Signs and wonders

The French sociologist ?mile Durkheim once claimed that religion represents 바카라사이트 "serious life of a society". This is a puzzling suggestion for those of us working in 바카라사이트 secular academy. Was Durkheim implying that modern university scholars interested in culture and society are cut off from 바카라사이트 serious life?

Max Weber, a contemporary of Durkheim's, had a slightly different way of framing 바카라사이트 issue. He believed that an intellectual culture that had eaten from 바카라사이트 "tree of knowledge" would struggle to find meaning in modern everyday existence. He called this situation 바카라사이트 "disenchantment of 바카라사이트 world".

In 바카라사이트 closing pages of his landmark 1905 work, The Protestant Ethic and 바카라사이트 Spirit of Capitalism, Weber suggested that 바카라사이트 best that could come from a culture unable to access 바카라사이트 sacred was a situation of "specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart". We moderns might think we are advanced; but in reality we have been robbed of 바카라사이트 resources to lead what Weber terms a "satiated" life.

Weber's friend and intellectual sparring partner Georg Luk��cs agreed. In an essay written in 1910 he asks why it is that "when 바카라사이트 topic turns to culture people prefer to talk about aeroplanes and railways, 바카라사이트 speed and efficiency of telegraphs".

Luk��cs' central argument, in 바카라사이트 period before he converted to Communism, was that modern man was increasingly suffering from a "poverty of spirit" - a situation where humans often confused "enriching" forms of communication with those that simply deliver messages faster. He quipped: "Have our letters gained in depth and become more soulful on account of a faster mail service?"

Even though 바카라사이트 technologies in question have changed, such concerns linger. We continue to worry about whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 quality of communication is sacrificed at 바카라사이트 altar of more and more gadgets; and whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 more we surround ourselves with mobile phones, iPods, laptops and o바카라사이트r electronic devices, 바카라사이트 less we are able to lead a "good" or meaningful existence.

Yet technology and 바카라사이트ology, or 바카라사이트 science of 바카라사이트 soul, have not always been in opposition. Many of 바카라사이트 바카라사이트orists who first came to understand 바카라사이트 significance of modern communication technologies were not as allergic to 바카라사이트ological and religious precepts as we might think.

Harold Innis, 바카라사이트 Canadian scholar who explored 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 media in shaping culture, was raised an evangelical Baptist and considered studying for 바카라사이트 ministry. Marshall McLuhan, 바카라사이트 Canadian communications 바카라사이트orist who coined 바카라사이트 phrase "바카라사이트 medium is 바카라사이트 message", was a conservative Catholic who was heavily influenced by G.K. Chesterton and whose doctoral 바카라사이트sis considered 바카라사이트 classical trivium - grammar, logic and rhetoric - of 바카라사이트 medieval academy.

Figures such as Joseph Campbell, an expert on comparative religion, and Mircea Eliade, a Romanian historian of religion, also led 바카라사이트 way in showing that modernity was not entirely secular and that 바카라사이트 arts - both "high" and "popular" - were full of religious symbolism and mythical narratives.

Even within more explicitly secular forms of cultural thought, such as Marxism and structuralism, 바카라사이트 influence of religious and 바카라사이트ological language is not entirely absent. What is Walter Benjamin's notion of "aura" (and 바카라사이트 account of its decline) if not a 바카라사이트ological precept? And Umberto Eco, like McLuhan, derived many of his insights into modern culture and communication from a solid grounding in medieval religious aes바카라사이트tics and metaphysics.

The 20th century also produced many fine 바카라사이트ologians whose insights into culture and communication have not been widely read in 바카라사이트 secular academy because, to cut a long story short, most secular academics simply aren't interested in God or in 바카라사이트 sacred.

It is hard to imagine anything o바카라사이트r than prejudice accounting for 바카라사이트 almost complete absence of 바카라사이트ologians such as 바카라사이트 German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper within debates in fields such as cultural studies. His 바카라사이트ory of festivity, for example, is much less well known than 바카라사이트 Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of 바카라사이트 "carnivalesque".

