Due to the social changes, the meaning of religion and its social function is changing dramatically. All until the mid-twentieth century, scientists were convinced that the final secularization would occur, a reversal took place in the 1960s. There was a persistance of folk religiosity, rise of indicators of religiosity in the 1980s, the emergence of new religious movements and »new religiosity« and the politization of religion. At the beggining of the 21st century, there was the rise of Web 2.0, which further influenced the emergence of new religions called hyper-real religions. Because of all these changes, the concept od religion is difficult to define, becasue one definition cannot cover all types of religion, so we can only determine the family characteristics of different religions. A similar problem arises in the definition of popular culture, as it has a different meaning depending on time and place. The fields of religion and popular culture intertwine in four different ways: religion in popular culture, popular culture in religion, popular culture as religion and last but not least, religion and popular culture in dialogue. In the second part of the dissertation we have focused on the Wachowski brothers' 1999 hit release The Matrix. We found out that the film is based on several religious traditions such as Christianity, Buddhism and Gnosticism. The perdominant relationship between religion and popular culture is religion in popular culture, as religious elements manifest themselves explicitly and implicitly. When analyzing the film, I also came across the internet religion Matrixism, which was created based on the entire Matrix triology.
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