Religion and Media (Cultural Memory in the Present) [Paperback]

Hent de Vries (Editor), Samuel Weber (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Cultural Memory in the Present | Publication Date: September 1, 2002

The latter part of the twentieth century saw an explosion of new media that effected profound changes in human categories of communication. At the same time, a “return to religion” occurred on a global scale. The twenty-five contributors to this volume—who include such influential thinkers as Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, Talal Asad, and James Siegel—confront the conceptual, analytical, and empirical difficulties involved in addressing the complex relationship between religion and media.

The book’s introductory section offers a prolegomenon to the multiple problems raised by an interdisciplinary approach to these multifaceted phenomena. The essays in the following part provide exemplary approaches to the historical and systematic background to the study of religion and media, ranging from the biblical prohibition of images and its modern counterparts, through theological discussion of imagery in Ignatius and Luther, to recent investigations into icons and images that “think” in Jean-Luc Marion and Gilles Deleuze. The third part presents case studies by anthropologists and scholars of comparative religion who deal with religion and media in Indonesia, India, Japan, South Africa, Venezuela, Iran, Poland, Turkey, present-day Germany, and Australia.

The book concludes with two remarkable documents: a chapter from Theodor W. Adorno’s study of the relationship between religion and media in the context of political agitation (The Psychological Technique of Martin Luther Thomas’ Radio Addresses) and a section from Niklas Luhmann’s monumental Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft (Society as a Social System).

Editorial Reviews

Review

“I cannot overestimate the importance of this book, which will become mandatory reading for all courses in media studies, histories of religion, anthropologies of modernity, cosmopolitics, the global order, and new forms of sociality. Reading it has been a source of rare intellectual satisfaction and aesthetic pleasure.”—Rosalind Carmel Morris, Columbia University

“The collection of essays Religion and Media is an important contribution to a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to philosophy, media studies, sociology, religious studies, anthropology and literary theory. It is huge in scope, theoretically ambitious and is sure to become a stardard work in courses and seminars in media studies, literary theory and comparative religion where the status of the religious is at issue. . . . The volume itself offers a panorama of the most recent developments in the emergent nexus of religious studies, media studies, philosophy and sociology.”—MEDIENwissenschaft

“For those who see that research on religion and media is more than merely the intersection of two variables, the work in this book, particularly in the opening chapters, will be quite helpful. . . . In all, the text is a clear contribution to scholarship in a number of fields, and many of the chapters will prove useful in providing theoretical connections and language for more exmpirical study.”—Journal of Media and Religion

"At the end of the day, Religion and Media offers so much of interdisciplinary value that the collection far exceeds the sum of its chapters. These in turn illuminate the horizons of the volume as a whole. In fact, I can't recall ever having underlined an anthology so densely. At the very least the chapters are "good to think" and at best they activate the spirit of critical inquiry abiding at the heart of all the best conversations across disciplinary and philosohical differences."—Anthropological Quarterly

"Hent de Vries and Samuel Weber's superb collection Religion and Media is one of the most important collections this year in the more amorphous field of religion and culture. De Vries and Weber have gathered together some of the most significant names in critical and cultural theory over the last thirty years or so...to consider the relationship between its two titular terms."—The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

From the Inside Flap

The latter part of the twentieth century saw an explosion of new media that effected profound changes in human categories of communication. At the same time, a “return to religion” occurred on a global scale. The twenty-five contributors to this volume—who include such influential thinkers as Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, Talal Asad, and James Siegel—confront the conceptual, analytical, and empirical difficulties involved in addressing the complex relationship between religion and media.
The book’s introductory section offers a prolegomenon to the multiple problems raised by an interdisciplinary approach to these multifaceted phenomena. The essays in the following part provide exemplary approaches to the historical and systematic background to the study of religion and media, ranging from the biblical prohibition of images and its modern counterparts, through theological discussion of imagery in Ignatius and Luther, to recent investigations into icons and images that “think” in Jean-Luc Marion and Gilles Deleuze. The third part presents case studies by anthropologists and scholars of comparative religion who deal with religion and media in Indonesia, India, Japan, South Africa, Venezuela, Iran, Poland, Turkey, present-day Germany, and Australia.
The book concludes with two remarkable documents: a chapter from Theodor W. Adorno’s study of the relationship between religion and media in the context of political agitation (The Psychological Technique of Martin Luther Thomas’ Radio Addresses) and a section from Niklas Luhmann’s monumental Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft (Society as a Social System).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press; 1 edition (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804734976
• ISBN-13: 978-0804734974
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #991,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the problem of 'mediatization of religion' and vice versa, June 17, 2004

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Saul Boulschett "Anyway" (Dry land) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Religion and Media (Cultural Memory in the Present) (Paperback)

The title says it all, doesn't it. Yes, this book is about Religion and Media, and contains essays by or interviews with 25 scholars from Europe and the US, including some famous ones: namely, J. Derrida, JL Nancy, S. Weber, TW Adorno, and others. I bought this without the benefit of having another reader's review of it and so was pleasantly surprised to see so many heavyweights present: the scholars featured here occupy positions of influence in their respective fields - from philosophy to anthropology to comparative religion to sciology.

The book serves as a very serviceable prism to refract the blinding and blindingly bright light of the subject into so many colorful opinions about the relationship between R and M.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the problem of framing of the problem through an interdisciplinary approach. The second part is less speculative about the issue as it deals with the historical and academic examples of approaches to the study of this phenomenon. The last part offers case studies and field work done by anthropologists and scholars of comparative religion.

The common concern in all these essays is the resurgence and fortification of religion (in some cases with lethal results) the world over in tandem with increasing de-religionization (that is to say, removal of all and any sense of the sacred from the public sphere of life.) Some of the questions asked are: Why is Christianity so much more mediatic than the other religions? How does the media's intervention in religion (and vice versa), with its instantaneous communication affect that particular sense of time that is crucial to a religious worldview? What is the function of politics in the mediatization of religion?

There's much food for thought here to help one figure out which way is north in this age of `New Age' in which so much seems to be heading south (of Reason). A solid read for those who understand the social importance of the phenomenon of religion.