Madonna And Religion

American singer-songwriter and actress Madonna has incorporated in her works references to religious themes of different religions and spiritual practices, including Christianity (she was raised Catholic), Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, and Kabbalah. It became one of the most defining and controversial aspects of her career, with responses documented in the sector, popular press and from diverse theologians, sociologists of religion and other scholars of religion to different degrees and perspectives.

Madonna's onstage representations of religions, her conduit and provocative statements among other things, attracted institutional criticism from major religious groups. Reactions of a handful of clergies, however, were neutral. Various religious adherents staged protests against Madonna numerous times, while she was often accused from public opinion of sacrilege, heresy, iconoclasm and blasphemy. Madonna's personal views on religion have been complex and evolving; though she was cited recognizing Jesus' teachings and divinity, she has declared to disagree with institutional organizations, while her own spiritual observance was publicly criticized by various for being eclectic and uncontrite.

Though the phenomenon goes beyond Madonna, she received solid reviews discussing her religious forays with an ambiguous impact in popular culture across decades. She was credited with inspiring various scholars from different fields to seek new approaches for works and its religious meanings. Madonna was among the leading public figures often considered an important medium for popularizing in Western countries, spiritual traditions coming from Asia such as yoga. Madonna was sometimes analogously described with emic religious words and terms in both religious-targeted and secular press, including the word "icon", with her name appearing in references works such as the ''Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary'' or ''Diccionario panhispánico de dudas'' to illustrate its new usage in contemporary culture. She was also exemplified as an exemplar of religious illiteracy and some have adopted an alienated view of Madonna as the " Great Whore of Babylon".

Background and scope

Shortly after her debut in the 1980s, various cultural analyses of her figure touched on Madonna's religious connotations. Various of them were categorized under her mini academic subdiscipline, the Madonna studies, which flourished with other topics, according to observers such as Andi Zeisler, Douglas Kellner and Ricardo Baca. Author and professor Thomas Ferraro notes this early stage, saying "Madonna's impact posed an expressly religious puzzle". She also became a "favorite topic" for religious fundamentalists in her prime according to editors of ''Religion and Popular Culture'' (2016). They also addressed how her video " Like a Prayer" inspired "perhaps more than any other music video scholarly analysis of its religious meanings". On the other hand, religious studies scholars, like James R. Lewis, explored Madonna's figure from perspectives that included astrology.

In 2018, Cady Lang from ''Time'' magazine, commented that there are few figures more closely associated with religion in pop culture than Madonna. According to Ferraro, in ''Felling Italian: The Art of Ethnicity in America'' (2005), " Italian Catholicism informs just about everything Madonna does, most often in ways that are not officially sanctioned". Such long-standing relationship or reciprocal reactions from Roman Catholic Church was noted by publications, including ''Phoenix New Times'', whose editor Jason Keil described as a "synonymous with each other" in 2015. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine included Madonna's moments in their "Top 10 Vatican Pop-Culture Moments"; a rank that shows how the Roman Catholic Church mixed with contemporary culture.

Madonna's religious profile

Madonna's religious background and public display have been documented.

Catholicism

Madonna was born and raised Catholic. She adopted " Veronica" as her confirmation name, paying tribute to Saint Veronica.

Agents like the American theologian Chester Gillis, have explained that Madonna was educated in a strict Catholic household. It influenced and left a mark on both her life and career, with scholar Arthur Asa Berger recalling "the importance of her Italian Catholic background". In 1991, Christian author Graham Cray, wrote for ''Third Way'' that Madonna was the only lapsed Catholic in popular music who "has made a reaction against her Catholic background, in her driving force" and as a source of "motivation of her work". Years later, however, French academic Georges-Claude Guilbert commented that "her resentment toward Catholicism is proportional to the marks it left on her", but he didn't feel it as "particularly original", because many writers and artists built entire careers on such ambivalent feelings. To American philosopher Mark C. Taylor, "Madonna's ongoing involvement with Catholicism is exceedingly complex".

Biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, in '' Madonna: An Intimate Biography'' (2018) adds that to Madonna's ambivalence about religion "must have been the way she was influenced by the somewhat fanatical —and confusing— she witnessed in her mother". He cited an adult Madonna saying: "I saw my mother doing things that really affected me. She would kneel on uncooked rice ..If my aunt came over my house and had jeans that zipped up front, my mother covered all the statues so that they couldn't see such a display. She then turned the holy pictures towards the wall".

