Secularization? According to Conrad Ostwalt,

¶ … secularization?

According to Conrad Ostwalt, the author of Secular Steeples: Popular Culture and the Religious Imagination, secular culture is adopting the tropes of the sacred, while sacred culture is being increasingly secularized. An excellent example of the latter phenomenon is the so-called 'mega-church' movement, in which the traditionally sacred space of church has become a large, commercialized venue. Often mega-church congregations are so large that television screens are used so people in the back pews can hear and see the preacher. Popular music with Christian themes is piped through the echoing halls. This renders religion palatable for the masses, weaned on television. And the message of the mega-church seamlessly blends Christianity with the secular messages of the self-help movement, stressing individual empowerment vs. The responsibilities of the individual to the community. The demand for the 'literal' and factual truth of the Bible, and creation 'science' demystifies religion and the transcendent power of myth, rendering it something that must be proved and demonstrated like an archeological or scientific theory.

The dilution of the notion of the sacred is likewise reflected in the religious themes that are beginning to take over secular texts, films, and even planned communities. This is most obviously manifested in apocalyptic films and books which liberally adapt Biblical metaphors. But it is also seen in modern Biblical criticism that attempts to understand the Bible from a purely historical perspective, again refusing to acknowledge any eternal truths can be learned from the Bible in a sense beyond the purely factual. Ostwalt sees 'planned' communities with many rules governing behavior as a symptom of an attempt to create a 'pure' shining city on a hill or a new Jerusalem, like utopian religious communities in the past. Although not cited by Ostwalt, the new obsession with eating 'clean' and regulating food behavior as religious institutions did many years ago could also be seen as a manifestation of this phenomenon.

Q2. One of Ostwalt's theses in this book regards the source of authority for truth and beliefs. According to Ostwalt, what happens when individuals, not institutions, define religious expression? How have you seen this in your personal experiences?

As religious institutions adopt an individualistic secular orientation, they become increasingly defined by the values of secular society, rather than by their own values. This not only results in a dilution of the message, but it also displaces religion's traditional role as a critic of secular values. Religious institutions have incorporated secular values such as commercialism into the messages that they preach. As the secular media seeks authority for its beliefs in religious tropes, once again values such as commercialism are given the veneer of divine authority. This can be seen in the explosion of self-help books that promise gains in wealth by improving one's mindset and even in weight-loss books that promise the ability to teach people how to 'think themselves thin' -- changing and purifying the body by changing the mind or the soul.

Q3. According to the author, how does popular culture act like religion?