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Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture
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Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2024) | Viewed by 17248

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Stefan Bratosin

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Guest Editor
Research Center of Communication, Ressources Humaines & Intervention Sociale, Paul Valéry University of Montpellier III, 34199 Montpellier, France
Interests: public sphere; digital media and IA; secularity and secularism; religious organizations; media, religion, and politics; mediatization of religion; symbolic communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Mihaela-Alexandra Tudor

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Center of Communication, Ressources Humaines & Intervention Sociale, Paul Valéry University of Montpellier III, 34199 Montpellier, France
Interests: media, religion and politics; religious institutions and organization; mediatization of religion; authority and governance within digital context; public and political communication; epistemology of communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to provide an understanding of the contemporary relationship between religion, media and popular culture. It strives to refine the framework for interpreting religion in the broader context of the mediatization as a historical process of transformation in the society impacted by mass media, emergent media and artificial intelligence (Hjarvard, 2008; Krotz, 2009; Couldry & Hepp, 2013; Gomes, 2016 and 2017; Tudor & Bratosin, 2020, 2021), which plays both the role of mediator between elite culture and popular culture and of a transmission belt between the low and the high levels of culture (Fornäs, 2014). Mediatization also organizes and articulates the lives of religious “corporate” and individual actors to economic, political, and social processes and to mass culture. In this context, the articles submitted may address the following issues (non-exhaustive list):

  • The way in which media seizes on the religious, inscribed in the different visions shared by cultures and societies on the relationship of contemporary religion with the processes of media influence of beliefs, action and religious symbols, transformations of religious authority and power, etc.
  • Media transformations and mutations examined through the prism of the effects such as the sacralization of political leaders, football stars, ordinary people who have become saints, movie stars who have become idols, etc. (Eliade, 1987; Rothenbuhler and Coman, 2005; Stout, 2012).
  • The contribution of media to the construction of the religious fact addressed through case studies of magazines, religious websites, media coverage of religious events, etc. (Bratosin, 2016; Tudor, 2020, 2021).
  • The presence of organized religion in the media via churches, media coverage of religious events by the religious institutions, or the presence of religious elements in the popular culture media products as movies, films platforms, documentaries, etc. (Bratosin, 2020; Debray, 2000; Stout, 2012; Tudor, 2021).

Prof. Dr. Stefan Bratosin
Prof. Dr. Mihaela-Alexandra Tudor
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • contemporary religion
  • mediatization
  • popular culture
  • mass culture
  • emerging media
  • power

