Nostalgia, Religion and Popular Culture

Dr. Chris Deacy is Honorary Reader in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Kent, UK, as well as TV and radio presenter, film critic, journalist and podcast host.

• Introduction: ‘Turning to the self’: Why Nostalgia and Religion?1. Towards an Understanding of Nostalgia as Religion: The Interpersonal, Social and Secular Dimensions of Nostalgia 2-7. National Mourning, Religious and Secular Identities and Communities, and the Harnessing and Reframing of Nostalgia: Reporting the Death of Queen Elizabeth II on BBC Radio8. Nostalgia, Music and Healing Narratives 9. Retro Salvations: Nostalgic and Wish-Fulfilment Fantasies and Healing Narratives in Film10. Uncritical Religion and Never-Never Land: Nostophobia and the Reactionary Nature of Nostalgia11. The Prelapsarian Past and the Utopian Future: Reframing Traditional Theological and Religious Perspectives on Nostalgia and Eschatology Conclusion: Nostalgia as Religion: Religious Impulses and the Creative and Transformative Possibilities of Nostalgia

Chris Deacy shows how nostalgia is not so much an attempt to retreat to the past as an effort to find hope for the future, out of the shared resources of individual and communal memory. In offering us opportunities to reflect on meaning and value, nostalgia contains unmistakably religious aspects, albeit in secular form.