In the article “The Church of Baseball, the Fetish of Coca-Cola, and the Potlatch of Rock
‘n’ Roll”, David Chidester discusses the similarities between religion and popular culture.
Chidester demonstrates that through a particular set of lenses, popular culture can actually exist as religion by using three points of comparison such as the “church”, the “fetish” and “potlatch”.
In Chidester’s article, for each of the three points of comparisons, he uses baseball, Coca-Cola and Rock ‘n’ Roll as symbols of pop culture. This analysis will attempt to use Hockey as a theorization of Canadian Religion using Chidester’s arguments and points mentioned in his article. Hockey is arguably the most representative Canadian sport. Like other sports, hockey …show more content…
While analyzing the church of baseball,
Chidester makes a point that baseball is like religion in the sense of the rules outlined; baseball has established rules, so does religion; if you follow the rules, it is the correct thing to do.
Secondly, the sport brings continuity and uniformity to a nation that is constantly changing. The same can be said for Hockey and Canadian Religion. Hockey has an established set of rules which when you follow these rules, you are doing the “correct” thing. Canadian religion (with
Christianity and Catholicism being the most prominent) is the same, the established rules are found in the Holy Bible, and followers are urged to apply these sets of rules to do the “right” thing. Similarly, Hockey can also be used to bring people together and is an unchanged sport throughout the years. The way in which it is played, to the rules of how it is played have stayed the same through the test of time and changing economic, societal or traditional changes. That is ironically also present in Religion. Religion has been a way of uniting people from all walks of life and the same church practices withstand through the test of several changes throughout
Canada’s
‘n’ Roll”, David Chidester discusses the similarities between religion and popular culture.
Chidester demonstrates that through a particular set of lenses, popular culture can actually exist as religion by using three points of comparison such as the “church”, the “fetish” and “potlatch”.
In Chidester’s article, for each of the three points of comparisons, he uses baseball, Coca-Cola and Rock ‘n’ Roll as symbols of pop culture. This analysis will attempt to use Hockey as a theorization of Canadian Religion using Chidester’s arguments and points mentioned in his article. Hockey is arguably the most representative Canadian sport. Like other sports, hockey …show more content…
While analyzing the church of baseball,
Chidester makes a point that baseball is like religion in the sense of the rules outlined; baseball has established rules, so does religion; if you follow the rules, it is the correct thing to do.
Secondly, the sport brings continuity and uniformity to a nation that is constantly changing. The same can be said for Hockey and Canadian Religion. Hockey has an established set of rules which when you follow these rules, you are doing the “correct” thing. Canadian religion (with
Christianity and Catholicism being the most prominent) is the same, the established rules are found in the Holy Bible, and followers are urged to apply these sets of rules to do the “right” thing. Similarly, Hockey can also be used to bring people together and is an unchanged sport throughout the years. The way in which it is played, to the rules of how it is played have stayed the same through the test of time and changing economic, societal or traditional changes. That is ironically also present in Religion. Religion has been a way of uniting people from all walks of life and the same church practices withstand through the test of several changes throughout
Canada’s