Introduction It is interesting how religion and popular culture interact, since, according to Ostwalt, the sacred and the non-sacred interact with no fxed boundaries. The theoretician gives two directions in this respect: on the one hand, religious authorities are becoming more attentive to highly popular cultural manifestations (e.g. the sacred texts are interpreted in the context of modern concerns) and on the other hand, popular culture forms – literature, music, flm – are vehicles of religious images, symbols, and categories [1]. From Religious Icons to Popular Culture Icons eISSN: 2393-1744, cdISSN: 2392-9928 printISSN: 2457-9297, ISSN-L 2392-9928 DIALOGO Multidisciplinary JOURNAL Available online at www.dialogo-conf.com/dialogo-journal/ This paper was presented at The 10th Scholarly Meeting on the Dialogue between Science and Theology (DIALOGO-CONF 2019) held online, from November 3 - 12, 2019 DIALOGO JOURNAL 6 : 1 (2019) 85 - 92 This article compares the characteristics of religious icons to those of popular icons, the latter having developed since 19th century under the impact of industrialization, mass production and circulation of the media. Both categories, according to critics, convey significant messages of faith, bind believers in a community of faith and grant special powers to those who believe in them. These features could be illustrated by examples in the category of celebrity culture and worship (Bob Dylan and Madonna). The iconic celebrities in the new Olympus, as the case studies show, may share in beauty, wealth, a status of superlative beings, a type of isolation or confinement in an artificial environment, a special destiny, a spectacular life narrative, secrets in their past life, a capacity for change, but above all, a sense of metamorphosis ensuring them the status of mythical creatures and ultimately a prophetic aura, which makes adepts worship them. © 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved. Article history: Received 1 August 2019 Received in revised form 10 October Accepted 15 October 2019 Available online 30 November 2019 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2019.6.1.7 Keywords: religious icons; popular icons; celebrity worship; postmodern prophecy; hybrid identity; Bob Dylan; Madonna; abstract article info Copyright © 2019 Nicoleta Stanca. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Citation: Stanca, Nicoleta, ”From Religious Icons to Popular Culture Icons. Two Case Studies (Bob Dylan and Madonna)” DIALOGO, DOI: 10.18638/ dialogo.2019.6.1.7, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol. 6, issue 1, 2019, pp. 21 - 37. - 85 - Session 3. Social Sciences, Culture, Lifestyle Choices & Religion Two Case Studies (Bob Dylan and Madonna) Nicoleta Stanca, PhD Ovidius University of Constanța Romania