REL 370 RELIGION & POPULAR CULTURE
This course starts with the position that “religion” cannot be neatly confined to “beliefs,” “institutions,” or “worship,” but rather that “religion” is an expansive concept that can be found in many unexpected places. One such place is the realm of popular culture. Students in this course will explore and analyze the ways that movies, television, sports, novels, and other types of popular culture can shape, cultivate, interact with, and even serve as religion. What can Marvel movies, Bronies, the Carolina Panthers, and A Wrinkle in Time teach us about religion’s role in the United States today? Come find out.