"The objective of the thesis is to define the communicative meaning of the Christian cross by dealing with three research issues. The first problem regards the historical aspects. In interdisciplinary ways the thesis will explore the different forms, locations and functions of Christian cross pictur
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es throughout art history. In contexts of church history, the reasons for the very existence of pictures of the cross will be explored. The second problem focuses on the functions of the cross in the Church’s devotional and catechetical practice, as well on its issue in theological discourses and in the Church’s magisterium. In Christian art history, many stories of debates and disputes can be found; for example, when the iconoclastic controversy arose, the intervention of the second Council of Nicea for the protection of Icons and their veneration enriched and encouraged the development of the sacred art culture in Christianity. Thus, the symbolism and imageries of cross and crucifix has a long and rich history of development and popularity, despite the obstacles. Finally, the thesis investigates the various communication areas of today dealing with the meaning of the Christian cross. The research results of this third chapter will show the degree of relevance which the cross has in today’s pastoral, academic and online communication." (Pages 3-4)
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"Less than a year after the end of authoritarian rule in 1998, huge images of Jesus Christ and other Christian scenes proliferated on walls and billboards around a provincial town [Ambon] in eastern Indonesia where conflict had arisen between Muslims and Christians. A manifestation of the extreme pe
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rception that emerged amid uncertainty and the challenge to seeing brought on by urban warfare, the street paintings erected by Protestant motorbike-taxi drivers signaled a radical departure from the aniconic tradition of the old colonial church, a desire to be seen and recognized by political authorities from Jakarta to the UN and European Union, an aim to reinstate the Christian look of a city in the face of the country's widespread islamicization, and an opening to a more intimate relationship to the divine through the bringing-into-vision of the Christian god. Stridently assertive, these affectively charged mediations of religion, masculinity, Christian privilege and subjectivity are among the myriad ephemera of war, from rumors, graffiti, incendiary pamphlets, and Video CDs, to Peace Provocateur text-messages and children's reconciliation drawings. Orphaned Landscapes theorizes the production of monumental street art and other visual media as part of a wider work on appearance in which ordinary people, wittingly or unwittingly, refigure the aesthetic forms and sensory environment of their urban surroundings." (Publisher description)
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"This article investigates how the churches in Paraguay have used multiple mass media as evangelization instruments and which churches dominate the mass media in 2010–2012, following the growth explosions of Pentecostalism in the 1980s–1990s and especially after 2002. Church uses of the printed
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media (books, magazines and newspapers), radio, television, and internet in Paraguay are all analyzed. Pentecostal and Protestant church leaders used radio, television, and internet to successfully brand their church, and to a limited extent attract and socialize new followers. Hardly any believers intensively follow religion in the mass media to replace going to church. The article concludes that rather than a Pentecostalization, a Mennonitization of the mass media is occurring in Paraguay, driven by the Mennonite groups’ economic power and their ethnic-religious solidarity." (Abstract)
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"This eBook provides a follow-up conversation with key contributors from The Distanced Church, published in April 2020, which explored how church leaders were responding and adapting to the need move their traditional services online during the first lockdown of the covid-19 pandemic. Revisiting the
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Distanced Church offers not only a "then and now" reflection on how pastors and scholar see the evolving relationship between the church and digital media one year later after the global migration of the church online. It also provides a unique look into the long term implications of these technology choices and experimentation on the church, how leaders and scholars are reflecting on the present-future of digital ministry, and the areas in need of further theological reflection due to these changes." (Abstract)
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"In 2018, Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was acquitted of the blasphemy charges that had kept her on death row for nearly a decade. The lessons learned from her case, including the international advocacy critical to her acquittal, help to create a template for advocating on behalf of other religious
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minorities facing similar charges in Pakistan. In this report, International Christian Concern (ICC) reviews Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and the experience of religious minorities under these laws. ICC goes on to analyze the Asia Bibi case and draws out important lessons that should be applied to similar, ongoing cases. This report provides the profiles of 24 current cases in which Pakistani Christians sit charged with or convicted of committing blasphemy. These 24 cases need appropriate international advocacy to come to a successful conclusion. Towards this end, this report provides practical recommendations for the international community which ICC has drawn from the Asia Bibi case and from years of experience working with Christian victims of blasphemy in Pakistan." (Executive summary)
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"A novela bíblica é um gênero literário por excelência para o exercício da interação entre a comunidade que produziu o texto e a comunidade que o lê e o atualiza. Com suas cores próprias, a novela bíblica é um artifício popular que cresce em importância no período posterior ao exílio
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babilônio (538-145 A.E.C.). Ela assume o papel da profecia na defesa dos direitos do povo em Israel, mantém a esperança e aponta o caminho a seguir. Numa sociedade que cada vez mais centraliza o poder e a religião, a novela bíblica se torna o respiro do clamor popular. É nessa perspectiva que este livro apresenta as novelas bíblicas de José e seus irmãos, Jó, Rute, Cântico dos Cânticos, Ester, Daniel, Judite e Jonas." (Descrição da editora de livros)
