1st Edition

Religion and Media

Edited By Danielle L. Kirby, Carole M. Cusack Copyright 2017
    448 Pages 34 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Drawing together formative works from across the interrelated disciplines of religion and media, this collection will articulate the field of religion and media. Incorporating both historical and contemporary concerns, and a range of methodological approaches, this major work will focus upon the variety of ways in which religion and media impact, facilitate, and imbricate with each other.



    The field encompassed by this collection is constantly changing and diverse. It covers a range of inquiry, from the age old questions regarding traditional human mediation of religious experience to the emerging problems associated with the study of religion and digital media and other developing technologies. Religion is mediated in a multitude of ways, including through the written word, artistic expression, electronic and digital technologies such as television and internet, as well as more evanescent modes such as ritual and performance. This series recognises the role that diverse media play in the interpretation and understanding of religion in the work of scholars and in the lives of religious individuals and communities.





    The intersection of media and communication studies and religious studies is woefully under-representative of the relationship that media and religion has in theory, history and lived experience. The two disciplines have recently begun to address this, increasingly bringing together subjects from both fields. Thus a collection that compiles both foundational as well as recent scholarship on religion and media is a welcome addition, representing where the interest began but also moving scholarship in future directions. The work’s interpretation of ‘religion’ is broad, and encompasses not just religions traditionally recognised as such (eg. ‘world religions’) but also a more fluid recognition of religious behaviour (such as religions based on fiction or more abstract religious themes such as death).

    Volume I: Radical and Temporal Mediations

    Series Introduction

    Kirby, D., & Cusack, C.

    Volume Introduction

    Cusack, C.

    Theory & Method

    1. Hjarvard, S., "The Meditization of religion: a theory of media as agents of religious change," Northern Lights, vol. 6 (2008), pp. 9-26. 
    2. Morgan, D., "Mediation or mediatisation: the history of media in the study of religion," Culture and Religion, vol. 12, no. 2 (2011), pp. 137-152.
    3. White, R., "The Media, Culture, and Religion Perspective: Discovering a theory and methodology for studying media and religion," Communication Research Trends, vol. 26, no. 1 (2007), pp. 3-24.
    4. Hoover, S., "The Culturalist Turn in Scholarship on Media and Religion," Journal of Media and Religion, vol. 1, no. 1 (2002), pp. 25-36.
    5. Public Spaces

    6. Simonson, P. "Assembly, Rhetoric, and Widespread Community: Mass Communication in Paul of Tarsus," Journal of Media and Religion, vol. 2, no. 3 (2003), pp. 165-182.
    7. Siry, J., "Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple and Architecture for Liberal Religion in Chicago, 1885-1909," The Art Bulletin, vol. 73, no. 2 (1991) pp. 257-282.
    8. Journalism and News Media

    9. Hart, R., Turner, K., and Knupp, R. "Religion and the Rhetoric of the Mass Media," Review of Religious Research, vol. 21, no. 3 (1980), pp. 256-275.
    10. Cowan, D., and Hadden, J. "God, Guns, and Grist for the Media’s Mill," Nova Religio, vol. 8, no. 2 (2004), pp. 64-82.
    11. Vultee, F., Craft, S., and Velker, M., "Faith and Values: Journalism and the Critique of Religion Coverage of the 1990’s," Journal of Media and Religion, vol 9 (2010), pp.150-164.
    12. Schofield-Clarke, L. and Dierberg, J., "Late-night comedy as a source of religion news," in Diane Winston (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media (New York: OUP, 2012) Chapter 6, pp. 97-113.
    13. Mauri-Rios, M., Perez-Pereria, M., and Figueras-Mas, M., "The Public and the Journalists Views on the Humoristic Treatment of Religion in Spain," Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 3 (2014), pp. 471-486.
    14. Richardson, James T. and B. Van Driel, B, "Journalists’ Attitudes Toward New Religious Movements," Review of Religious Research, vol. 39, no. 2 (1997), pp. p. 116-136.
    15. Hardy, Ann, "Destiny Breaks through Media Screens," in Peter Horsfield (ed.), Papers from the Trans-Tasman Research Symposium, 'Emerging Research in Media, Religion and Culture' (Melbourne: RMIT Publishing, 2005), pp. 40-56.
    16. Screen and Sound

