Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has contributed an online article to the blog of the International Association for Media and History (IAMHIST) entitled ‘Christmas on the Radio’.
The piece argues that our traditions of Christmas radio programming, particularly Radio 2’s Christmas Junior Choice, take on the same characteristics through rituals and commitments to secular religion.
‘If, for example, we might be inclined to see our ultimate spiritual meaning to lie in our relationships with others,’ explains Chris, ‘then Junior Choice might be a prime example of an alternative way to form a concept of religion, with its devotees who construe the two hours of nostalgia and reconnecting with the past on Christmas morning as a form of transcendent, even sacred, time.’
The piece draws upon research undertaken for Chris’s book Christmas as Religion: Rethinking Santa, the Secular, and the Sacred (Oxford University Press, 2016), which was published last year.
Christmas Junior Choice will be broadcast at 10am on Christmas Day 2017 on BBC Radio 2.
To read the full piece, please see IAMHIST’s page here:
http://iamhist.org/2017/12/christmas-radio/