Sacred sacrilege: Religion and popular culture in Singapore

Abstract

This thesis queries how and why religion and popular culture come together even though they are commonly understood to be immutably separate and irreconcilable social domains.On an empirical level, this thesis explores the rationale and workings of religious social agents who instigate this collusion. These agents challenge taken-for-granted sacred-profane boundaries by 1) adapting from, 2) associating with, and 3) assimilating into popular culture and its industries despite indictments of sacrilege from fellow religionists. On a theoretical level, this thesis attempts to forward a sociological explanation on the forces at work that determine why social actors unreflexively adopt opposing for or against postures. This explanation casts the conflict as a "crisis of meaning" stemming from a deeper clash of religious paradigms. Opposing factions simultaneously reinforce and degrade taken-for-grantedness in defiance of each other. This thesis concludes by making certain assertions about the future of religion.