Christmas as religion : rethinking Santa, the secular and the sacred /
Deacy, Christopher,
Christmas as religion : rethinking Santa, the secular and the sacred / Christopher Deacy. - First edition. - 1 online resource (xi, 223 pages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Cover; Christmas as Religion: Rethinking Santa, the Secular, and the Sacred; Copyright; Dedication; Preface; Acknowledgements; Contents; Introduction: The Parameters of this Book; 1: What is Christmas?; WHY IS CHRISTMAS SIGNIFICANT?; 2: Revisiting the Religious Origins and Essence of Christmas; THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS; THE DICKENS CONNECTION; FROM SCROOGE TO SANTA . . .TO JESUS?; RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SANTA AND JESUS; 3: Is Christmas a 'Secular' Religion?; A REFRAMING OF THE PARAMETERS; CHRISTMAS JUNIOR CHOICE; RAMIFICATIONS FOR THE DEFINITION AND STUDY OF RELIGION THE NEED TO MOVE AWAY FROM BINARIES4: Christmas as a Site of Implicit Religion; WHAT IS IMPLICIT RELIGION?; THE DISTINCTIVENESS AND IMPACT OF IMPLICIT RELIGION; HOW MIGHT CHRISTMAS FUNCTION AS A SITE OF IMPLICIT RELIGION?; 5: Christmas Films and the Persistence of the Supernatural; CHRISTMAS MOVIES AS VESSELS OF TRANSFORMATION AND RENEWAL; THE PARADOX OF ESCAPISM; CRITICAL VS. POPULAR INTERPRETATIONS OF CHRISTMAS FILMS; JUXTAPOSING THE TRANSCENDENT AND THE SECULAR; 6: Reframing Christmas and the Religion of Materialism; RELIGION AND CONSUMER CAPITALISM CHRISTMAS'S INDISSOLUBLE ASSOCIATION WITH THE ECONOMYPROBLEMS WITH THE RELIGION OF COMMERCIALIZATION; FINDING THE SPIRITUAL IN THE MIDST OF THE MATERIAL: THE PARADOX OF CHRISTMAS FILMS; CONCLUSION: MOVING BEYOND THE MATERIAL; Bibliography; Index
Christopher Deacy explores the premise that religion plays an elementary role in our understanding of the Christmas festival, but takes issue with much of the existing literature which is inclined to limit the contours and parameters of 'religion' to particular representations and manifestations of institutional forms of Christianity. 'Religion' is often tacitly identified as having an ecclesiastical frame of reference, so that if the Church is not deemed to play a central role in the practice of Christmas for many people today then it can legitimately be side-lined and relegated to the periphery of any discussion relating to what Christmas 'means'. Deacy argues that such approaches fail to take adequate stock of the manifold ways in which people's beliefs and values take shape in modern society. For example, Christmas films or radio programmes may comprise a non-specifically Christian, but nonetheless religiously rich, repository of beliefs, values, sentiments and aspirations. Therefore, this book makes the case for laying to rest the secularization thesis, with its simplistic assumption that religion in Western society is undergoing a period of escalating and irrevocable erosion, and to see instead that the secular may itself be a repository of the religious. Rather than see Christmas as comprising alternative or analogous forms of religious expression, or dependent on any causal relationship to the Christian tradition, Deacy maintains that it is religious per se, and, moreover, it is its very secularity that makes Christmas such a compelling, and even transcendent, religious holiday.
9780191069550 0191069558 9780191816192 0191816191
Christmas--History.
Religion and culture.
RELIGION / Holidays / Christian
Electronic books.
BV45 / .D42 2016eb
263/.915
Christmas as religion : rethinking Santa, the secular and the sacred / Christopher Deacy. - First edition. - 1 online resource (xi, 223 pages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Cover; Christmas as Religion: Rethinking Santa, the Secular, and the Sacred; Copyright; Dedication; Preface; Acknowledgements; Contents; Introduction: The Parameters of this Book; 1: What is Christmas?; WHY IS CHRISTMAS SIGNIFICANT?; 2: Revisiting the Religious Origins and Essence of Christmas; THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS; THE DICKENS CONNECTION; FROM SCROOGE TO SANTA . . .TO JESUS?; RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SANTA AND JESUS; 3: Is Christmas a 'Secular' Religion?; A REFRAMING OF THE PARAMETERS; CHRISTMAS JUNIOR CHOICE; RAMIFICATIONS FOR THE DEFINITION AND STUDY OF RELIGION THE NEED TO MOVE AWAY FROM BINARIES4: Christmas as a Site of Implicit Religion; WHAT IS IMPLICIT RELIGION?; THE DISTINCTIVENESS AND IMPACT OF IMPLICIT RELIGION; HOW MIGHT CHRISTMAS FUNCTION AS A SITE OF IMPLICIT RELIGION?; 5: Christmas Films and the Persistence of the Supernatural; CHRISTMAS MOVIES AS VESSELS OF TRANSFORMATION AND RENEWAL; THE PARADOX OF ESCAPISM; CRITICAL VS. POPULAR INTERPRETATIONS OF CHRISTMAS FILMS; JUXTAPOSING THE TRANSCENDENT AND THE SECULAR; 6: Reframing Christmas and the Religion of Materialism; RELIGION AND CONSUMER CAPITALISM CHRISTMAS'S INDISSOLUBLE ASSOCIATION WITH THE ECONOMYPROBLEMS WITH THE RELIGION OF COMMERCIALIZATION; FINDING THE SPIRITUAL IN THE MIDST OF THE MATERIAL: THE PARADOX OF CHRISTMAS FILMS; CONCLUSION: MOVING BEYOND THE MATERIAL; Bibliography; Index
Christopher Deacy explores the premise that religion plays an elementary role in our understanding of the Christmas festival, but takes issue with much of the existing literature which is inclined to limit the contours and parameters of 'religion' to particular representations and manifestations of institutional forms of Christianity. 'Religion' is often tacitly identified as having an ecclesiastical frame of reference, so that if the Church is not deemed to play a central role in the practice of Christmas for many people today then it can legitimately be side-lined and relegated to the periphery of any discussion relating to what Christmas 'means'. Deacy argues that such approaches fail to take adequate stock of the manifold ways in which people's beliefs and values take shape in modern society. For example, Christmas films or radio programmes may comprise a non-specifically Christian, but nonetheless religiously rich, repository of beliefs, values, sentiments and aspirations. Therefore, this book makes the case for laying to rest the secularization thesis, with its simplistic assumption that religion in Western society is undergoing a period of escalating and irrevocable erosion, and to see instead that the secular may itself be a repository of the religious. Rather than see Christmas as comprising alternative or analogous forms of religious expression, or dependent on any causal relationship to the Christian tradition, Deacy maintains that it is religious per se, and, moreover, it is its very secularity that makes Christmas such a compelling, and even transcendent, religious holiday.
9780191069550 0191069558 9780191816192 0191816191
Christmas--History.
Religion and culture.
RELIGION / Holidays / Christian
Electronic books.
BV45 / .D42 2016eb
263/.915