Course syllabus

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Description

Why did Kanye West invite Jesus on stage during his Yeezus tour? Who is the new messiah – Harry Potter or Harry Styles? Why are Adam and Eve so popular in contemporary advertising? What do Winston Peters and Donald Trump know about the Bible? And why should we care?

This course introduces you to the various ways that biblical themes, images and characters have an enduring presence and influence within contemporary popular culture. By learning to analyse religious and biblical references found in music, film, TV, art, advertising and the media, you will discover that, even in today’s increasingly secular world, the Bible continues to both influence and be influenced by our cultural, political, and religious landscapes.

Some of the cultural texts we'll be studying will include:

  • Movies such as Noah, Exodus: God and Kings, The Passion of the Christ, and Harry Potter.
  • Music from artists such as Kanye West, Lady Gaga, and Bob Marley.
  • Politics and social media, including individuals such as Russell Brand, Winston Peters, and Donald Trump.
  • TV shows such as The West Wing and The Simpsons.
  • Visual arts and advertising images that depict biblical themes and characters.
  • Literature, such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The class will interest you regardless of your knowledge of the Bible. Any student can study the Bible whether they are of the Jewish or Christian faith, another faith, or of no religious faith at all. The Bible is explored as a cultural text in this course and all we require from students is a desire to learn more about significance and influence of the Bible as a cultural text in contemporary cultures both national and global. 

Your lecturer for this course is Dr Caroline Blyth: c.blyth@auckland.ac.nz 

The 2017 course outline can be downloaded here THEOREL 101G 2017 course outline.pdf

 

Our weekly topics (click the link that will take you to the module for each week):

  1. Introduction to the course what is popular culture? Critical theories of pop culture.
  2. The Bible Industry - what do we mean by 'the Bible'? And how has it become part of popular culture?
  3. Methods in studying the Bible in pop culture - Noah as a case study (focusing on Darren Aronofsky's movie Noah)
  4. Biblical characters and their cultural afterlives - Samson and Delilah as a case study (looking at Samson and Delilah in art, music and film).
  5. Prophecy in the Bible and pop culture - what is a biblical prophet, and where can we find prophetic figures in contemporary culture? Examples include Harvey Milk, Martin Luther King, and Malala Yousavzai.
  6. The Jesus Industry - images of Jesus in pop culture (from art, advertising and movies to ties and toasters). How and why has Jesus become a cultural commodity?
  7. Biblical messiahs, popular messiahs and the American monomyth - how do we define a messiah? And how are these messiah figures still used in popular culture today? We'll consider figures such as Harry Potter, Kanye West, Harry Styles, and Donald Trump (a false messiah?)
  8. The Bible and politics - why do so many politicians talk about the Bible? What political functions does this book have in contemporary culture? We'll consider examples from John Key, Winston Peters, Barack Obama, David Cameron, Hillary Clinton, and (of course) Donald Trump. We'll also consider other pop culture figures who use popular culture to express political views, including musician Bob Marley.
  9. The Bible and violenceis the Bible an inherently 'violent' book? We will look at the use of biblical themes and texts in contemporary crime fiction and drama, as well as considering ways the Bible is used to justify or challenge different forms of violence, including homophobia, transphobia, and racism.
  10. The Bible, gender and sexuality - how are sexuality and gender understood in the Bible? And how are these understandings translated and challenged in pop culture depictions of biblical characters? Examples will include Adam and Eve in contemporary advertising and Beyonce's use of religious themes in her music videos and other visual material. You'll also learn a bit about reading the Bible queerly.
  11. It's the end of the world/semester - themes of apocalypse in pop culture
  12. Exam Revision

 

Availability 2017

Semester 2

 

Class times and locations: check on SSO

There are no tutorials for this course - just three 1-hour lectures per week. The final lecture of each week will be a little like a tutorial, though, in that we will go over the week's topic in more depth, relate the topic to course assignments, and have more class discussions.

 

Learning outcomes:

Upon completion of this course, students should:

  1. Have learned basic theories of analyzing popular culture and be able to apply these to cultural texts, including those encountered in class;
  2. Be able to explain how the Bible influences popular culture and how popular culture influences interpretations of the biblical texts;
  3. Be familiar with the ways in which the Bible functions as a cultural resource in a wide variety of contemporary contexts and cultures;
  4. Be able to identify some significant Biblical themes and characters as they appear in popular culture texts, including film, music, art, advertising, television and the media;
  5. Have learned the skills of planning a research essay, including writing an essay proposal and searching for appropriate resources using library searches and online databases.

 

The 2017 course outline, including assignment details, can be found here: THEOREL 101G 2017 course outline.pdf

 

Reading/Texts

There is no textbook for the course, readings are listed and available on Canvas under the Reading List. Students need to have access to a Bible (either hard copy or online, e.g.https://www.biblegateway.com/).

 

Assessment 

Online quiz - 15%

Essay proposal - 10%

Essay - 25% (see essay help module here)

Final exam - 50%

 

Points

15.0 points

Restrictions

THEOLOGY 101, 101G

Course summary:

Date Details Due