Spiritual seeking

Madonna made a major turn in the mid-1990s during her pregnancy. She began practicing yoga and reading spiritual developments coming from Asia such as Hinduism and Buddhism. She also became a Kabbalah devotee. However, she kept her Christian education, revealing that her daughter Lourdes, "will spend more time with the Bible than her television". Religious professor Kathryn Lofton, said that her turn to Kabbalah "inspired articles emphasizing her new spiritual enthusiasm". Erik Davis, considered her case "the biggest metaphysical blast" in an article for ''Spin'' published in 2019, where he reviewed industry's artists that incorporated or practiced spiritual beliefs. Commentators Craig Detweiler and Barry Taylor called it a "notable turn" in her life, impacted by motherhood, yoga, Kabbalah and Hindu mysticism.

Amid her spiritual enthusiasm, Madonna later adopted the name "Esther", a Biblical Hebrew name that means "star". Shalom Goldman, a Middlebury College professor of religion, quotes Madonna as having claimed to have studied all the women of the Old Testament but she was most drawn to Esther because "she saved the Jews of Persia from annihilation". Some of her religious fans, according to Goldman, considered the name's choice as a "manifestation of the divine shekhinah" which in Kabbalah denotes "the feminine aspect of God's presence". Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky made the suggestion that Open Source Judaism was what allowed her to develop an interest in Kabbalah without any interest in converting to Judaism.

After her introduction to the Kabbalah studies, Madonna assisted for years to the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles, introduced by her friend Sandra Bernhard. The centre attracted several Hollywood celebrities from Elizabeth Taylor to Britney Spears, but Madonna attracted "bigger headlines" according to ''Los Angeles Times'' investigative journalists Harriet Ryan and Kim Christensen. Publications and authors, including Reuters in 2011, Katherine Stewart in 2012, and British author Harry Freedman in 2019, similarly elaborated how Madonna drew extraordinary publicity to the centre, leading to her being called their most prominent devotee. According to American scientist Peter Gleick, she also made famous their "Kabbalah water".

Into the 2010s, it remained unclear if Madonna kept studying Kabbalah or if she was still an active member of the centre. In 2017, a ''Vice'' contributor explained that many celebrities, stopped attend the centre or studying Kabbalah. In 2011, British tabloid ''Daily Mirror'' and other media outlets, reported that Madonna considered joining Opus Dei, although Spanish newspaper ''El Confidencial'' reported it was a hoax. In 2020, editor Pedro Marrero interprets that Madonna has been a spiritual woman who has always sought God. Mary Lambert, director of her video "Like a Prayer", describes that "Madonna is a very religious person in her own way". Madonna herself, told Terry Wogan, in a 1991 interview, "I'm spiritual, religious". By 2022, she declared that spends some of her time praying for others. She reportedly prays before a stage show, and for what academic Akbar Ahmed called Madonna, the "pop philosopher of postmodernist culture" in the 1990s.

Madonna's religious views, and others interpretations

Besides her spiritual seeking, Madonna has made several statements about religion, and specific denominations. "So many critics seem to love to discuss Madonna's obsession with religion", wrote Fosca D'Acierno in ''The Italian American Heritage'' (1998). In this regard, Anne-Marie Korte from Utrecht University, wrote that "religion plays a major role in Madonna's statements and provocations". Author Donald C. Miller, said "she has made very strong verbal and nonverbal statements".

In 2015, during an interview with the ''Irish Independent'', she stated: "I don't affiliate myself with any specific religious group. I connect to different ritualistic aspects of different belief systems, and I see the connecting thread between all religious beliefs". In 2016, she stated that her use of Christian imagery "is just proof of her devotion to Catholicism". She has been quoted criticizing Catholic dogma, saying once that Catholicism "it's not what God and Christianity are all about". She stated that the God she believe in, created the world, and isn't a "God to fear, it's a God to give thanks to". In 2019, she also felt and stated: "The idea that in any church you go, you see a man on a cross and everyone genuflects and prays to him ..in a way it's paganism/idolatry because people are worshipping a thing".