    17. Horsfield, P. "Electrifying Sight and Sound," in P. Horsfield, From Jesus to the Internet (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015), pp. 237-260.
    18. Feit, J.S., "Sacred Symbols and the Depiction of Religions in Millenial Movies (1997-2002)," Journal of Media and Religion, vol. 3, no. 3 (2009), pp. 133-150.
    19. Nelson, R.A. "Commercial Propaganda in the Silent Film: a case study of A Morman Maid," Film History, vol. 1 (1987), pp. 149-162.
    20. Klassen, P. "Radio Mind: Protestant Experimentalists n the Frontiers of Healing," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol.75, no.3 (2007), pp. 651-683.
    21. Moll, Yasmin, "Islamic Televangelism: Religion, Media, and Visuality in Contemporary Egypt," Arab Media & Society, Issue 10 (Spring 2010).
    22. Volume II: Digital Mediations

      Volume Introduction

      Kirby, D.

      Theory and Method

    23. Campbell, H., "Understanding the Relationship between Religion Online and Offline in a Networked Society," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 80, no. 1 (2012), pp. 64-93.
    24. Taira, T., "Does the ‘old’ media’s coverage of religion matter in times of ‘digital religion’," in Tore Ahlbäck (ed.) Digital Religion (Turku: Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History, 2013), pp. 204-221.
    25. Horsfield, P. and Teusner, P.? "A Mediated Religion: Historical Perspectives on Christianity and the Internet," Studies in World Christianity, vol. 13, no. 3 (2007), pp. 278-295
    26. Campbell, H. "Who’s got the power? Religious Authority and the Internet," Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 12 (2007), pp. 1043-1062. 
    27. Identity & Community

    28. O’Leary, S., "Cyberspace as Sacred Space: Communicating Religion on Computer Networks," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 64, no. 4. (1996), pp. 781-808.
    29. Craft, A.J., "Sin in Cyber-eden: understanding the metaphysics and morals of virtual worlds," Ethics and Information Technology, vol. 9 (2007), pp. 205-217.
    30. Richardson, J. D., "Uses and Gratifications of Agnostic Refuge: Case Study of a Skeptical Online Congregation," Journal of Media and Religion, vol. 2, no. 4 (2003), pp. 237-250
    31. Lovheim, M., "Young People, Religious Identity, and the Internet," in Lorne Dawson and Doug Cowan (eds), Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet (New York: Routledge, 2004).
    32. Smith, C., and Cimino, R., "Atheisms Unbound: The Role of the New Medias in the Formation of a Secularist Identity," Secularism and Nonreligion, vol. 1 (2012), pp. 17-31.
    33. Jenkins, S. "Rituals and Pixels: Experiments in Online Church," Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, vol. 3, no. 1 (2008), pp. 95-115.
    34. Gauthier, F., and Uhl, M., "Digital Shapings of religion in a globalized world: the Vatican online and Amr Khaled’s TV Preaching," Australian Journal of Communication, vol. 39, no.1 (2012), pp. 53-72.
    35. Cowan, D. "Among the Stones of Cyberhenge: Modern Pagan Ritual on the World Wide Web," in Doug Cowan, Cyberhenge (New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 119-152.
    36. Nilsson, P. and Enkvist, V., "Techniques of religion-making in Sweden: The case of the Missionary Church of Kopimism," Critical Research on Religion (2015), pp. 1-15.
    37. Social Media

