Popular culture and the ’darker side’ of alternative spirituality: the case of metal music

Metal is perhaps the most extreme and aggressive form of contemporary Western popular music. Even though it continues to spark controversy and debate, it has also enjoyed enduring popularity for decades and has spread on a global scale. Metal music and culture has always been characterized by its fascination for dark and austere themes and imagery. Commonly dealing with topics such as evil, death, war, alienation and suffering, metal groups have traditionally found much inspiration in the world of religion, particularly Judeo-Christian eschatology and apocalypticism, different forms of paganism, occultism, esotericism and, last but not least, Satanism. These kinds of religious/spiritual themes have arguably developed into an integral part of metal culture on the whole. They contribute significantly to investing metal music and culture with an apparent aura of sincerity and mystique as well as to raising its shock and entertainment value. At the same time, metal culture is also marked by its high degree of humour and self-irony, its fondness for exaggeration, spectacle and over-the-top theatrics. Even so, metal stands out as a global popular music culture replete with various kinds of often dark and austere religious and spiritual themes, many of which stand in stark contrast to Christianity. Seen in the wider context of the changing face of religion in the West and the increasingly important role played by popular culture in the transformation of religious and spiritual identities, metal has come to play an important role in the dissemination of a wide variety of ‘dark’ alternative religious/spiritual beliefs and ideas. This article sheds further light on this issue through focusing on some contemporary and successful metal groups from the Nordic countries. In relation to this, attention is also drawn to some of the ways in which dark alternative religious/spiritual ideas may be viewed as having become an inseparable part of some sections of metal culture as they have become actively and consciously explored, and sometimes explicitly pro­moted, by the well known contemporary metal groups discussed in this article

The appropriation of mindfulness in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

Mindfulness has gained increasing popularity across Western societies over the past couple of decades, although mainly in forms that have been stripped of all religious content. During this period, the practice has also attracted the interest of mainstream Christian churches, which has precipitated the development of distinctively ‘Christian’ forms of mindfulness. Based on a critical discussion of the concept of appropriation in the sphere of religion, this article explores the particular logic whereby mindfulness has been appropriated within the particular ecclesiastical context of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) in light of debates in church-connected media and the content of two Finnish BA theses on pastoral care that argue for the adoption of the practice. In light of this data, the article illustrates how ELCF discourse on mindfulness has been marked by four closely interlinked requirements for the appropriation of the practice: 1. that the practice has already been thoroughly stripped of any overt religious content; 2. that it has become sufficiently scientifically validated; 3. that there is wider social and cultural interest in the practice; 4. and that the practice does not stand in opposition to the teachings of the church

Religious Popular Music: Between the Instrumental, Transcendent and Transgressive

The use of post-rock ‘n’ roll popular music genres by religious groups is accompanied by a notable ambiguity: Is religious popular music designed to be an instrumental tool for outreach/evangelism, or does it have an intrinsic value in summoning and exploring the transcendent? The article focuses on the previously rarely explored idea that the instrumental use of popular music in Christian andJewish settings is often much more important than its transcendent qualities. The importance of the instrumental in Christian and Jewish popular music reveals itself in subtle and not-so-subtle signifiers and practices that point to an anxious desire to discipline music’s possible transgressive force

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The Role of Grandmothers in the Religious Socialization of Young Adults in Post-Socialist Russia and Poland

Building on the findings of the YARG project, this article examines the enduringly central role of (great) grandmothers in the religious lives and religious socialization of young adults in Russia and Poland. The article highlights the complexities involved in studying the transmission of religious beliefs and values from one generation to the next in social and cultural contexts where religious socialization was severely interrupted for entire generations, and where the religious ‘chain of memory’ to varying extents has had to be forged anew. Arguing that current theoretical perspectives on religious socialization in post-socialist contexts need to be more attentive to extended understandings of family and kin, the article focuses on the enduring influence that (great) grandmothers exert in contemporary modes of religious socialization of children and young people in Russia and Poland. In light of survey data and in-depth interviews with young adult university students in Russia and Poland, the influence of (great) grandmothers is explored in relation to three main dimensions: the inspirational, the instructive, and the supportive. The article illustrates how (great) grandmothers continue to represent a religious element in the lives of Russian and Polish young adults regardless of their own religious engagements and degrees of personal religiosity.</p

From Socialization to Self-Socialization? Exploring the Role of Digital Media in the Religious Lives of Young Adults in Ghana, Turkey, and Peru

Previous research has pointed to the central role of media for the current young adult generation when it comes to finding information about religion, exploring beliefs, and developing a religious identity. This article explores how young adult university students in three different contexts – Ghana, Turkey, and Peru – report using digital media for religious purposes. The article builds on previous research on the role of media in religious socialization and explores the usefulness of the notion of self-socialization in a transnational study. The studied contexts are all shown to differ when it comes to levels of self-reported religiosity and use of media for religious purposes. The article illustrates the independent use of digital media in all contexts and self-socialization taking place on a general level, but also highlights the continuous importance of traditional socialization agents, thus questioning simplistic understandings of the role of media in religious socialization.</p