Teaching Bible and American Popular Culture

2020 ◽  
pp. 520-536
Author(s):  
Jane S. Webster
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Biblical Literacy ◽  
Spiritual Quest ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Relationship

Educators often need help to design courses that lead to transformative learning. This paper outlines a practical approach to course design drawing on the scholarship of teaching and learning, the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and current work in the field. Starting with relevant and urgent student learning outcomes (such as biblical literacy and spiritual quest), effective courses build a series of learning opportunities that enable students to discover content, construct meaning, and create something new. By engaging in the Bible with, in, and alongside of popular culture, students learn more about the Bible, culture, and the relationship between the two. The context of a meta-question requires them to reflect on such essential human concerns as the nature of authority, the construction of identity, and the contextualization of truth. In this way, learning becomes transformative.

Television and the Bible in American Popular Culture

2020 ◽  
pp. 308-329
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
First Century ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
Biblical Literacy ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
American Television ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Impact

This essay examines the Bible in American television, focusing in particular on the twenty-first century. It suggests that there are three broad categories which may helpfully illustrate and encompass the diverse ways in which the Bible appears and/or is utilized: (1) educating about the Bible (e.g., documentaries); (2) dramatizing the Bible (renditions of biblical stories); and (3) drawing on the Bible (the impact or use of the Bible in other television programs). Examining each of these in turn, this essay highlights the prevalence of the Bible on television and thus in American popular culture more generally, as well as considering some of the myriad ways in which it has been read, used, and interpreted. In particular, it endeavors to show how the medium can function as a tool for both reflecting and promoting levels of biblical literacy among its audience.

Publishing in Bible and American Popular Culture

2020 ◽  
pp. 536-552
Author(s):  
Robert Paul Seesengood
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Future Work

This essay is an examination of scholarship on the Bible and (American) popular culture. It reviews the history and assumptions of cultural studies and maps how this body of work influenced biblical scholarship after 1990. It surveys an array of examples of scholarship on the Bible and popular culture and concludes with some suggestions for future work. Specifically, this essay asks the following: How has interest in Bible and popular culture affected academic publishing? How did these trends emerge, and what assumptions prompt them? What new journals or series or reference works have appeared that are specifically devoted to this broad topic, and what are some ways that the Bible and popular culture have been treated therein?

The Ten Commandments, Postcards, and Methodological Issues and Opportunities

2020 ◽  
pp. 503-520
Author(s):  
Scott M. Langston
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Ten Commandments ◽  
Protestant Christianity ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Dynamic Interplay

Understanding the relationship between the Bible and popular culture requires a multidimensional approach that recognizes and integrates the various factors involved in particular uses of the Bible. Rather than studying these features in isolation from each other, focusing on their dynamic interplay demonstrates how biblical texts function as but one of many components in larger cultural productions. Furthermore, it shows how popular culture can act as a filter that selects and excludes elements of a biblical text for its own purposes, while transforming the text’s meanings. Popular uses of the Bible frequently reflect keen insight into biblical texts and often create innovative readings that go beyond academic methodologies, purposes, and abilities. Scholars therefore can learn much about the Bible from popular culture. Gilded Age and Progressive Era picture postcards of the Ten Commandments reflect this interplay, illustrating how factors such as capitalism, Victorian gender norms, American Protestant Christianity, and American exceptionalism combined to shape biblical expressions and uses.

Improvising on the Canon through Jazz Music and Biblical Interpretation in American Popular Culture

2020 ◽  
pp. 343-361
Author(s):  
Andrew Moss
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
Sun Ra ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
John Coltrane ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Jazz Music ◽  
Duke Ellington

The chapter explores the resonances of jazz music, artistry and artists with biblical allusion and interpretation. It outlines the role that jazz played in American popular culture with reference to African American culture and the development of jazz from the American spirituals tradition. It examines representations of the Bible in jazz works by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Mahalia Jackson, and Ed Summerlin, including exploring the genre of “sacred jazz.” It moves from an exegetical analysis of jazz works in relation to the biblical text to a broader theological interpretation of biblical themes in improvisation. Drawing on Philip Bohlman’s analysis of music cultures, it articulates how improvisation shapes the cultural and religious identity of jazz music. Using the examples of John Coltrane and Sun Ra it argues that contemporary discussions of human freedom, liberation, and constraint are resourceful methodological tools for current biblical interpretations of jazz music.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gordon ◽  
Olaf Jubin
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
Queer Culture ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

The Introduction explains the need for academic exploration of the British musical by approaching the genre from various perspectives: its sociocultural meanings, its correlation to queer culture and British camp, its close and sometimes rivalrous relationship with American popular culture, its attempts to straddle the divide between highbrow and lowbrow, and the relationship between the West End musical and ethnic subcultures in the UK. The authors argue that to judge British musicals by standards and conventions established by the Broadway musical is bound to be misleading, not least because British artists and audiences, responding to British and European influences, have consistently demonstrated a uniquely British sensibility and taste. The Introduction gives a brief overview of the twenty-eight essays, organized into six parts, which make up the Handbook. It concludes with lists of common themes in the British musical and of related topics that remain to be addressed.

scholarly journals Multidisciplinary Team-based Model for Faculty Supports in Online Learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
CJ Dalton ◽  
Antoinette Thornton ◽  
Christina Dinsmore ◽  
Wanda Beyer ◽  
Keren Akiva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Multidisciplinary Team ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Course Development ◽  
Online Course Development ◽  
Travail D’Équipe

