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Personal Heroes, Religion, and Transcendental Metanarratives
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Personal Heroes, Religion, and Transcendental Metanarratives

Douglas Porpora
Sociological forum (Randolph, N.J.), v 11(2), pp 209-229
01 Jun 1996

Abstract

Adults Heroes Identity Modern Society Myths Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Religious Beliefs Role Models
Examines the contemporary nature & importance of personal heroes, based on a randomly sampled questionnaire survey of 627 Philadelphia, PA, adults. It is argued that heroes represent mythological & transcendental realms of personal meaning that stretch beyond the limits of the profane. Based on this, the extremely low overall level of hero identification (40%) supports the hypothesis that modern society is demythologized & removed from the plane of grand metanarratives of meaning. Those who identified heroes most often cited local heroes of ordinary life, & it is suggested that this trend parallels a social abandonment of the transcendental in favor of glorified everyday acts of home, family, & work. The results demonstrated no significant correlation between hero identification & age, gender, ethnicity, education, or religion; however, a relationship was found between concern with transcendental meaning & hero identification. 3 Tables, 36 References. Adapted from the source document.

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