Philip Johnson recently made a post on “Spirituality Aspects of Anime,” based upon an article in the journal Culture and Religion. The article that Philip is interacting with was written by Jin Kyu Park and Philip’s post echos one I made on this blog previously in commenting on Park’s work.
The interface between popular culture and spirituality in the West is a fascinating area of study with important implications for evangelicalism. This is especially the case in looking at spiritual influences in Japan, not only in Japanese culture, but also in its exports as they are brought into American culture through the increasing popularity of anime (Japanese animation), and Japanese horror films. The significance of the latter was recognized by the UK Research Network for Theology Religion and Popular Culture earlier this year when they issued a call for papers that would interact with the cultural significance of the Japanese horror film Ringu (1998).
Those interested in exploring Park’s thesis outside of his journal article can download another version of this presented at the Intercultural Communication Division of the International Communication Association in 2003. Those interested in resources on theology, spirituality and popular culture will benefit from exploring Dr. Gordon Lynch’s website. Lynch is lecturer in Religion and Culture in the Department of Theology and Religion at Birmingham University in the UK, and is the author of Understanding Theology and Popular Culture (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
I have been doing some reading on anthroplogy of pilgrimage. One particularly helpful book has been Intersecting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism, Ellen Badone and Sharon R. Roseman, eds. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004).
One of the more interesting chapters in the book is “Pilgrimage and the IDIC Ethic: Exploring Star Trek Convention Attendance as Pilgrimage” by Jennifer E. Porter. The chapter begins by referencing the call from anthropologist Victor Turner for students of religion to take the science fiction genre seriously as “futuristic frameworks expressing mythic and liminal states and concerns.” The various series making up the Star Trek franchise is then located within this genre as “one location in which to find religion in our society.” The dots are then connected to the anthropological discussion of pilgrimage and secular tourism. Anthropologist E. Alan Morinis has stated that even secular journeys can be understood as pilgrimage “if made in pursuit of embodied ideals.” Star Trek is known to embody the philosophy of its creator, the late Gene Roddenberry, which can be understood anthropologically as a sacred set of ideals that are then connected to the notion of pilgrimage at conventions, which for many fans function as sacred journeys.
I found this discussion fascinating at a number of levels. First, Roddenberry was well known as a Secular Humanist, and the original series articulated Roddenberry’s vision for the future beyond and without religion. As the series progressed it changed with the times and with the new creative influences that came in touch with Roddenberry’s project. But regardless of whether we are talking about Roddenberry’s Humanist vision, or the postmodern spiritualities that can be seen in subsequent versions of the show, the entire franchise itself embodies a set of ideals that can be understood as sacred.
Second, while this chapter makes a distinction between secular tourism and religious pilgrimage, it also clearly makes a connection between the two, and notes that even visits to secular sites or space (understood geographically as well as in terms of community regardless of location) can fulfill a religious or spiritual dimension akin to religious pilgrimage found in more traditional religious expressions.
All in all this chapter was logical, and took me to places where this man had never gone before. (Sorry, as a Star Trek fan [the original series is the best!] I couldn’t resist this closing with a nod to the original series’ opening narration.)
My Australian friend and colleague, Philip Johnson, recently made me aware of an article that touches on an aspect of the interrelationship between religion and culture in the area of Japanese animation, known as anime. I have not seen the article yet, but hope to track it down in the near future. I had an opportunity to do some research for a series of presentations at Cornerstone Festival a couple of years ago on anime as an influence on gaming cards such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, and I have been interested in the religious influences from Japanese culture on anime, and its cross-cultural signficance.
Jin Kyu Park, “Creating My Own Cultural and Spiritual Bubble”: Case of Cultural Consumption by Spiritual Seeker Anime Fans, Culture and Religion, Vol. 6, no. 3 (November 2005): 393-413.
Abstract
“The distinctive quality of Japanese animation (anime) in its descriptions of religious and spiritual realms – integrating symbols, themes, doctrines, and mythologies from various religious traditions – is a cultural manifestation of the new integrative spirituality. This article demonstrates how important the religious aspect of anime is in explaining why younger generations in the USA, who are characterized as a spiritual seekers, become a loyal fan of the cultural aspects. Anime seems to provide them with a cultural resource out of which they create their own cultural and spiritual practices, which is, they claim, not provided by the US mainstream culture. This article argues that since the religious aspect of anime is one of the most disctinctive qualities in distinguishing itself from US pop culture, it would contribute to the generally accepted ‘cultural difference’ account in explaining the cross-cultural popularity of anime.”
A version of this paper, presented at The Intercultural Communications Association in 2003 is available for review on the web.
