The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet [Paperback]

Brandon Vogt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 2011

Facebook has over 750 million users. Twitter hosts more than 350 billion tweets each day. Today alone, people will view more than two billion videos on YouTube. And in the past year, Americans sent 1.8 trillion text messages.

We're experiencing the most explosive communication shift since the printing press.

What does this mean for the Church?

How can Christians harness these new tools to reach out, to teach, to cultivate community, to change the world?

Following Pope Benedict's call to set sail on the digital continent, The Church and New Media explores the benefits and dangers of New Media, while guiding Christians through this new digital landscape. The book features more than a dozen contributors including:

-- Cardinal Sean O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap. with the book's Foreword
-- Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan with the book's Afterword
-- Brandon Vogt on "the digital continent" and New Media's benefits and dangers
-- Fr. Robert Barron on engaging the secular online world
-- Jennifer Fulwiler on blogging her way from atheism to Catholicism
-- Marcel LeJeune on using New Media to connect young adults with the Church
-- Mark Shea on the benefits and perils of blogging
-- Taylor Marshall on using New Media to unwrap ancient truths
-- Fr. Dwight Longenecker on ecumenical dialogue through New Media
-- Scot Landry on New Media in the diocese
-- Matt Warner on New Media in the parish
-- Lisa Hendey on growing online community
-- Thomas Peters on faithful online activism
-- Shawn Carney on how the world's largest pro-life movement was built using New Media

100% of the royalties from this book will be used to establish school computer labs throughout the Archdiocese of Mombasa, Kenya.

Find more information, endorsements, and bonus resources at the book's website: ChurchandNewMedia.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor (July 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592760333
• ISBN-13: 978-1592760336
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Church and New Media is the best kind of reading: timely, vivid and rich in valuable information.  For anyone seeking to understand and use today's new technologies in advancing the Catholic faith, this book is an unsurpassed resource."

- Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia

"My expectation is that this book will give the Church courage and wisdom to embrace New Media as one of the premier gifts of God to evangelists of our day."

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York

"If St. Peter, St. Ignatius, and St. Augustine had access to today's new media, they would do exactly the same things as the contributors to this book."

Mike Aquilina, author and vice-president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

"The Church and New Media is the best kind of reading: timely, vivid and rich in valuable information.  For anyone seeking to understand and use today's new technologies in advancing the Catholic faith, this book is an unsurpassed resource."<div>Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia</div>

"My expectation is that this book will give the Church courage and wisdom to embrace New Media as one of the premier gifts of God to evangelists of our day."<div>Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York</div>

"If St. Peter, St. Ignatius, and St. Augustine had access to today's new media, they would do exactly the same things as the contributors to this book."<div>Mike Aquilina, author and vice-president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology</div> --Mike Aquilina, author and vice-president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

About the Author

Brandon Vogt is a 26-year old Catholic blogger, writer, and speaker. He's the author of The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops who Tweet (Our Sunday Visitor) and is a convert, having entered the Church in 2008. Since then he's been featured by several media outlets including NPR, FoxNews, EWTN, and Our Sunday Visitor. You can find him at BrandonVogt.com where he writes on theology, spirituality, and technology, and offers regular book reviews and weekly giveaways.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor (July 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592760333
• ISBN-13: 978-1592760336
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brandon Vogt is a Catholic writer and speaker who blogs at The Thin Veil (www.thinveil.net). He writes on spirituality, technology, social-justice, and features regular book reviews and weekly giveaways on his blog. He also manages the Church and New Media blog (www.churchandnewmedia.com) and daylights as a mechanical engineer. Brandon and his wife Kathleen live in Casselberry, Florida with their two children, Isaiah and Teresa.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Set to inspire the "next generation" of Catholic media August 3, 2011

By Jonathan F. Sullivan

Format:Kindle Edition

I'll get to the bottom line first: Brandon Vogt has edited one of the most important books on Catholics in the online world -- not so much because of its ruminations on the Church's understanding of social communications; not because it shows how to set up a blog or Facebook page (it would quickly be out of date if it tried to to that); but because The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet will inspire a whole new wave of Catholic innovation, experimentation, and expansion in the digital continent.

Vogt is convinced that the Church will need to embrace new media just as she came to embrace print, radio, and television. He opens the book by posing these questions:

"The world is waiting and listening in the virtual sphere. Will the Church remain silent, or will her voice be proclaimed fromthe rooftops (and the laptops)? Will she plunge the message of Christ into Facebook feeds, blog posts, podcasts, and text messages, or will she be digitally impotent?"

Vogt's leaves the answers to his contributors, a veritable Who's Who of the Catholic online world including Fr. Robert Barron, Mark Shea, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Lisa Hendey, and Thomas Peters, among others. Each contributor offers a reflection on some aspect of the online apostolate, from dialoguing on blogs to reaching specific audiences; creating communities to using new media in the parish.

