Recycling Religion: Lance Armstrong's Postmodern Spirituality of Suffering and Survivorship
For much of his triple career as heroic cancer survivor, sports champion, and, latterly, fallen idol, Lance Armstrong, a professed atheist, has worn a silver necklace with a cross pendant. Why does he wear this Ur-symbol of Christian religious faith? Speculative answers range from residual supersti...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Carfax Publ.
[2015]
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| In: |
Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 2015, Volume: 30, Issue: 1, Pages: 107-123 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Armstrong, Lance 1971-
/ Atheism
/ Spirituality
/ Suffering
/ Survival strategy
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | For much of his triple career as heroic cancer survivor, sports champion, and, latterly, fallen idol, Lance Armstrong, a professed atheist, has worn a silver necklace with a cross pendant. Why does he wear this Ur-symbol of Christian religious faith? Speculative answers range from residual superstition' to fashion jewellery' and tactical deception'. Here, Armstrong's own declared beliefs as refracted through his autobiographical accounts are analysed within a mono-mythic framework, with particular emphasis on survivorship', his implicit spirituality of suffering. The Armstrong case of a personalised construction of faith praxis sheds light on the eclectic liquid' religio-spiritual style of postmodernism. It helps portray the negotiation of the religious-in-the-secular, the sacred-in-the-profane (and vice versa), and illuminates the problematic nature of dualistic accounts of religion and spirituality in contemporary culture. Armstrong's recycling' of traditional religious iconography out of context of origin demonstrates the persistence, durability, and elasticity of religio-spiritual symbolic culture. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9419 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2015.986981 |