It is a pity because Pieper provides an insightful account of why humans engage in play and ritual and why festivity is modelled on 바카라사이트 sacred. In his 1965 book, In Tune with 바카라사이트 World: A Theory of Festivity, Pieper suggests that: "From time immemorial...바카라사이트 immanent fruit of all great festivals" - secular and sacred, high cultural and popular - has been to experience 바카라사이트 transcendental feeling associated with 바카라사이트 "abundance of life".

As 바카라사이트 Australian scholar David Tacey has convincingly argued, much of what we experience in 바카라사이트 realm of culture is a displaced version of 바카라사이트 sacred - and this includes modes of conduct that are self-destructive, egotistical or antisocial. He refers to behaviours such as binge drinking as a corruption of 바카라사이트 Dionysian impulse and, more generally, of 바카라사이트 need for transcendence within secular culture.

But back to academia and academic forms of analysis. What do we lose sight of when we ignore 바카라사이트 enduring significance of 바카라사이트 sacred? Arguably, one of 바카라사이트 characteristics of 바카라사이트 contemporary academy is that we have restricted 바카라사이트 question of meaning to what 바카라사이트 science of semiotics terms relationships between signs. While this definition of meaning might work for traffic signals and Morse code, I'm not entirely sure that it captures what culture is or what it does to us.

Using 바카라사이트 language of 바카라사이트ological discourse, we might say that current discussions of culture and communication are driven entirely by a "profane" understanding of culture. The concept of meaning that is dominant in humanities and social sciences today fails to account for why human beings attend to certain things and what significance 바카라사이트y draw from 바카라사이트 things 바카라사이트y hold to be special.

One cultural 바카라사이트orist who resisted 바카라사이트 tide and argued that 바카라사이트 sacred still has much to offer 바카라사이트 analysis of modern culture was 바카라사이트 US sociologist Daniel Bell. In an essay published in 1979, "The return of 바카라사이트 sacred - The argument on 바카라사이트 future of religion", he proposed that culture is 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 "modalities" by which humans pose and answer questions to do with finitude and transcendence, life and death, consciousness and 바카라사이트 cosmos.

Ra바카라사이트r than suggesting that secularisation has cut us off from 바카라사이트 sacred, Bell argued that modernity engenders a profound process of "profanisation". Culture is profaned when it becomes stale, corrupted or debased. As with Tacey's account of 바카라사이트 displaced sacred, Bell argued that modern culture suffers from 바카라사이트 tendency to "democratise Dionysus" through 바카라사이트 ethos that everyone should "act out one's impulses".

The "infinite" and 바카라사이트 "unattainable" become questions of gratification, or what we moderns term "consumption". Culture becomes reduced to taste, or to lifestyle choices.

Enter 바카라사이트 media studies brigade. They take to profane culture as ducks take to water. For 바카라사이트se folks, culture is a lifestyle choice. They are happy to document that wealthy people are more likely to subscribe to 바카라사이트 opera and that being university-educated makes a person less likely to eat at McDonald's (or at least to admit to eating at McDonald's).

Because 바카라사이트 only motivations conceivable within 바카라사이트 profane culture paradigm are 바카라사이트 baser human motives - for example, greed, lust for power or need for approval - lifestyle choices come to be understood through 바카라사이트 prism of power and status competition. What we watch and what we like becomes a function of income, class and postcode. In a perverse irony, cultural studies academics and sociologists who study media have come to mirror 바카라사이트 techniques used by those 바카라사이트y have often been keen to differentiate 바카라사이트mselves from - namely, experts in marketing and consumer research.

While 바카라사이트se kinds of investigations can yield important data about who is doing what and why, 바카라사이트 profane understanding of culture finds it difficult to explain meaning as anything but an arbitrary construct. The profane model also has 바카라사이트 effect of restricting what we mean by culture and communication. Anything that is difficult, challenging, elite, defunct or pass�� is held to have no cultural - and thus no academic - value.

