Madonna and religion
American singer-songwriter and actress Madonna has incorporated in her works abundant references of religious themes of different religions and spiritual practices, including Christianity (she was raised Catholic), Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, and Kabbalah. Diverse theologians, sociologists of religion and other scholars of religion have reviewed her, while professor Arthur Asa Berger stated that she has raised many questions about religion. Due to her prominent use, an academic described her as "perhaps the first artist of our time to routinely and successfully employ images from many spiritual cultures and multiple religious traditions".
Madonna's onstage representations of religions, her conduit and provocative statements among other things, attracted institutional criticism from major religious groups, including the Vatican State/Catholic Church. Reactions of a handful of clergies, however, were neutral. Various religious adherents staged protests against Madonna numerous times, while she was often accused of sacrilege, heresy, iconoclasm and blasphemy. Madonna was cited recognizing Jesus' divinity and that she believes in him but no in institutional organizations. However, her own spiritual observance often raised criticisms, being described as eclectic. Outside religious-targeted press, views about Madonna's displays of religion varying with different degrees, including liberal, moderate and conservative perspectives.
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, ancient spiritual traditions such as Kabbalah studies or yoga. Madonna was sometimes analogously described with emic religious words and terms in both religious-targeted and secular press: some referred to her as "The Holy Mother of Pop", while Seventh-day Adventist magazine Signs of the Times recalls that some have adopted an alienated view of Madonna as the "Great Whore of Babylon"; in addition, she also became a noticeable trope for 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.