In ''Fill These Hearts'' (2013), West quotes Madonna supporting Jesus as a divine being, who walked on the Earth, but she rejects "the religious behavior of any religious organization that does not encourage you to ask questions and your own explorations". Similarly, Christian author Dan Kimball wrote in ''They Like Jesus but Not the Church'' (2009), that "Madonna doesn't find anything wrong with the teachings of Jesus" but doesn't believe that "all paths lead to God", citing the problem of religious war. Spaniard music critic Joaquín Luqui reports that she loves Jesus, in "her own way".

Canadian professor of religious studies, Aaron W. Hughes, in ''Defining Judaism: A Reader'' (2016), interprets that "for Madonna, religion in general and Judaism in particular are inherently divisive and this divisiveness is ultimately responsible for the problems we face". Korte was critical, saying that "Madonna's interest in religion has never been theologically focused: it consists of a combinations of distrust towards institutional religion and an eclectic individual form of spirituality".

Broadly, Catholic author Christopher West believes that "her reflections on her religious upbringing echo the sentiments of a large swath of the population". Similarly, Focus on the Family's blogger Adam Holz, considered Madonna as the "Poster Child" for the way many would claim "spiritual, but not religious", while describing her eclectic personal approach of spirituality as both postmodern and syncretistic (it blends a variety of religious worldviews).

Implementation in her works

Religion has influenced Madonna's artistic path; she frequently incorporates religious iconography and themes of different denominations into her visuals and works. Cath Martin from ''Christian Today'', wrote she "blurred the lines between art and her own take on religion". Due to her abundant usage, Conrad Ostwalt, a religious studies scholar at Appalachian State University, wrote in ''Secular Steeples'' (2012): "Perhaps the most interesting pop star whose work touches upon and implicates religious themes is Madonna". Similarly, professor Andew Tomasello as cited by scholars David Rothenberg and Benjamin Brand, referred:

Catholic iconography has been Madonna's constant. She is credited with even popularizing the cross in pop music as a decorative object, which she uses in her shows and videos. Martin commented that her love affair with the cross "has spanned her music career". As her career continued, she involved Kabbalistic motives in her work and reportedly refused to work on Friday night and Saturday, as a result in her observance of the Jewish Sabbath. Religious Jewish symbols and Hebrew letters featured in some of her works, and Madonna was seen numerous times, with the red string around her wrist to ward off the evil eye, a trendy practice among celebrities during the Bush era, according to a ''Vice'' contributor.

Among her many other religious references, she included sufism themes. A prominent reference was the video of "Bedtime Story", where shows scenes of whirling dervishes. The song co-wrote by Icelandic singer Björk, was interpreted by authors of ''The Gaze of the West and Framings of the East'' (2012) to have a sufi-inspired verse, "let's get unconscious".

In 2023, she reflected her work as an "artist united people, gave them freedom of expression, unity. It was the mirror of Jesus' teachings", in her understanding. About her use of crosses, she stated: "I like crosses. I'm sentimental about Jesus on the cross. Jesus was a Jew, and also I believe he was a catalyst, and I think he offended people because his message was to love your neighbor as yourself ..He embraced all people, whether it was a beggar on the street or a prostitute, and he admonished a group of Jews who were not observing the prophets of the Torah. So he rattled a lot of people's cages".

Critical observations

A number of theologians noted the use of female religious imagery by Madonna. She has played with female characters and roles from the Christian faith tradition, according to authors of ''Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture'' (2009). In ''The Virgin in Art'' (2018), Kyra Belán, wrote that she in particular has appropriated of the Virgin Mary, perhaps more than other artist. Feminist theologian Grietje Dresen, argues that Madonna seems to have incorporated very well her Roman Catholic education, in which the beauty, purity, and self-control of the 'immaculate' Virgin Mary are presented to girls as the standard of perfection. Madonna herself, addressed from her Catholic upbringing: "I grew up with two images of women, the virgin and the whore".

In an article from BBC Culture of 2018, Madonna was described as "the original and ultimate" marriage of celebrity and the Catholic imagination", and as the first major popstar to reference symbols that defined a Catholic upbringing. Author and professor Thomas Ferraro, cites celebrities such Mario Puzo and Frank Sinatra as examples of an "Italian pagan Catholic understanding of power", but he claims Madonna "gave it" a "long-awaited" and much "needed" female valence. On the other hand, her mispronunciation for the astangi in ''Ray of Light'' earned criticism of Hindu priests in Benaras and also intrigued some Sanskrit scholars.

