Review
 

  
Belief in media: Cultural perspectives on media and Christianity

edited by Peter Horsfield, Mary Hess and Adán Medrano

London: Ashgate Press, 2004

http://www.ashgate.com
   
  This is a series of essays that explore both theory and research in the cultural study of media, religion, spirituality and culture.

The opening chapters explain the cultural approach to thinking about media and Christianity and the differences between this new approach and the previously dominant instrumentalist approach. Subsequent chapters illustrate the approach through a series of case studies of media and religion in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the U.S. A final review chapter assesses the state of this new field or approach to research and the major issues it raises.

The text is the culmination of the work of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion and Culture (http://www.iscmrc.org), whose members have been instrumental in conceptualising and theorising this new approach. It will be a valuable text for the growing number of courses beginning to be taught in the area.

Table of Contents:

  • Peter Horsfield, “Media, Religion and Culture – An Introduction.”

  • Lynn Schofield Clark, “Reconceptualizing Religion and Media in a Post-National, Postmodern World: A Critical Historical Introduction.”

  • Peter Horsfield, “Theology, Church and Media – Contours in a Changing Cultural Terrain.”

  • Roberto Goizuieta, “Symbolic Realism in US Latino Popular Catholicism.”

  • Juan Carlos Henriquez, “Notes on Belief and Social Circulation (Science Fiction Narratives).”

  • Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, “Pentecostal Media Images and Religion Globalisation in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

  • German Rey, “Identities, Religion and Melodrama: A view from the cultural dimension of the Latin American telenovela.”

  • David Morgan, “Visual Media and Ethiopian Protestantism.”

  • Jolyon Mitchell, “From Morality Tales to Horror Movies: Towards an understanding of the popularity of West African video film.”

  • Stewart Hoover, “Religion and meaning in the Digital Age: Field Research on Internet/Web Religion.”

  • Adan Medrano, “Making Religious Media:  Notes From the Field.”

  • Mary Hess, “Rescripting Religious Education in Media Culture.”

  • Siriwan Santisakultarm, “Changes in the Thai Catholic Way of Life.”

  • Frances Forde Plude, “The U.S. Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Scandal: A Media/Religion Case Study.”

  • Bob White, “Major Issues in the Study of Media, Religion and Culture.”

Review by Peter Horsfield