I still remember one night in the 1970s when my dad gave my younger brother and I the option of watching The Wonderful World of Disney on television as part of our regular family habit, or a horror film on another channel. The curiosity of youth being what it was, we chose the horror film, and our first exposure to the genre through The Creature From the Black Lagoon began a love affair with not only horror, but science fiction and fantasy as well.
Given evangelicalism’s frequent connection of horror with “the occult,” after my conversion to Christianity I though such passions had to be jettisoned as part of my new life. Much to my surprise and joy, I discovered that other Christians were also interested in these genres, and that they did not find them incompatible with the Christian life. In my research in the area of emerging spiritualities and popular culture years later, I discovered that these genres of entertainment were important aspects of emerging culture, and ones that the evangelical world needs to consider if it wishes to be relevant to post-modern culture. In this post I will pass along a few thoughts that have come to mind recently after some posts at Matt Stone’s Blog Eclectic Itchings.
Evangelicals have tended to either react confrontationally to aspects of popular culture, or to downplay its significance as opposed to “high culture.” Scholars now recognize the significance of popular culture o aspects of broader culture and spirituality in the shaping of western plausibility structures. The secularization of the West has resulted in the desire for a re-enchantment of the world, and this is being explored in a number of ways in popular culture. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror in literature and film have been used as vehicles to both express and explore aspects of new religions and emerging spiritualities, and as mythic resources with which to shape new spiritualities for a post-modern age.
In the area of the exploration of spirituality for new religions, Mormonism has great sympathies with science fiction. It has served well as a genre to creatively express aspects of their cosmology. LDS author Orson Scott Card has incorporated aspects of LDS cosmology in his novels, and it is well known that the original Battlestar Galactica series of the 1970s incorporated modified versions of LDS cosmology, although there is less emphasis on it in the current Sci Fi Channel version of the program.Fantasy has long been drawn upon to express and explore spirituality, from Tolkien and C. S. Lewis incorporating or expressing elements from Christianity, to Paganism and Wicca in more recent authors.But not only are these genres serving as vehicles to express spirituality, we are also seeing emerging spiritualities that are drawing upon these genres as both mythic sources by which to create new spiritualities, as well as to express and explore them. Australian scholar Adam Possamai provides several examples including The Church of Satan, and the Church of All World, as well as other exotic new spiritualities, such as The Temple of the Vampyre drawing upon vampire fiction, Jediism drawing up the Star Wars films, and Matrixism based upon The Matrix film trilogy.
A few years ago when the Lord of the Rings film trilogy was still unfolding, TIME magazine wrote a story on the phenomenal success of the films that included an interesting sidebar. It discussed the increasing popularity of fantasy films and the apparent decline in popularity of science fiction. This got me to thinking and I’ll pass along a few thoughts for consideration. Science fiction has served well as a forum for expressing ideas related more to materialist philosophies. With Mormonism’s emphasis on materialism, where even spirit itself is another form of the material, Mormon cosmology fit in well with the science fiction genre’s materialist leanings. Science fiction literature and films continue to be popular, but with the cultural shift toward re-enchantment fantasy films (and horror that includes a supernatural element) will likely continue to find a ready audience in the Western world. Those who may disagree with this idea given the popularity of the Star Wars films since the 1970s might take note that although Lucas’ films are expressed in the garb of sci fi they are more properly classified as a space fantasy.
While evangelicals may express incredulity in response to such new spiritualities and the pop culture sources behind them, nevertheless, they represent serious spiritual and social phenomena that are proving increasingly attractive to those in the West, particularly younger people. Christopher Partridge notes that these literary and cinematic sources serve as popular sacred narratives that represent “connections between the occult and arts-based culture, particular literature, film and video games…”
I wonder whether it might be possible (from the above it would surely be profitable) for evangelicals to spend less time fighting expressions of emerging spiritualities in popular culture and instead spend more time as students of popular culture so that we might understand the contemporary spiritual milieu, and where Western culture is spiritually “itching,” in order that we might actually scratch them where they itch rather than where we think they should itch. And while some of us are complaining about the popularity of J. K. Rowling with the Potter books, how about writing a series of books, or producing some films that draw upon fantasy, horror, and science fiction to creatively and subtly explore Christian spirituality?
Just a few thoughts.
Suggested Reading
Tom Beaudoin, Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X (Jossey-Bass, 1998).
Michael R. Collings, “The Rational and Relevatory in the Science Fiction of Orson Scott Card,” Sunstone 11, no. 3 (May 1987): 7-11.
Christopher Partridge, The Re-Enchantment of the West, vol. 1 (T & T Clark International, 2004). See his discussion of secularization and re-enchantment, as well as popular occulture in literature and film.
Adam Possamai, Religion and Popular Culture (P.I.E.-Peter Lang, 2005).
Sandy and Joe Straubhaar, “Science Fiction and Mormonism,” Sunstone 6, no. 4 (July/August 1981): 52-56.
