The Connection Between the Pope and Lady Di
Abstract
John Paul II, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Lady Di – disparate personalities who have one thing in common: The outpouring of collective mourning and broad media coverage that their deaths occasioned. This study in essay form by Hubertus Lutterbach, professor of ecclesiastical and cultural history at the University of Duisburg-Essen, takes as its departure point the cries of "Santo subito" at the burial of the last Pope and explores in-depth the media mechanisms of "popular sanctification." Lutterbach's content analysis leads to the conclusion that the characteristics attributed to these "holy" idols closely resemble those of the medieval "man of God". Therefore, modern-day star worship can be regarded as an ongoing, secular manifestation of the medieval veneration of saints.
All articles (not book covers) in KULT_online from issue 50 on are published under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. All published articles may be reused under the conditions of the license, particularly for commercial purposes and through editing the article (Human-Readable Summary). All authors (have) permitted the publication under the above mentioned license. There is no copyright transfer towards KULT_online. For all book covers specific rights might be reserved, please contact the respective publisher for any lawful reuse. All contributions published in issue 1-49 of KULT_online are free available online and protected by the German Copyright Law.
