<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The concept of ‘sin’ is rarely expressed in today's popular culture. When the word does appear it is frequently in ironic quotation marks and often used in terms of ‘naughty but nice’, minor misdemeanours, something disapproved of, an outmoded Catholic shame culture, Islamic oppression or fundamentalist extremism. Rarely is it used in the way the Church understands it. By analysing the use of the word in recent news reports and examining its use and absence across the range of twenty-first-century media, this study draws some conclusions about how UK secular society understands the word. It then goes on to explore how some twentieth-century cultural changes have impacted on its understanding, and concludes with some observations on how twenty-first-century Western culture still senses the underlying problem and yearns for a way to express it.</p></abstract>

The concept of ‘sin’ is rarely expressed in today's popular culture. When the word does appear it is frequently in ironic quotation marks and often used in terms of ‘naughty but nice’, minor misdemeanours, something disapproved of, an outmoded Catholic shame culture, Islamic oppression or fundamentalist extremism. Rarely is it used in the way the Church understands it. By analysing the use of the word in recent news reports and examining its use and absence across the range of twenty-first-century media, this study draws some conclusions about how UK secular society understands the word. It then goes on to explore how some twentieth-century cultural changes have impacted on its understanding, and concludes with some observations on how twenty-first-century Western culture still senses the underlying problem and yearns for a way to express it.

Whatever happened to sin? An examination of the word and concept in contemporary popular culture

Holiness

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The concept of ‘sin’ is rarely expressed in today's popular culture. When the word does appear it is frequently in ironic quotation marks and often used in...

Whatever happened to sin? An examination of the word and concept in contemporary popular culture

Published Online: Jun 16, 2020

Page range: 283 - 312

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/holiness-2016-0006

Keywords
SIN, EVIL, POPULAR CULTURE, SEXUAL REVOLUTION, FRANCIS SPUFFORD

© 2016 Hilary Brand, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Whatever happened to sin? An examination of the word and concept in contemporary popular culture

Published Online: Jun 16, 2020

Page range: 283 - 312

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/holiness-2016-0006

KeywordsSIN, EVIL, POPULAR CULTURE, SEXUAL REVOLUTION, FRANCIS SPUFFORD

© 2016 Hilary Brand, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
SIN, EVIL, POPULAR CULTURE, SEXUAL REVOLUTION, FRANCIS SPUFFORD