Sports, Mythology, and Cultural Identity

There's a new sacred in town.

Today we are going to talk about the altars where we worship, and it just so happens that is the name of a new book by Juan Floyd-Thomas, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, and Mark Toulouse - The Altars Where We Worship: The Religious Significance of Pop Culture.

We were joined by all three authors to talk about the relationship of religion and culture, the religious nature of culture, sports (which of course means the Lakers), reclaiming Marx's cultural criticism today, the movie Zootopia, but, sadly, not August and Everything After by the Counting Crows.

There are seven attributes of organized religion that also exist in popular culture. They are:

• doctrine
• myth
• ethics
• ritual
• experience
• institutions
• material

Juan, Stacey, and Mark use these to figure out how people find the sacred in:

• body and sex
• big business
• entertainment
• politics
• sports
• science and technology

If you've ever been worried that some of the podcasts are too nerdy and you just want something cool and smart to say about movies, music, sports, culture, etc., then this is the interview for you.

Books mentioned in this episode: The Religious Experience of Mankind and Worldviews by Ninian Smart

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