Seminar: Popular Culture -- Burn it, Baptize it or What? MN 631 Northern Baptist Theological Seminary Summer, 1998 Prof. Terry Mattingly Adjunct faculty I. OVERTURE It would be worthless to teach students an impressive collection of statistics about trends in communications and popular culture that will shape the United States and the world, in the years and decades to come. By the time you've gathered together all your facts, the river of change will have passed you by or drowned you. As if that weren't enough, our society is splintered into a legion of interest groups, or "niches," each containing one or many differing viewpoints about the makeup of those "facts" and what they mean. The media tell us more than we need to know about some of these viewpoints and precious little about many others. The view from Jerusalem is very different from that of Athens, Wall Street, Hollywood, Peoria or Appalachia. Why should modern Christians attempt to study media and popular culture at all? Why even try to shoot at today's moving targets? Why not join the majority of people in the church establishment and either ignore the mass media or invite them into our churches and living rooms unchallenged? Truth is, ``Why ask why?'' isn't a viable answer. Apathy is not an option for those who believe they are called to be church leaders and communications professionals who walk the tense high wire between secular standards and Christian commitments. The goal of this class is for students to try to focus on the role that religion plays in this river of change that we call mass media and popular culture and to ponder some motivations for modern church leaders to want to do so. We need strategies to help us monitor what is happening around us before we attempt to respond -- as church leaders and as communicators. Our assumptions: We live in mission territory, in a post-Christian culture that is foreign to values of the church. Also, we will discover that we do not live in a "secular" culture and that there are no "secular media." We will look at how the news and entertainment media shape public definitions and debates about a critical religious issue -- the very nature of religion and revelation. Then we will discuss ways in which Christians can attempt to respond to this trend. II. OBJECTIVES (a) Like it or not, we learn most of what we think we know about public, and in many cases private, life through the secular news and entertainment media. Thus, in this short class we will study how our popular culture forces us to look at daily events and ongoing trends through the lens of the media. (b) In an attempt to narrow our focus, we will begin by studying a specific scholar and a specific issue -- Dr. James Davison Hunter's theory on the nature of moral truth in today's cultural conflicts in America. We will see that, for the most part, he avoids looking at the role of popular media. We will fill that gap. The key is what I will call lowest-common-denominator religion. The big questions: What is happening to religious faith in the public arena in this new age? How do the media serve as vehicles for secularization, privatization and pluralization? For example, why has the so-called "New Age" movement had such a lasting impact in our culture? (c) Let me stress that we have very little time together. This class is about learning to pay critical attention to the methods and messages of mass media, not about killing time by watching movies or TV. Our goal is to blend observations of popular culture with reflections on how to make a case for the Gospel. We will, with no apology, focus on the needs of the church. III. TEXTBOOKS: to be read in advance. (a) Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, by James Davison Hunter. HarperCollins-Basic Books. Students should read this before class begins. (b) All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture, by Kenneth Myers. Crossway. (c) God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams, by David F. Wells. Eerdmans. (d) The Plug-In Drug: Television Children and the Family, by Marie Winn. Penguin. (e) Hollywood vs. America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values, by Michael Medved. HarperCollins. (f) Pop Culture Wars: Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American Life, by William Romanowski. InterVarsity Press. An annoted bibliography is available of other books linked to issues in this class. It can be found in the "freelance" pages of my World Wide Web site at http://www.tmatt.net IV. REQUIREMENTS (a) Concerning my priorities in assigning grades -- please keep the following in mind. This is a class built on lively participation, especially in class sessions. When in doubt, dive in. Come up with new ideas. Speak up. Attendance is critical. (b) Following the policy of NBTS, all of the required readings are to be done in advance. Students will prepare short reports, of no less than two pages each, summarizing the thesis of each book and applying it to the theme of the course: that mass media help shape the building blocks of daily life in America. This can be see by asking three questions: How do the people to whom I minister spend their time? How do they spend their money? How do they make their decisions? (c) As for written work, I'm looking for clarity, not a particular writing style. We want to produce ideas and materials for the church. Nevertheless, "academic" issues of spelling, grammar and accuracy will greatly affect letter grades. Take my word for it. Consider the words of one of my all- time favorite professors: "All I can do is pick up somebody's paper, read it, and look for signs of intelligent life." (d) During this week, the mornings will be dedicated to lectures and guided activities. After lunch, we will have an hour of question and answer time, followed by time for research, as individuals or as a group. Get ready to head to the mall and the multiplex -- with notebooks. Also, we will watch at least one complete film together during an afternoon session. (e) Each student will write a final paper focusing on a specific "signal" from mass media. This paper may take the form of a sermon, a text for use in Christian education or some other form negotiated by the student and the seminary. This project should be 15-20 pages in length. The written text that accompanies your final project should conform with standard academic forms -- such as those detailed in the fifth edition of Kate L. Turabian's "A Manual For Writers." Please use footnotes to show us the range of your reading and research. This is true no matter what form the body of your final project takes -- a sermons, lecture materials for a retreat, Christian education materials or whatever. This project must be accompanied by an annotated bibliography of at least 10 books, major articles in periodicals or mass-media resources, such as movies. The goal is to provide a clear reference, along with at least one paragraph of newly written material that could be given to another church leader to help them understand your project. Note: Without the annotated bibliography, the final project is incomplete. Concerning these projects: the concept of the "signal" is crucial to this class. So here's a brief description of what I'm talking about. 1. A "signal" is a single piece of secular popular culture focusing on a subject that is of interest to the church. It can be a newspaper article, a television show, a compact disc, a movie, a new video, a best-selling book or some other similar item. Step one is to select a "signal." The key: define your turf. Be specific. 2. Next we will study the contents of this specific example of mainstream, secular media. Our goal is to find the "secular subject" of that media "signal," as defined by its creators. 3. From there, we will focus on the corresponding "sacred subject" in Christian teaching, as defined by the Bible and church teachings through the generations. 4. Then we will ask how the church could offer a "response" in preaching, Christian education or a parachurch program that is based on the original mass media "signal." The goal is to respond to a specific issue in the lives of people in this culture. We want to do something constructive. In your final projects, direct quotations from the "signal" and from outside source materials are required. Also, students should demonstrate knowledge of assigned readings. V. A FINAL WORD ABOUT GRADES The final project will provide half of your grade. The reading reports will count 25 percent. I will evaluate each student's class participation and research -- providing another 25 percent. Thanks for your efforts. I realize that this is a somewhat experimental class. Also, this is the first time I have taught it on this campus and in this format. Get ready to try to tune in some "signals." Under The Mercy, tmatt@sprynet.com http://www.tmatt.net