I've always thought of the "international cultural elite" in terms of academics, but in the context of this class a different set of questions arises - questions germane to the project and problem of our course. Are the arts part of this secularist minority? The discussion of religion and contemporary art James Elkins curated certainly suggested as much. It'll be interesting to raise these questions about theater.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Dramas of secularization
The theory of religion part of Religion & Theater is winding down; soon we'll be focusing on rehearsal of students' final scenes, and gathering thoughts for final syntheses. For tomorrow's class I've given the students the text of a talk the sociologist of religion Peter Berger gave here in 2007 called (rather dramatically) "Secularization Falsified" (published in First Things in 2008). Here's the para (p24) I'll start discussion from:
I've always thought of the "international cultural elite" in terms of academics, but in the context of this class a different set of questions arises - questions germane to the project and problem of our course. Are the arts part of this secularist minority? The discussion of religion and contemporary art James Elkins curated certainly suggested as much. It'll be interesting to raise these questions about theater.
I've always thought of the "international cultural elite" in terms of academics, but in the context of this class a different set of questions arises - questions germane to the project and problem of our course. Are the arts part of this secularist minority? The discussion of religion and contemporary art James Elkins curated certainly suggested as much. It'll be interesting to raise these questions about theater.