Fr. Longenecker's chapter on the new apologetics is especially good. Fr. Longenecker outlines his general approach to blogging on online discourse, which could be described as generous, demonstrative, and welcoming. I was really taken with this passage:

"...I am not convinced that many souls are won by argument.... It is famously said about apologetics that you can win an argument and lose a soul. The apologetics on my blog are woven into a much bigger picture of Catholicism. I want the reader to glimpse the power and the glory of the Catholic Church, but I also want them to glimpse the humanity and humor of being Catholic. In other words, I want them to glimpse the art of being Catholic -- not just the argument for being Catholic."

If I could, I would copy this passage and have every Catholic blogger keep it taped to their computer screen.

In fact, this is a recurring theme in the book: it's not enough to set up a blog and start explaining why the Church is correct and everyone else is going to hell. Blogs, Facebook, Google+, Twitter -- they're all about community and relationship, and nurturing those two things is a vital component to apologetics, evangelization, and catechesis.

I'm grateful that Vogt has chosen to highlight the work of other Catholics in sidebars scattered throughout the book -- and not just because I'm one of them! These sidebars serve to expand on and illustrate the concepts and stories presented in the chapters and offer another avenue for Catholics to discover the richness and possibilities for living the faith on the digital continent.

Vogt has also set up a great website at [...]. In addition to the usual promotional materials and blog, the site also includes a great list of resources -- including how-tos and videos -- for anyone who may be interested in dipping their toes into the online media world.

The Church and New Media is an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about how the Church utilizes these new technologies to continue its work in the world. I look forward to seeing what the "next generation" of online Catholic leaders, inspired by the book's contributors, brings to the table. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Bishops Who Tweet"--I love it! November 9, 2011

By Richard G. Evans

Format:Paperback

It might be somewaht easy to miss the subtitle of this book but please do not overlook it--"Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet." It is not often that the subheading of an article, book or movie stands out even more than the main one, but in this case it surely and cleverly does. In fact, do not overlook anything here!!! This book is a one-of-a-kind owner's guide for Catholics and other Christians who wish to expand their horizons and ministries by using the growing electronic media.

I have not met Brandon Vogt personally but have had the VERY extreme privilege of numerous discussions with him on--what else--Face Book of course, and have read his wonderful and meaty blog "The Thin Veil." This is a 25 year old man who has a significant and life changing "relationship with Jesus," (often a drastically over-used and under-explained term) and the love he carries for God and others shows in every single contact we have shared over this past 6-8 months since our cyber-lives crossed paths. That smile is real. His words are genuine. The dimples are not surgically added.

But more to the point, this book is a resource for those of us, particularly just breaking into using the social media for the Kingdom of God. He picked tremendous people from various walks of life, priests such as Father Robert Barron of the amazing "Catholicism" DVD series, bloggers-turned-television-personalities such as Thomas Peters "the American Papist," and housewives such as Lisa Hendley who have learned to use this ever growing source of outreach to others, and he effectively uses their examples to speak to us in their own words....

For a young man, not a writer by trade, with a busy growing family and not having been Catholic for even 5 years as of yet (although already a dedicated and knowledgable Christian before his conversion to Catholicism), this is one impressive young man who I deeply respect and admire--and have time and again learned from in my own virginal attempts to begin blogging and even in my Face Book posts. He is a keeper and so is his gift of words.

Get this book. Get a second copy for a friend. The "social network" is not going away, and we who are in the Church must begin utilizing it to its fullest. This is the definitive instruction manual. Read more ›

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Prophetic Call for the Church to Use the New Media October 3, 2011

By Fr. Charles Erlandson TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

"The Church and the New Media" is a prophetic call for the Church to use the new media as a means of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Following the call from Pope Benedict XVI and others, the authors of "The Church and the New Media" give a vision for just how to do this. The book is written by and for Roman Catholic Christians in particular, but there is a lot of material here that other Christians could benefit from.

As a priest, professor, and writer interested in using the new media for the glory of God, this book is one of many I've read on this topic. Because I've read many similar works, there is a lot of this book that isn't particularly new to me - but which may be to other readers. If nothing else, the book should help motivate Christians to use the technology at our disposal for furthering God's Kingdom.

There are 12 chapters and an Introduction in the book, so a variety of topics are covered by the different writers represented in the text. While the authors definitely give a vision for why the Church should use the new media and also give specific ways in which they've used it, what's lacking is a more practical discussion of how to use the new media. A lot of the writers cover the same material - they tell us what their blog or website is about - but none of the writers do a particularly good job of explaining how to develop a website or blog and get people to read it.

Overall, the book is great to inspire and encourage Christians to use the new media but not as good on giving details for how to do this. The vision is clearly laid out and passionately presented, but a greater diversity in the kinds of articles included would have been helpful.... Finally, it wasn't clear to me when I ordered the book that all of the articles would have an exclusively Roman Catholic perspective. There's nothing wrong with this, but this means that readers from other Christian traditions can't directly apply a lot of the material since they don't have access to the wonderful resources of the Roman Catholic Church. Read more ›