Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note
- Introduction: Xers and Yers as Cohorts of the Post-1970s Generation
- Chapter 1 Religious Diversity and the Politics of Definition
- Chapter 2 Religion and Popular Culture
- Chapter 3 Religion and Modernity: Marx, Durkheim and Weber
- Chapter 4 Religion, Spirituality and the Post-Secularisation Approach
- Chapter 5 Religion and Postmodernity (Part A): Consumer Religions
- Chapter 6 Religion and Postmodernity (Part B): Hyper-reality and the Internet
- Chapter 7 Esotericism, Its McDonaldisation, and Its Re-enchantment Process
- Chapter 8 Monotheistic Fundamentalism(s) as an Outcome of Consumer Culture
- Chapter 9 Buddhism, Its Westernisation and the Easternisation of the West
- Chapter 10 Christianity: Churches and Sects in a Post-Christian World
- Chapter 11 The Multiple-Modernities of Islam?
- Chapter 12 New Religious Movements and the Death of the New Age
- Chapter 13 Witchcraft, the Internet, and Consumerism
- Conclusion: What Do Sociologists of Religion in Academia Do Apart from Teaching and Marking? Their Work as Intellectuals
- References
- Index
Chapter 10 - Christianity: Churches and Sects in a Post-Christian World
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note
- Introduction: Xers and Yers as Cohorts of the Post-1970s Generation
- Chapter 1 Religious Diversity and the Politics of Definition
- Chapter 2 Religion and Popular Culture
- Chapter 3 Religion and Modernity: Marx, Durkheim and Weber
- Chapter 4 Religion, Spirituality and the Post-Secularisation Approach
- Chapter 5 Religion and Postmodernity (Part A): Consumer Religions
- Chapter 6 Religion and Postmodernity (Part B): Hyper-reality and the Internet
- Chapter 7 Esotericism, Its McDonaldisation, and Its Re-enchantment Process
- Chapter 8 Monotheistic Fundamentalism(s) as an Outcome of Consumer Culture
- Chapter 9 Buddhism, Its Westernisation and the Easternisation of the West
- Chapter 10 Christianity: Churches and Sects in a Post-Christian World
- Chapter 11 The Multiple-Modernities of Islam?
- Chapter 12 New Religious Movements and the Death of the New Age
- Chapter 13 Witchcraft, the Internet, and Consumerism
- Conclusion: What Do Sociologists of Religion in Academia Do Apart from Teaching and Marking? Their Work as Intellectuals
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
At the same time that the third episode of Lord of the Rings was winning a series of Oscars as if they were given on an assembly line, a low production movie from Quebec, The Barbarian Invasion, received the prize for the best foreign movie. In this Canadian movie a young woman working for Sothebys visiting Quebec is contacted by a Catholic priest. The priest mentions that his church has a collection of old works of art that he is hoping to sell to international art collectors. The young woman is interested by this possible deal and pays a visit to a sort of Catholic store room. In this place reminiscent of an old and forgotten attic, an old priest shows her around the various art pieces covered with dust and cobwebs. Not only does this setting portray Catholicism in the western world as a decaying institution, but when the young woman tells the priest that these antiques are worth nothing, the metaphor about the decline of the relevance of the Church is reenforced.
As we have seen in Chapter 4, fewer people attend churches, and the political and cultural influences of mainstream Christian religions are no longer what they were in yesteryears. This movie is not only retelling what sociologists of religion have been analysing for years in terms of membership dropouts, it also emphasises that the Catholic Church has less power in a consumer world as its works of art are not of much value.
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- Information
- Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y , pp. 139 - 152Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2009