Religion And Popular Culture In Americas Chapter 11 Summary

Critical Reflection: Chapter 11 of Forbes & Mahan’s Religion and Popular Culture in America In Chapter 11, Forbes takes on the connection of popular items and events to religion, asking the question of whether or they can be described as a religion. Throughout the study of this term religion, we as a class have seen its definition transform, develop, and change into many different things revolving around the same general concept. What we can determine overall however, is that religion’s definition is a living, ever adjustable idea. Forbes, with this in mind, relates baseball, Coca-Cola, and rock&roll to religion and argues that they all can be categorized as such. To support his overall topic of popular culture and religion’s love affair, he goes into detail describing the “church of baseball”, the “fetish” of Coca-Cola, and the “potlatch” of rock music. The idea of baseball being a religion makes more sense than it would to the uninvolved reader once Forbes delves into the similarities between it and a Christian church. Interviews and commentary from baseball player Buck O’Neil and interviewer Ken Burns state that …show more content…
We have studied how religion has influenced popular culture before, by drawing the connection between the portrayal of Buddhist monks in media compared to the actual practices of said monks. Relating this topic of study to the chapter by Forbes, there is a direct correlation of arguments. Forbes argues that many entities of popular culture are influenced by religion and could even be considered one based on its similarities. In our studies, we don’t necessarily try to consider the things we see in popular culture as a religion, but we do study how religion has influenced them, similar to Forbes’s