#blessed: American Prosperity Religion

tfw the vending machine gives you two snacks instead of one #cookies #blessed. Critics allege that thinking God cares about your personal prosperity exposes the rotting core of American late capitalism. But American nationalism is also rooted in God’s providence. How should we grapple with this American ambivalence toward prosperity and religion? In this class, we will use critical media theory to understand how capitalism cultivates a diversity of religious attitudes toward prosperity. While our focus will be contemporary media from the anglophone United States, we will explore comparable instances from Brazil and other Latin American countries in translation.