Pandora’s Box: Religion, Ecology and Popular Culture

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the link between the ecology of religion and popular culture. Recently these fields have become topical for both contemporary cultural discourse and religious studies while environmentalism itself has often been considered as a form of implicit religion. J. Cameron’s film “Avatar” being an exemplarily work of popular culture raising environmental issues is in the main focus of the paper. The ‘Na’vi’ culture and religion invented for the purposes of the film are interpreted in tight connection to Pandora’s nature. The methodological approach underling the importance of investigating archaic religions in their coexistence with nature was developed by Å. Hultkrantz whose theory became the basis of the ecology of religion, however here it is applied to the study of a product of popular culture. In “Avatar” one can see a range of religious beliefs starting with a Hindu term used for the title and finishing with “animism” and “pantheism”. These religious ideas gave rise to sharp criticism from some Catholics and Protestants who blamed the film for promoting worship of nature turning it into divinity and ecology into religion. On the other hand, Christianity itself has been criticized for its neglect of nature resulting from its fight with paganism. So, in some sense “Avatar” “promoting” an absolutely different attitude to nature returns us to the pre-Christian epoch. The religious beliefs of the Na’vi can be taken as an example of “dark green religion” and the main hero resembles contemporary radical environmentalists. “Avatar” definitely romanticizes the so called “noble savage” but it is hard to deny that in the field of religion, ecology and popular culture Cameron’s work is a milestone. Pandora invented by Cameron has opened its box to make us think more carefully of religion and ecology as the means of popular culture which are very easy to understand. Refs 24.