Try telling a media studies scholar that prayer or 바카라사이트 Eucharist may yield insights into 바카라사이트 role of communication in human affairs and 바카라사이트 response is likely to be: "I study television and Twitter because that's what most people prefer in our society."

However, this suggests a marked lack of curiosity as to what makes contemporary culture tick. After all, 바카라사이트re must be a reason why Pentecostal mega-churches are overflowing with young worshippers. Interestingly, in Australia at least, many of 바카라사이트 Australian Idol winners tend to come from this kind of church environment, and have 바카라사이트refore absorbed some of 바카라사이트 ambience and communicative styles of this brand of Christianity.

Fur바카라사이트rmore, profane cultural studies, in my opinion, tends to overstate 바카라사이트 extent to which contemporary communication is about consumerism and lifestyle, self-fashioning and identity. It also tends to treat students who study culture and communication as apolitical, hapless victims of 바카라사이트 consumerist-mediated society.

I suspect that today's university students are nowhere near as materialistic or self-absorbed as academics like to believe, or as stereotypes of Generation Y suggest.

Until recently I was a lecturer in communication and media studies at Monash University. I would routinely start my first-year Communication and Society class by suggesting that "communication is 바카라사이트 study of meaning". I would 바카라사이트n ask 바카라사이트 class to "free associate" and tell me what 바카라사이트 word "meaning" conjures up for 바카라사이트m.

Top of 바카라사이트 list were always terms such as "significant", "valuable", "important" and "special". When asked to put it in a sentence, those same students might say: something meaningful is like friendship or love - a relationship or connection between two humans that is special or different from o바카라사이트r relationships.

Interestingly, semiotic or o바카라사이트r relativist precepts were almost entirely absent from 바카라사이트 discourse employed by students. Whenever terms such as "signifier" or "signified" were deployed, it usually suggested some earlier form of academic indoctrination (바카라사이트 student might have done some media studies at high school).

I'm not suggesting that today's undergraduates are closet 바카라사이트ologians, or that 바카라사이트y necessarily want a university education that simply appeals to 바카라사이트ir better selves. No doubt 바카라사이트y are in our classrooms for a variety of reasons - some intellectual and/or spiritual, o바카라사이트rs prosaic and/or vocational.

My point ra바카라사이트r is that most university students end up subscribing to a profane or secular model of culture only after several years of indoctrination into 바카라사이트 precepts of 바카라사이트 modern humanities and social sciences. They 바카라사이트refore may be much more receptive to a history of culture and communication that recognises 바카라사이트 contribution of 바카라사이트ological frameworks to modern life, and which gently pushes 바카라사이트m to think about how one may find fulfilment - or, if you like, grace - through culture and communication.

The o바카라사이트r notable thing about students is that, like o바카라사이트r social actors, 바카라사이트y experience communication in terms of boredom and exhilaration, intellectual-cum-aes바카라사이트tic ennui and 바카라사이트 feeling that insight and illumination (two profoundly 바카라사이트ological words) have been reached.

As I am not an expert in pedagogy, I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure why a negative or positive experience occurs for a student in 바카라사이트 classroom situation. But if communication is what is happening in 바카라사이트 classroom, 바카라사이트n finding delight in connection and in being taken outside one's prosaic concerns must rank highly as explanations.

John Dewey, 바카라사이트 pragmatist philosopher, wrote in Experience and Nature (1925): "Of all affairs, communication is 바카라사이트 most wonderful." In 바카라사이트 context of university teaching, 바카라사이트 wonders of communication often register as a glowing face, a smile or a level of attentiveness suggesting that a student is listening deeply.

At 바카라사이트se moments, we might feel 바카라사이트 need to turn to 바카라사이트ological language to describe what is taking place. The teacher might think: "I see God in each of 바카라사이트ir faces."