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"Der persönliche Bezug zur Institution Kirche hat in den vergangenen Jahren in der deutschen Bevölkerung und auch bei Journalisten kontinuierlich abgenommen. Gleichzeit bleiben die gesellschaftliche Bedeutung der katholischen und evangelischen Kirche sowie ihr gesetzlich geregeltes Verhältnis zum
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Rundfunk bestehen. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht mithilfe einer quantitativen Inhaltsanalyse von 514 Tagesschau-Beiträgen zu drei Messzeitpunkten (1998/99, 2008/09 und 2018/19) die Berichterstattung über die beiden großen christlichen Kirchen. Im Zentrum stehen dabei die Fragen, in welchen Kontexten bzw. bei welchen Ereignissen über Kirche im Zeitverlauf berichtet und wie positiv oder negativ sie in diesem Zusammenhang dargestellt wird. Es zeigt sich, dass sich die Relevanz der beiden Kirchen in der Tagesschau in den letzten 20 Jahren nicht verändert hat, dass allerdings die katholische Kirche gegenüber der evangelischen Kirche überrepräsentiert ist und signifikant negativer dargestellt wird. Über Ereignisse wird häufiger berichtet als über Stellungnahmen, und die Tendenz der Kirchen-Beiträge ist im Laufe der Jahre signifikant negativer geworden." (Zusammenfassung)
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"This study examines how Christian churches in Norway use social media. The key finding is that the churches do not take extensive advantage of the opportunities for two-way communication offered by the platforms, but primarily use their social media channels to promote church activities or broadcas
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t content without inviting a dialogue. Based on the churches’ own stated appreciation for building relationships, as well as existing research from media and communication studies, media and religion studies, and studies within strategic communication, this article argues for a stronger focus on the ritual and relational aspects of online communication from the church organizations." (Abstract)
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"The tension between the two historical realities, Hinduism as an ancient Indian religion and Christianity as a religion associated with foreign power and colonialism, continues to animate Hindu-Christian relations today. On the one hand, The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations describes
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a rich history of amicable, productive, even sometimes syncretic Hindu-Christian encounters. On the other, this handbook equally attends to historical and contemporary moments of tension, conflict, and violence between Hindus and Christians. Comprising thirty-nine chapters by a team of international contributors, this handbook is divided into seven parts: theoretical and methodological considerations; historical interactions, contemporary exchanges; sites of bodily and material interactions; significant figures; comparative theologies; responses. The handbook explores: how the study of Hindu–Christian relations has been and ought to be done, the history of Hindu–Christian relations through key interactions, ethnographic reflections on current dynamics of Hindu–Christian exchange, important key thinkers, and topics in comparative theology, ultimately providing a framework for further debates in the area." (Publisher description)
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"The book of Deuteronomy in the Hebrew Bible makes a number of references to writing and to the importance of Israel carefully observing the commands, statutes, and ordinances written in the book. Readers can then conform themselves and their behaviors according to the subjectivity of Israel the boo
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k sets forth. The process of conforming oneself to what is written in a book makes use of particular affordances of writing, a technology that was becoming more widespread at the time Deuteronomy was being written. The materiality of the book and the social uses to which writing and books could be put are being realized in Deuteronomy in order to create people as particular subjects called “Israel.” (Abstract)
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"Engagement with Christian manuscripts – Eastern and Western – and with ancient and rare printed books makes evident a growing interest in material and codicological aspects of our book heritage. In other words, it evinces an emerging curiosity about the non-textual realities of books – at lea
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st of ancient books. This shift is particularly true for manuscript studies. The question of materiality remains unavoidable, however, even today, when we decide to edit a book in hard copy along with electronic or digital versions. As has always been the case, there is a direct correlation between the quality of materials used, the production/confection techniques and the external appearance of a book. Normally, one would not expect to find the finest inks, paper or parchment in the hands of less-skilled scribes or illuminators. This article sets alongside immediate material aspects corresponding, and usually expensive, issues like sewing and binding techniques, layout (mise-en-page) and decoration. They too condition our assessment – even unconsciously – when we meet religious books." (Abstract)
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"This article focuses on a work published in 1883 by a German Christian press associated with a missionary society. The book provides a visual panorama of all the world’s cultures in 1,690 engravings. Most images were reproductions of material that had initially appeared in a variety of other cont
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exts, ranging from missionary periodicals to secular travel magazines and British colonial literature. This study examines the message that the volume’s editors wanted to convey: the extra-European world was portrayed as devoid of historical agency, non-Christian religions as false, and the presence of western agents – in particular, missionaries – as providential. Retracing the life story of a few images, I show that some of them communicated these notions better than others. For example, engravings based on photographs were often not as polemical as those based on drawings, simply because of the characteristics of photography as a medium. Complicating the critical reading of the images as simply missionary propaganda, I argue that a volume like the one examined here is best understood when placed within a transnational (or connected) history of visual practices." (Abstract)
