Sacrifice and Emancipation: Universal values and Narratives in Norwegian Religious Education: A Case Study: The Eternals
The article explores the interplay between values and narratives in Norwegian religious education, using the Marvel film The Eternals (2021) as a case study, with particular attention to the idea of sacrifice. The background is the concurrent decline of traditional Christianity and rise of a transnational neo-pagan imagination infused with modern emancipatory values. The article questions the Norwegian educational system's move from a Christian story-based social imagination to one increasingly based on abstract value principles. It argues that without concrete narratives to embody these values, they lack social salience necessary for moral formation. The Eternals offers a narrative that aligns with an enchanted secular worldview emphasizing the manipulation of power and energy over religious faith and obedience. It is an example of how popular culture problematizes the idea of Christianity as a font for national values to be taught as part of religious education in Norwegian schools, supplemented with attention to religious themes in popular culture. Popular culture is, however, not merely the exemplification of existing traditions but must be taken seriously in itself – especially when it has grand mythological and theological ambitions as in the case of the Marvel universe.
Publisert i 2025
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