ABSTRACT
As a result, the religious convictions and values of our contemporaries are increasingly inspired and supported by films such as George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2002, 2005) and James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), TV series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and Charmed (1998-2006) and novels such as Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon (1983) and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (2003). In some of these cases the authors or directors deliberately intend to convey specific religious ideas (e.g. Bradley) or a general religious sentiment through a popular medium (e.g. Lucas), but others simply employ alternative religious motifs because they fascinate the audience (e.g. Brown). Regardless of the author’s intention, such fiction can be used, and indeed is used, as a resource for the construction of individual religious beliefs, practices and identities. Some studies of the religious use of fiction have focused on teenagers (e.g. Clark 2003; Berger and Ezzy 2009; Petersen 2012), but the phenomenon is not restricted to the young, being rather an aspect of alternative spirituality in general since at least the late 1960s.