Leadership reactions

Madonna has received criticism from religious organizations and leaders of different denominations, over the best part of her career. "Madonna has a particular distinction of enraging a variety of religious leaders", wrote Purchase College professor Steven C. Dubin. Alone her 2006 onstage crucifixion, attracted criticism from Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders. About that event, ''San Francisco Examiner'' staffers, said "only Madonna could get Muslim, Jewish and Catholic leaders to agree on something". American philosopher Mark C. Taylor noted Madonna revived a similar longstanding religious criticism on rock and roll, that led representative of the religions charge Madonna as a demonic.

Christianity

The Vatican State and some Popes of her generation condemned numerous of Madonna's acts. During the late-twentieth century, the Catholic Church opposed to her Italian show of the Who's That Girl Tour in 1987, her advertisement with Pepsi in 1989, the Blond Ambition Tour in 1990 or for her first book ''Sex'', in 1992. Organizations related to the Church, such as the Episcopal Conference of Italy criticized Madonna, and tried to ban her concerts. A parish priest from the organization, denounced Madonna as "an infidel and sacrilegious".

She continued to attract public disapproval from Catholic Church in the early years of the 21st century. Vatican representatives questioned her forays with the Kabbalah. With her Confessions Tour, Madonna garnered a major backlash for her segment when she appeared crucified on a giant cross in the countries where the tour was scheduled. Ersilio Tonini speaking with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, commented "she should be excommunicated". In the 2010s, she was condemned with her Rebel Heart Tour by senior bishops like Patric Dunn from New Zealand, who commented, "There is no question in my mind that some of Madonna's material is highly offensive to Christianity and will be found just as offensive to the majority of people of religious faith", while Singaporean prelate William Goh commented, "There is no neutrality in faith".

Other leaders and groups from Christian denominations, such as the Baptist Church, have criticized her. Ghanaian religious leader Opoku Onyinah described thus "instead yielding to Christian principles, she decided to rebel against everything Christianity stands for". Vsevolod Chaplin from the Russian Orthodox Church, says "I'm absolutely sure that this person needs spiritual assistance" further adding "It's definitely clear for me that all these attempts to use religious symbols also reflect her state of mind and state of soul". American Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell and other conservative Christians leaders found Madonna's wearing religious symbols "trivializing" and "blasphemous" as well. In ''The Extermination of Christianity: A Tyranny of Consensus'' (1993) by clerics Paul Schenck and Rob Schenck, her usage of Christian imagery is described as obviously designed to raise the ire of the religious community, twice molesting them by using them as a free promotion.

Other religions

Madonna also attracted the displeasure of various Hindu and Jews spiritual leaders. Orthodox rabbis also concerned about Madonna, denouncing her for debasing "Judaism's deepest mystical tradition", while accusing her of breaking taboos in Kabbalah. Professors of religious studies, Eugene V. Gallagher and Lydia Willsky-Ciollo explained in ''New Religion'' (2021), that the Jewish Kabbalah is typically exclusively men and rabbis by trade, but celebrities such as Madonna have taken up the practice under new guise; as a result, both Madonna and Kabbalah Centre attained some criticisms by this conduit. Rabbi Yisrael (Israel) Deri, caretaker of Isaac Luria's tomb (founder of Kabbalah), commented "this kind of woman wreaks an enormous sin upon the Kabbalah". Chief Rabbi of Safed (the birthplace of the Kabbalistic tradition), Shmuel Eliyahu in an open letter to Madonna, pointed out that her performances and public behavior were not in keeping with the values of the practice, "the enchanting wisdom you have so much respect for". Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet strongly objected to Madonna's use of the Kabbalah, arguing that it tarnishes Judaism when people who do not observe Jewish law practice Jewish mysticism. According to American educator and theologian Robert E. Van Voorst, a prominent Jewish rabbi from London, also rebuked her practice of Kabbalah.

Jewish leaders condemned a version of "Justify My Love" that incorporated a passage from the Book of Revelation. Rabbi Abraham Cooper. Others panned her video "Die Another Day", in which she bound phylacteries to her arm, a Jewish custom usually reserved for men. Madonna enraged Jewish leaders again with the song "Isaac" from her album ''Confessions on a Dance Floor'', as noted Stephen M. Silverman

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