Media, Religion and Culture
Edited by Stewart M. Hoover, Jolyon Mitchell and David Morgan
Media, Religion and Culture is an exciting new series which analyses the role of media and popular culture in the history and contemporary practice of religious belief. Books in this series explore the importance of a variety of media in religious practice and highlight the significance of the cultural, social and religious setting of such media. The series seeks both to present the best new work in this rapidly growing field, and to offer stimulating reading material for students.
By Hanna Stähle
August 23, 2021
The Russian Orthodox Church, the largest and most powerful religious institution in Russia, has become one of the central pillars of Vladimir Putin’s authoritarianism. While church attendance remains low, the religiously inspired rhetoric of traditionalism has come to dominate the mainstream ...
By Heidi A. Campbell
September 09, 2020
Much speculation was raised in the 1990s, during the first decade of internet research, about the extent to which online platforms and digital culture might challenge traditional understandings of authority, especially in religious contexts. Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious ...
By Pete Ward
December 02, 2019
Celebrity Worship provides an introduction to the fascinating study of celebrity culture and religion. The book argues for celebrity as a foundational component for any consideration of the relationship between religion, media and culture. Celebrity worship is seen as a vibrant and interactive ...
By Gregory Price Grieve
December 27, 2016
Cyber Zen ethnographically explores Buddhist practices in the online virtual world of Second Life. Does typing at a keyboard and moving avatars around the screen, however, count as real Buddhism? If authentic practices must mimic the actual world, then Second Life Buddhism does not. In fact, a ...
Edited
By Mia Lövheim
July 11, 2013
Media, Religion and Gender presents a selection of eminent current scholarship that explores the role gender plays when religion, media use and values in contemporary society interact. The book: surveys the development of research on media, religion and culture through the lens of key ...
By Jolyon Mitchell
January 25, 2013
This book explores how media and religion combine to play a role in promoting peace and inciting violence. It analyses a wide range of media - from posters, cartoons and stained glass to websites, radio and film - and draws on diverse examples from around the world, including Iran, Rwanda and South...
By Johanna Sumiala
November 01, 2012
This wide-ranging and accessible book offers a stimulating introduction to the field of media anthropology and the study of religious ritual. Johanna Sumiala explores the interweaving of rituals, communication and community. She uses the tools of anthropological enquiry to examine a variety of ...
By Rachel Wagner
January 13, 2012
Godwired offers an engaging exploration of religious practice in the digital age. It considers how virtual experiences, like stories, games and rituals, are forms of world-building or "cosmos construction" that serve as a means of making sense of our own world. Such creative and interactive ...
By Heidi Campbell
April 21, 2010
This lively book focuses on how different Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities engage with new media. Rather than simply reject or accept new media, religious communities negotiate complex relationships with these technologies in light of their history and beliefs. Heidi Campbell suggests a ...
By Mara Einstein
November 01, 2007
In a society overrun by commercial clutter, religion has become yet another product sold in the consumer marketplace, and faiths of all kinds must compete with a myriad of more entertaining and more convenient leisure activities. Brands of Faith argues that in order to compete effectively ...
By Stewart M. Hoover
June 13, 2006
Looking at the everyday interaction of religion and media in our cultural lives, Hoover’s new book is a fascinating assessment of the state of modern religion. Recent years have produced a marked turn away from institutionalized religions towards more autonomous, individual forms of the search ...