Secularization? According to Conrad Ostwalt, Essay

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According to Ostwalt, what happens when individuals, not institutions, define religious expression? How have you seen this in your personal experiences?

As religious institutions adopt an individualistic secular orientation, they become increasingly defined by the values of secular society, rather than by their own values. This not only results in a dilution of the message, but it also displaces religion's traditional role as a critic of secular values. Religious institutions have incorporated secular values such as commercialism into the messages that they preach. As the secular media seeks authority for its beliefs in religious tropes, once again values such as commercialism are given the veneer of divine authority. This can be seen in the explosion of self-help books that promise gains in wealth by improving one's mindset and even in weight-loss books that promise the ability to teach people how to 'think themselves thin' -- changing and purifying the body by changing the mind or the soul.

Q3. According to the author, how does popular culture act like religion?

Once upon a time, religion was a common source of identity for all people.

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For many centuries, the Bible created a language of metaphor and philosophical understanding that informed the worldview of Western Christendom. Today, popular culture has taken the place of this intellectual 'shorthand.' The concerns that are dealt with by religion have not gone away; rather they have been transposed into different mediums. Popular culture is commonly shared by (almost) all and creates a vehicle to discuss shared concerns. It becomes a venue in which to discuss and reconfigure the myths we share and our concerns about being human, and also offers a creative space in which artists can question these ideals. However, if commercialism and standardization rather than creativity reigns over pop culture, the value of such a shared discourse can easily be….....

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