    38. Singler, B., ""See Mom it is Real": the UK Census, Jediism and Social Media" Journal of Religion in Europe vol. 7 (2014), pp. 150-168
    39. Taylor, T., Falconer, E., & Snowdon, R., "Queer youth, Facebook and faith: Facebook methodologies and online identities" New Media and Society (2014) pp. 1-16
    40. Hirzalla, F., van Zoonen, L, and Muller, F., "How Funny Can Islam Controversies Be? Comedians Defending the faiths on YouTube" Television and New Media vol. 14, no. 1 (2013), pp. 46-61 
    41. Skinner, Julia, "Social Media and Revolution: The Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement as Seen through Three Information Studies Paradigms," Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems vol. 11, no. 169 (2011), pp. 2-26.
    42. Volume III: Material Mediations

      Volume Introduction

      Cusack, C.

      Theory & Method

    43. Meyer, B., "Mediation and the Genesis of Presence: Towards a Material Approach to Religion" Inaugural Lecture, University of Utrecht, 2012.
    44. Hoover, S., "Media and the Imagination of Religion in Contemporary Global Culture" European Journal of Cultural Studies vol. 14, no. 6 (2011), pp. 610-625
    45. McDannell, C., "Interpreting Things: Material culture studies and American religion" Religion vol. 21, no. 4 (1991), pp. 371-387
    46. Sheffield, Tricia, "The Religious Dimensions of Advertising in the Culture of Consumer Capitalism," Chapter 4 in Sheffield, The Religious Dimensions of Advertising (New York and Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 101-132.
    47. Bodies

    48. Frank, Kevin. ""Whether Beast or Human": The Cultural Legacies of Dread, Locks, and Dystopia." small axe vol. 11, no. 2 (2007), pp. 46-62.
    49. Seeman, Don. "Coffee and the moral order: Ethiopian Jews and Pentecostals against culture." American Ethnologist vol. 42, no. 4 (2015), pp. 734-748.
    50. Margaret Walton-Roberts "Three Readings of the Turban: Sikh Identity In Greater Vancouver," Urban Geography, vol. 19, no. 4, (1998), pp. 311-331
    51. Meyer, B., "Aesthetics of Persuasion: Global Christianity and Pentecostalism’s sensational forms" South Atlantic Quarterly vol. 109, no. 4 (2010), pp. 741-763
    52. Art & Aesthetics

    53. Brent Plate, s. "Looking at Words: The Iconicity of the Page" Postscripts vol. 6, no. 1-3 (2010), pp. 67 – 82
    54. Weitzel, C. "The Written Word in Islamic Art" in Buddha of Suburbia (RLA Press, 2005), pp. 214-222
    55. Verrips, J., "Offending art and the sense of touch," Material Religion vol.4, no.2 (2008), pp. 204-225
    56. McIntyre, Elisha. "Rescuing God from Bad Taste: Religious Kitsch in Theory and Practice." Literature & Aesthetics vol. 24, no. 2 (2014), pp. 83-108.
    57. Hartney, Christopher. "10 “Traditional” Modernity: A Vietnamese Response to French Colonialism as Revealed in the Great Mural of Đạo Cao Ðài."in David W. Kim (ed.), Religious Transformation in Modern Asia. (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2015), pp. 214-232.
    58. Architecture

    59. Barrie, T., "Mediating Elements, Symbolism, Religion, and the In-between" The Sacred In-Between: the Mediating Roles of Architecture (London & New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 39-60
    60. Cusack, Carole M. "And the Building Becomes Man": Meaning and Aesthetics in Rudolf Steiner’s Goetheanum." Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production vol. 4 (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2012), pp. 173.
    61. Mehrdad Shokoohy "The Zoroastrian Towers of Silence in the Ex-Portuguese Colony of Diu", Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, vol. 21 (2007), pp. 61-78
    62. TV & Film

    63. De Witte, M. "Altar Media’s ‘Living Word’: Televised Charismatic Christianity in Ghana" Journal of Religion in Africa vol.33, no. 2 (2003), pp. 172-202.
    64. Erb, C., "A Spiritual Blockbuster: Avatar, Environmentalism, and the New Religions" Journal of Film and Video, vol. 66, no. 3 (2014), pp. 3-17.
    65. Volume IV: Ephemeral Mediations

      Volume Introduction

      Kirby, D.