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"Die Beiträge des umfangreichen Handbuchs sondieren die verschiedenen Facetten und Bedeutungen der digitalen Revolution: die Kultur der Digitalität (Ethik, Ästhetik, öffentlicher Raum, Gesellschaftspolitik), die theologisch-anthropologische Dimension (Personsein, Identität, Menschenbild, existe
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nzielle Fragen), die ekklesiale Dimension (Sozialförmigkeiten; Virtualität und Realität, religiöse Sozialisation, Predigt und Digitalität, digitale Kirchenentwicklung), die Gottesrede (Digitalität und Allmachtsphantasien, Leiblichkeit und Digitalität, Gottesrede und digitaler Kommunikation) sowie medienethische Einordnungen (Maschinenethik, Medienpolitik, Identität und Integrität)." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The intersection of media with theology is reciprocating: media boosts theology in its functions to inform, connect and educate; theology humbles the globalizing media with a reminder – media is in mediation but not in domination. Media and theology thus intersect at mediating (negotiating, inter
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ceding, resisting, protesting) and they should avoid the temptation to colonize. The essays are presented in two overlapping clusters: Mediascapes (intersection of media and a selection of land- and sea-scapes) and Mediations (implications of mediating theology for interrogating hegemonies). The topics addressed include social media and #tag cultures, the fourth industrial revolution and artificial intelligence, homiletics, social resistance, Palestine, Latin America, climate change, and Covid-19." (Publisher description)
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"The current study investigates how Church communicators perceive the role of social media platforms and influencers in their overall stakeholder engagement strategy. Building upon the Organization-Public Relationship (OPR) body of literature, we conducted 13 in-depth interviews with public relation
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s professionals at megachurches throughout the United States. Findings reveal a reliance on one-way communication strategies to build relationships that shifted two-way communication as congregations prioritized digital connections due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found that Church communicators understand the concept of social media influencers differently than their corporate communicator peers to also include influence on another’s spiritual beliefs and well-being." (Abstract)
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"Megachurches have a reputation for savvy use of digital media; however, little is known about their advertising strategy or which strategies elicit engagement. By assessing megachurches’ promotional content on social media, this study draws on the devotional campaign framework to examine audience
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-centric engagement strategies: God–Congregant, Church–Congregant, and Intra-Congregational. The quantitative content analysis of Facebook and Instagram posts from 15 megachurches in five countries [Australia; New Zealand; United Kingdom; United States; Canada] revealed that megachurches used the combination God–Congregant & Church–Congregant engagement strategies, as well as the singular Church–Congregant engagement strategy, the most often. Yet, audiences engaged significantly more with posts using the God–Congregant engagement strategy when compared to all other strategies. The use of engagement strategies and engagement received on posts varied according to geographical location and cultural differences, suggesting there may be a cultural aspect to what earns engagement from followers. Advertisers looking to increase online engagement should focus their efforts on persuasive messages that include the object-audience engagement strategy. This study advances advertising theory on engagement by suggesting that engagement is contingent upon the engagement strategy utilized as well as the specific region’s norms around the brand and community." (Abstract)
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"The growing importance of social media influencers (SMIs) as sources for attitude and behavior necessitate a focus on influencers (and their strategies to influence) in public relations research and practice. This study investigated perspectives among a specific type of SMI – the religious or fai
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th-based influencer. In-depth interviews with 17 religious influencers reveal motives and meanings of individuals who take on the title of influencer. Findings suggest a dichotomy of altruism and egoism in religious influence, and the prevalence of parasocial interaction underlying the SMI influence efforts. Results also suggest lessons for influencer relations as an emerging focus in public relations theory and practice." (Abstract)
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"This article examines the role of language in the constitution of a common identity through its liturgical use at the Eastern Orthodox church of St Andrew’s in Edinburgh, Scotland. Open to individuals who have relocated, the parish has a rather multinational character. It is a place of worship fo
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r populations that consider Christian Orthodox culture part of their long-established collective identity and for recent converts. Based on ethnographic research, archival work and theoretical contextualisation, the article examines the atmospheric materiality of the written text as performed by the readers, the choir and the clergy. This soundscape is an amalgam of different kinds of reading: prose, chanted prose, chanting and antiphonic, depending the part of the Liturgy being read. The language of the book is performative: the choreography and its symbolisms perform the words of the texts and vice versa. Additionally, the use of at least four languages in every service and two Eastern Orthodox chanting styles in combination with European influences expresses in the most tangible way the religious inclusivity that has been carefully cultivated in this parish. Through closer examination of literary transformation processes, I demonstrate the role of liturgical language in the creation of communal space-times that negotiate ideas of home and belonging in a new land." (Abstract)
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