In this introduction and special issue we examine the role of contemporary media in the formation of religious communities, in particular when religious subjects, practices, and arguments are structured and enabled by processes of conflict and contestation, and by situations … Continue reading “Introduction: Media and the Political Forms of Religion”
Issue: Issue 096 Media & Religion
Media and the Political Forms of Religion
Blind Faith: Painting Christianity in Postconflict Ambon
patricia spyerThe paper explores the billboards and murals of Jesus Christ that sprang up and proliferated across Ambon during the religiously inflected conflict that engulfed the Indonesian provincial capital in rampant violence from 1999 until 2002. During the war and since, … Continue reading “Blind Faith: Painting Christianity in Postconflict Ambon”
Cultures of Death: Media, Religion, Bioethics
charles hirschkindThe great attention given to death and the afterlife within the popular media of the Islamic movement is a sign for many in the West of a diseased Muslim culture, one preoccupied with violence and destruction, and inexorably epitomized in … Continue reading “Cultures of Death: Media, Religion, Bioethics”
Goose Bumps All Over: Breath, Media, and Tremor
maria jose a. de abreuThis essay examines what a seemingly trivial bodily reaction such as goose bumps tells us about the relation between spirituality, technology, and voice. Based on ethnographic research, the article examines the media ministry of a Brazilian priest named Padre Marcelo … Continue reading “Goose Bumps All Over: Breath, Media, and Tremor”
Enemy Voice
jonathan sterneSince the invention of sound-transcription devices in the early nineteenth century, philosophers, linguists, inventors, audiences, and others have debated whether it is the meaningful act of speech or the material sound of the voice itself which defines the speaking subject … Continue reading “Enemy Voice”
Ahmed Deedat and the Form of Islamic Evangelism
brian larkinThis paper examines the role of mediation and circulation in religious movements. Examining the evangelical work of the South African Muslim preacher Ahmed Deedat, it examines how the rise of Deedat in the 1970s and 1980s came about as a … Continue reading “Ahmed Deedat and the Form of Islamic Evangelism”
Spiritual Attunement: Pentecostal Radio in the Soundscape of a Favela in Rio de Janeiro
martijn oosterbaanThis article explores the ways in which Pentecostal media, especially electro-acoustic media, are integrated in the everyday life of a favela in Rio de Janeiro. It argues that the popularity of Pentecostal radio has to be understood in relation to … Continue reading “Spiritual Attunement: Pentecostal Radio in the Soundscape of a Favela in Rio de Janeiro”