      Performance

    66. X. Theodore Barber, "Four Interpretations of Mevlevi Dervish Dance, 1920-1929," Dance Chronicle, vol. 9, no. 3 (1986), pp. 328-355
    67. Petsche, Johanna JM. "Gurdjieff and de Hartmann’s Music for Movements." Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review vol. 4, no. 1 (2013), pp. 92-121.
    68. Coggins, O. "The Invocation at Tilburg: Mysticism, Implicit Religion and Gravetemple’s Drone Metal," Implicit Religion vol. 18, no. 2, 2015, 209-231.
    69. Sanford, A., "Painting Words, Tasting Sound: Visions of Krishna in Paramanand’s Sixteenth-Century Devotional Poetry," Journal of the American Academy of Religion vol. 70, no.1 (2002), pp. 55-81.
    70. Harris, R., and Dawut, R., "Mazar Festivals of the Uyghurs: music, Islam and the Chinese State" British Journal of Ethnomusicology vol.11, no. 1 (2002), pp101-118.
    71. Aesthetic experience

    72. Shapiro, L. "The Haunted Lotus: Application of the Phenomenological Method in Apprehending an Exhibition’s Religious Aspects," Literature & Aesthetics vol. 24, no. 1 (2014), pp. 67-84.
    73. Edgar, D., "Shouting fire: art, religion, and the right to be offended," Race and Class, vol. 48, no. 2 (2006), pp. 61-76.
    74. Kirby, Danielle "Transgressive Representations: Satanic Ritual Abuse, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, and First Transmission" Literature and Aesthetics vol. 21, no. 2 (December 2011) pp134-149.
    75. Hills, M. "Media Fandom, neoreligiosity, and cult(ural) studies" Velvet Light Trap Fall vol. 46 (2000), pp. 73-84.
    76. Jin Kyu Park (2005) ‘Creating My Own Cultural and Spiritual Bubble’: Case of Cultural Consumption by Spiritual Seeker Anime Fans, Culture and Religion, vol. 6, no. 3 (2003), pp. 393-413.
    77. Ritual

    78. Droogers, A., "Enjoying an Emerging Alternative World: Ritual in Its Own Ludic Right," Social Analysis, vol.48, no. 2 (2004), pp. 138-154.
    79.  Ian Reader, "Cleaning Floors and Sweeping the Mind: Cleaning as a Ritual Process," in Ritual and Religious Belief: A Reader, ed. Graham Harvey (London: Equinox, 2005) pp. 87-104.
    80. Bell, D., "Women’s Business is Hard Work: Ventral Australian Aboriginal Women’s Love Rituals" Journal of Women in Culture and Society vol.7, no.2 (1981), pp. 314-337.
    81. Susan Birrell, "Sport as Ritual: Interpretations from Durkheim to Goffman," Social Forces, vol. 60, no. 2, Special Issue (Dec., 1981), pp. 354-376.
    82. Gesch, Patrick. "On Conversion from the Global to the Local: Going Beyond One's Best Understanding in Sepik Initiation." in Cusack and Oldmeadow, The End of Religions? Religion in an Age of Globalisation, (Sydney Studies in Religion, 2001.)
    83. Pilgrimage

    84. H. Byron Earhart, "Mount Fuji and Shugendo," Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, vol. 16, no. 2/3 (Jun. - Sep., 1989), pp. 205-226.
    85. Diana L. Eck, “India's ‘Tīrthas’: ‘Crossings’ in Sacred Geography,” History of Religions, Vol. 20, No. 4 (May, 1981), pp. 323-344.