Streaming violence: religion and violence in television media
Creators: name: Abrams, Stephanie A.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2021

description: Religion is a part of the general culture, and people can choose to engage with it on various levels. Because we live in a media culture, popular media, including entertainment media, is where many people encounter religion. Entertainment media that uses religion to create its narratives becomes a part of the culture and becomes stories that are disseminated around the globe. Entertainment media’s use of religion can have real consequences. Unfortunately, there is a gap in the field of religious violence. Religious violence as displayed in entertainment media is not readily explored. This gap needs to be addressed and can be addressed using the theories that others have presented regarding religion and violence. The methodology of this thesis project is to examine the violence that is present in popular television series that use religion as their main theme and discuss that violence through the lens of religious violence theories. Because many popular television series draw on religious stories, motifs, and imagery that are violent, viewers may conclude that these television shows confirm that religions are violent. Chapter One focuses on Ares, a Dutch television series that utilizes the idea of “cult” to create the theme of the series. Television series often rely on the basic principles of “cult” to create dark, eerie, and often violent examples of “cults”. Ares uses the themes of religion manifest in its use of cult as well as violence to capture the audience’s attention. While violence is sometimes contested, for the most part, the characters and the series itself accepts violence and it is often encouraged. Chapter Two focuses on The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and how the creators utilize biblical narratives to create the plots. The biblical passages of 1 Kings 3:16-28 and 2 Kings 6:26-29, when used in the Netflix Original Series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, have taken on a positive valence for the violence, which is a turn from the negative valence that the biblical passages have in their original context. In addition, the creators of the show comment on the power structures that are present in organized religion and offer their own interpretation of how religions can function. They propose the idea that there are power structures that can create prosperity. However, this does not mean that these structures stop the violence that can be present in the religion. Chapter three focuses on Good Omens, which utilizes characters and narratives from Revelation, the last book of the New Testament to form its plot. Through the characters of the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale, the show challenges the conventionally held beliefs of who and what are good and evil in Revelation. Crowley and Aziraphale contest the violence that other characters in the show participate in and wish to participate in. Chapter Four focuses on Warrior Nun. The television series deals with violence through the themes of good versus evil, The Church versus its members, and religion versus science. Within all of these “battles,” violence is used by both sides to gain triumph, violence done by those who are religious (nun), is usually portrayed as accepted. However, violence done to the nuns is contested and portrayed as negative use of violence. In the conclusion, I return to the issue of the conflation of religion and violence with attention to how the audience perceives the violence and how that violence can affect their views of religion. Throughout this thesis project, we can see that television series that use the themes of religion and violence challenge and work to reinforce "common" views of organized religion, and the audience must parse through these interpretations to come up with their own understanding and opinions.