Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses reception of an apocalyptic film in the framework of cultural learning of religion. The social practices of watching film 2012 (Emmerich 2009) were studied among training students who interpreted the moral narrative in the frame of global equality and human rights.

Paper long abstract:

Popular film as a social technology and the representations are intertwined to the historical and cultural contexts of its creation and the narratives of the end-of-the-world. In this paper, I discuss the visual popular culture and the practices of learning religion in the contexts of socializing institutions, school and the mainstream Evangelical Lutheran church.

In Finland, as in the similar societies, the memberships in two mainstream Christian Churches have declined since 2010´s and the transmission among children and young has changed. However, the compulsory religious education and the Confirmation ritual among young members of the Church persists. One of the thesis claims that the media spaces and the meaning making of popular culture participate in learning and unlearning religion in contemporary secular societies.

The reception of the apocalyptic film is studied in the framework of cultural learning of religion. The social practices of watching and interpreting film "2012" (Emmerich 2009) were studied among secondary upper school and Evangelical Lutheran Confirmation training students. The qualitative attitude approach was applied in the analysis of the interviews after film screening discussing the end-of-the-world film representations. It shows the construction of attitudes opposing the representations of the Deluge adaption by framing the interpretation with global equality and human rights.