Key Words in Religion, Media and Culture ‘From The Passion of the Christ to the presumed “clash of civilizations”, religion’s role in culture is increasingly contested and mediated. Key Words in Religion, Media, and Culture is a welcome and interdisciplinary contribution that maps the territory for those who aim to make sense of it all. Highlighting the important concepts guiding state-of-the-art research into religion, media, and culture, this book is bound to become an important and frequently consulted resource among scholars both seasoned and new to the field.’ Lynn Schofield Clark, author of From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural and editor of Religion, Media, and the Marketplace ‘David Morgan has assembled here a fine team of scholars to prove beyond a doubt that the intersections of religion, media, and culture constitute one of the most stimulating fields of inquiry around today. Definitions of religion and culture require renewed and robust readings in light of newer forms of (mass) mediation, and the contributors deliver the goods. This highly useful and theoretically sophisticated text will likely assume “ritual” status in this emergent field.’ Rosalind I. J. Hackett, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee, USA ‘This volume is a major intervention in the literature on religion, media and culture. Drawing together leading international scholars, it offers a conceptual map of the field to which students, teachers and researchers will refer for many years to come. The publication of Key Words in Religion, Media and Culture is a significant moment in the formation of this area of study, and sets a standard for cross-disciplinary collaboration and theoretical and methodological sophistication for future work in this area to follow.’ Gordon Lynch, Professor in the Sociology of Religion, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK ‘This book offers a range of refreshing essays on the relationships between media and religion. Its selected key words open doors to understanding contemporary society. The cultural perspectives on mediation and religious practices give some illuminating and surprising analyses.’ Knut Lundby, University of Oslo, Norway David Morgan is Professor of Religion at Duke University, USA. Author of several books, including Visual Piety (1998) and The Lure of Images (Routledge, 2007), he is also co-editor of the journal Material Religion. Key Words in Religion, Media and Culture Edited by David Morgan First published in the USA and Canada 2008 by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2008 David Morgan, editorial matter and selection © 2008 individual contributors for their contributions All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Key words in religion, media, and culture / edited by David Morgan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Religion and culture. 2. Mass media in religion. 3. Mass media–Religious aspects. I. Morgan, David, 1957– BL65.C8K49 2008 201’.7–dc22 2008002209 ISBN 0-203-89407-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–44862–X (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–44863–8 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–89407–3 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–44862–8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–44863–5 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–89407–1 (ebk) Contents Contributors vii Preface xi Introduction. Religion, media, culture: the shape of the field 1 David Morgan 1 Aesthetics 20 Birgit Meyer and Jojada Verrips 2 Audiences 31 Stewart M. Hoover 3 Circulation 44 Johanna Sumiala 4 Community 56 J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 5 Culture 69 Angela Zito 6 Economy 83 David Chidester 7 Image 96 David Morgan 8 Media 111 Peter Horsfield 9 Narrative 123 Jolyon Mitchell 10 Practice 136 Pamela E. Klassen 11 Public 148 Joyce Smith vi Contents 12 Religion 160 Sarah M. Pike 13 Soundscape 172 Dorothea E. Schulz 14 Technology 187 Jeremy Stolow 15 Text 198 Isabel Hofmeyr Works cited 209 Index 235 Contributors Editor David Morgan is Professor of religion at Duke University and author of several books, including Visual Piety (1998), The Sacred Gaze (2005), and The Lure of Images (2007). He was a member and chairperson of the International Study Commission on Religion, Media, and Culture. Morgan currently coedits the Routledge book series “Media, Religion, and Culture” and is cofounder and coeditor of the journal Material Religion. Contributors J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu is Associate Professor of contemporary African Christianity and religion and media at the Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Accra, Ghana. He was a member of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion, and Culture, has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and currently edits the Trinity Journal of Church and Theology. In addition to having written his book African Charismatics (2005), he has published widely on Christianity and media in contemporary Africa. David Chidester is Professor of religious studies and director of the Institute for Comparative Religion in Southern Africa at the University of Cape Town. His books include Salvation and Suicide: Jim Jones, the People’s Temple, and Jonestown (1988; revised edition, 2003); Savage Systems: Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa (1996); Christianity: A Global History (2000); Nelson Mandela: In His Own Words (2004); and Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture (2005). viii Contributors Isabel Hofmeyr is Professor of African literature at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has published widely on South African literature, postcolonial studies, and transnationalism. Her award-winning book, The Portable Bunyan: A Transnational History of The Pilgrim’s Progress, appeared in 2004. Stewart M. Hoover is an internationally known scholar of media and religion and media audiences. He is a Professor of media studies and religious studies at the University of Colorado in the United States and directs the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture there. He is coeditor of a book series on media and religion published by Routledge and is author, coauthor, or editor of eight books, most recently Religion in the Media Age (2006). Peter Horsfield is Associate Professor and director of Learning and Teaching at the School of Applied Communication at RMIT University in Melbourne. He was a member of the International Study Commission on Media Religion and Culture and is Chair of the Porticus Fellowship Program for Research in Media Religion and Culture. He has published widely in media and religion and most recently was coeditor of Belief in Media: Cultural Perspectives on Media and Christianity (2005). Pamela E. Klassen is Associate Professor in the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, where she also directs the Religion and the Public Sphere Initiative. She is the author of Blessed Events: Religion and Home Birth in America (2001) and is completing a book on Christianity, medicine, and practices of “mediation” entitled Healing Christians, which is forthcoming from University of California Press. Birgit Meyer is Professor of cultural anthropology at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Her publications include Translating the Devil: Religion and Modernity Among the Ewe in Ghana (1999); Globalization and Identity: Dialectics of Flow and Closure (edited with Peter Geschiere, 1999); Magic and Modernity: Interfaces of Revelation and Concealment (edited with Peter Pels 2003); and Religion, Media and the Public Sphere (edited with Annelies Moors, 2006). She is coeditor of Material Religion. Jolyon Mitchell is Senior Lecturer at New College, Edinburgh University and a former BBC World Service producer. He helped to create such programs as “Garrison Keillor’s Radio Preachers” (1994) and an Omnibus documentary on West African video film (2002). He is author of Visually Speaking (1999) and Media Violence and Christian Ethics (2007); coeditor of Mediating Contributors ix Religion (2003) and The Religion and Film Reader (2007); and coeditor of the Routledge book series on Media, Religion, and Culture. Sarah M. Pike is Professor of religious studies at California State University, Chico, where she teaches courses on American religions. Pike is the author of Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community (2001) and New Age and Neopagan Religions in America (2004) and is currently writing a book about religion and youth culture. She chairs the Committee for the Public Understanding of Religion of the American Academy of Religion and is on the Academy’s board of directors. Dorothea E. Schulz teaches in the department of religious studies, Indiana University. She