This study examined the experiences of three new online instructors supported by a multidisciplinary, team-based model of course development and how their experiences may transform their knowledge of teaching and learning. In-depth, individual interviews with instructors during the course development process provided insights into participants’ perspectives. Analysis reveals faculty reflected positively on the overall development process and that they intend to incorporate new understandings in future course design, suggesting that the model provides a solid foundation for online course development and faculty support. Based on a cross-case analysis using Cranton’s (2002) adaptations to transformative learning theory, findings indicated the importance of critical reflection and discourse during the course development process. Lastly, the need for development teams to acknowledge time-management concerns and to consider instructors as novice learners is recognized as an essential requirement to online course development.    La présente étude se penche sur l’expérience de trois nouveaux instructeurs en ligne utilisant un modèle d’élaboration de cours multidisciplinaire fondé sur le travail d’équipe. Nous nous demandons comment cette expérience est susceptible de transformer leur connaissance de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage. Des entrevues individuelles approfondies avec les instructeurs pendant l’élaboration des cours nous ont permis d’observer le point de vue des participants. Selon notre analyse, les enseignants ont formulé des réflexions positives au sujet du processus d’élaboration dans son ensemble. Ils ont dit vouloir incorporer leurs nouvelles connaissances dans la conception de leurs cours à l’avenir, ce qui suggère que le modèle constitue une assise solide pour l’élaboration de cours en ligne et pour le soutien des enseignants. Fondés sur une analyse transversale faisant usage des adaptations de Cranton (2002) aux théories de l’apprentissage transformationnel, nos résultats mettent en relief l’importance de la réflexion critique et du discours dans le processus d’élaboration des cours. Enfin, nous prenons acte du fait que l’équipe d’élaboration des cours doit prendre en compte les préoccupations en matière de gestion du temps et doit considérer les instructeurs comme des apprenants débutants. Ce sont là des exigences essentielles pour l’élaboration de cours en ligne.

scholarly journals Magic Mike, Dirty Dancing, and the (Empty) Promise of Heteromasculinity

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Addie Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
White Male ◽  
White Men ◽  
Saturday Night ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Compulsory Heterosexuality ◽  
Saturday Night Live ◽  
The Relationship

In 1987, Eddie Murphy performed a comic sketch about white men dancing that would inform future movers and makers of white male dancing in American popular culture, helping to create a trope mocking white men for their inability to dance, most often referred to as the “white man dance.” At that time, Saturday Night Live, with the help of its host Patrick Swayze, fresh off the popularity of his work in sleeper hit Dirty Dancing, contributed to the trope itself with a sketch comparing the hypermuscular physique of Swayze vs. the flabby physique of comedian Chris Farley. Almost thirty years later, American popular culture would see a return to a renewed interest in the dance film with the stripper film Magic Mike. This article argues that although Magic Mike, like Dirty Dancing, relies on the makeover trope as its narrative and thematic engine, Magic Mike revises the popular dance film format to instead focus on the relationship between two men, Mike and Adam, rather than on a heterosexual partnering. Magic Mike’s focus on this male-to-male relationship inevitably comments on the exchange between heteronormative masculinity and compulsory heterosexuality and their assumed whiteness.

The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and American Popular Culture

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Online Publication ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Print Publication ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Pass Through

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.

scholarly journals Aspectos discursivos sobre/no ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa e na formação de professores em um curso EaD

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiane Carvalho de Paula Brito ◽  
Simone Tiemi Hashiguti
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Public University ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Resumo Este trabalho visa apresentar resultados parciais de uma investigação sobre o ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa (LI) e formação de professores, desenvolvida em um curso de graduação em língua e literatura inglesas, em uma universidade pública mineira. À luz dos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos da Análise do Discurso francesa em interface com os estudos em Linguística Aplicada, propomo-nos a discutir: (i) o desenho do curso e materiais e seu possível impacto na formação dos licenciandos; (ii) as representações por eles construídas acerca dos processos de ensino-aprendizagem de LI a distância; e (iii) as práticas de aprendizagem que têm sido desenvolvidas no curso. As análises apontam que a relação dos sujeitos com a LI vai se delineando e se ressignificando ao longo do curso e que as práticas de linguagem desenvolvidas no contexto das novas tecnologias se dão em processos de descontinuidade e não de uma suposta ruptura, trazendo à tona a relação singular que os sujeitos estabelecem com a língua que aprendem-ensinam. Palavras-chave: EaD, ensino-aprendizagem de língua inglesa, discurso, formação de professores.   Discursive aspects about/in English teaching-learning and teacher education in a distance course Abstract This paper presents partial results of a research on the teaching and learning of English language (EL) and teacher education, developed in an undergraduate course in English language and English language literature at a public university in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. In light of the theoretical and methodological assumptions of the French Discourse Analysis in its interface with studies in Applied Linguistics, we propose to discuss: (i) the course design and materials and their possible impact on the development of the undergraduates; (ii) the representations of the processes of teaching and learning the EL at a distance as built by them; and (iii) the learning practices that have been developed in the course. The analyzes suggest that the relationship of the subjects with the EL is constituted and given new meanings throughout the course and that the language practices developed in the context of the new technologies happen in discontinuity and not as a possible rupture, revealing the singular relationship that subjects have with the language that they learn-teach. Keywords: distance education, teaching and learning of English, discourse, teacher education.

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