they become increasingly defined by the values of secular society, rather than by their own values. This not only results in a dilution of the message, but it also displaces religion's traditional role as a critic of secular values. Religious institutions have incorporated secular values such as commercialism into the messages that they preach. As the secular media seeks authority for its beliefs in religious tropes, once again values such as commercialism are given the veneer of divine authority. This can be seen in the explosion of self-help books that promise gains in wealth by improving one's mindset and even in weight-loss books that promise the ability to teach people how to 'think themselves thin' -- changing and purifying the body by...
According to the author, how does popular culture act like religion?
Once upon a time, religion was a common source of identity for all people. For many centuries, the Bible created a language of metaphor and philosophical understanding that informed the worldview of Western Christendom. Today, popular culture has taken the place of this intellectual 'shorthand.' The concerns that are dealt with by religion have not gone away; rather they have been transposed into different mediums. Popular culture is commonly shared by (almost) all and creates a vehicle to discuss shared concerns. It becomes a venue in which to discuss and reconfigure the myths we share and our concerns about being human, and also offers a creative space in which artists can question these ideals. However, if commercialism and standardization rather than creativity reigns over pop culture, the value of such a shared discourse can easily be lost.
Love "Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering…" These were the opening lines that began a love story so powerful that Alma Singer's parents were moved to name her after the story's heroine. These lovers, Alma's parents, would also be separated when death claimed her father, leaving Alma's mother consumed with her
"The Open Boat" may have been based on Crane's real-life experience but it also functions as symbolic "of man's battle against the malevolent, indifferent, and unpredictable forces of nature…This reading is confirmed by the final irony of the death of the oiler, physically the strongest man on the scene and the one most favored to withstand the ordeal" (Rath & Shaw 97). The futility of resisting the power nature with
Malware Attacks the Democratic Process Once upon a time, a candidate had to excel at kissing babies and stump speeches. These were the major ways in which the candidate got his -- or much less frequently her -- image out to voters. All that the candidate's staff had to do as to ensure that reporters and photographers showed up at the right time to capture the choreographed images. The world of
Bind Russell Hochschild, Arlie. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. New YOrk: Owl Books, 2001. Explain the title. What is the "Time Bind"? The author of The Time Bind, Arlie Russell Hochschild, states that for many parents today, particularly women, when the formal, paid part of their work shift ends, another unpaid work shift begins. This second shift comprises the demands of home and family care and
The names of the characters in Spy Kids, such as Floop, give a Willy Wonka-espionage-in-fun verbal as well as visual tone to the film, and the thumb-shaped henchmen of Floop seem like a tribute to the Wonka oompah-loompas. For students of Rodriquez, Spy Kids may not be the director's most significant film, but it is an argument that the director, even when making a mainstream Hollywood genre film, has a
Trace the roots of many of the traditional cannon of fairy tale - Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty etc. - and women and children are often subdued by the establishment. Stardust's suggestion that there might be greater things inside all of us seems perfectly in line with traditional fairy tales. If, however, you believe in more traditional gender roles and are very conservative in regards to family structure then Stardust