Madonna and religion

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

Madonna's onstage representations of religion, along with her performances and provocative statements, attracted institutional criticism from groups such as the Catholic Church, Orthodox rabbis, and Hindu leaders. Some individual clergy offered neutral responses. Religious adherents staged protests against Madonna numerous times, and she has been accused by critics of sacrilege, heresy, iconoclasm, and blasphemy. Her personal views on religion have been complex and evolving; while she has acknowledged the teachings and divinity of Jesus, she has expressed disagreement with organized religion, and her eclectic approach to spirituality has been publicly criticized as unorthodox.

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".