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 356 KiB  
Article
“The Battle for Men’s Minds”: Subliminal Message as Conspiracy Theory in Seventh-Day Adventist Discourse
by Allan Novaes
Religions 2024, 15(10), 1276; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101276 - 17 Oct 2024
Viewed by 854
Abstract
This article describes the presence of a subliminal thesis—with conspiratorial and apocalyptic content—in the discourse of the Seventh-day Adventist tradition based on a documentary analysis of Adventist publications from the 1900s to the 1990s. The history of the development of this thesis is [...] Read more.
This article describes the presence of a subliminal thesis—with conspiratorial and apocalyptic content—in the discourse of the Seventh-day Adventist tradition based on a documentary analysis of Adventist publications from the 1900s to the 1990s. The history of the development of this thesis is classified into three periods: (1) Proto-Adventist Subliminal Thesis, from 1900s to 1940s, with a discourse of anti-spiritualist emphasis; (2) Adventist Subliminal Thesis’ First Wave, from 1950s to 1960s, with a discourse of anti-media emphasis in the context of James Vicary’s experiments in the 1950s; and (3) Adventist Subliminal Thesis’ Second Wave, from 1970s to 1990s, with a discourse of conspiratorial emphasis in the context of the satanic panic of the 1980s and 1990s. The Adventist subliminal thesis is configured in a way of thinking that considers (1) the human being as a “mass-man” and culture as “mass culture”; (2) the media as having the power of manipulation and mental control; (3) adherence to moral panic phenomena as reactions to media threats to traditional values; and (4) the cosmic narrative of the Great Controversy as a worldview for understanding media messages and products as part of a satanic conspiracy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
12 pages, 2455 KiB  
Article
Catholic Ecology Mindset amongst Youth: Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum’s Impact in Higher Education
by Laia Palos Rey and Miriam Diez Bosch
Religions 2024, 15(9), 1073; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091073 - 4 Sep 2024
Viewed by 750
Abstract
The climate crisis is widely regarded as the most significant challenge facing humanity in the 21st century In light of these concerns, Pope Francis announced the encyclical Laudato Si’ in 2015, which conveyed both concern and hope in the fight to mitigate and [...] Read more.
The climate crisis is widely regarded as the most significant challenge facing humanity in the 21st century In light of these concerns, Pope Francis announced the encyclical Laudato Si’ in 2015, which conveyed both concern and hope in the fight to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This is further reinforced by the publication in 2023 of the encyclical Laudate Deum, which once again emphasises the relationship between religion and ecology. In this regard, an educational intervention was conducted to ascertain the extent of knowledge and acceptance of these texts and their premises among first-year high-school students. The action comprised an initial classroom analysis of the encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum, during which various passages were read and commented on. This was followed by a second phase, in the form of a focus group, during which the students, in groups of five, were invited to share their perspectives on the relationship between faith and environmental stewardship. The preliminary study was conducted with a sample of 90 students in the second year of Baccalaureate from a secondary school in Barcelona, Spain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
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16 pages, 1931 KiB  
Article
The Contribution of Religion to Protest Mobilization on Digital Social Networks
by Khalid Ait Hadi, Mohamed Bendahan and Saad Chemaou
Religions 2024, 15(9), 1035; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091035 - 27 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1861
Abstract
This article presents an in-depth analysis of the intertwining of religious and protest expression on digital social networks in Morocco. By exploring the mechanisms by which religious discourse is used to mobilize, articulate claims, and catalyze collective action online, we highlight the importance [...] Read more.
This article presents an in-depth analysis of the intertwining of religious and protest expression on digital social networks in Morocco. By exploring the mechanisms by which religious discourse is used to mobilize, articulate claims, and catalyze collective action online, we highlight the importance of the religious dimension in the landscape of contemporary protest. Through a mixed approach of the content analysis of a Facebook page, we demonstrate that online protest mobilization with a religious substance is a multidimensional phenomenon that shapes real socio-political dynamics, and we illustrate the power of religious discourse to structure and legitimize claims, mobilize around shared values, and strengthen the sense of community belonging. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
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15 pages, 2210 KiB  
Article
Flawed Sainthood in Popular Culture: Maradona’s Culture of Commemoration in Naples
by Maria Alina Asavei
Religions 2024, 15(8), 981; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080981 - 13 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1259
Abstract
There is currently a certain pressure from various mnemonic communities, animated by vernacular interests, to canonize new saints within what is regarded as the flawed saints’ cultural-political movement. Among these new, uncanonized saints, whose memory is commemorated unofficially in various cultural-political registers, there [...] Read more.
There is currently a certain pressure from various mnemonic communities, animated by vernacular interests, to canonize new saints within what is regarded as the flawed saints’ cultural-political movement. Among these new, uncanonized saints, whose memory is commemorated unofficially in various cultural-political registers, there is also the football star Diego Armando Maradona, called by his millions of fans “the Hand of God” (La Mano de Dios). The commemorative culture that thrived around Maradona’s persona—materialized in artefacts, shrines, icon-like paintings, prints, graffiti, stencils, and other memorabilia—do not fit the customary narratives of sainthood, nor to the display and content of the recently inaugurated (2023) memorial to the new martyrs of both the 20th and 21st centuries at Saint Bartholomew Basilica in Rome. The article argues that the commemoration of Maradona by his fans in Italy, Argentina, and worldwide is enacted in pop culture formats aimed at addressing different sets of contemporary mnemonic and spiritual needs. The aim is to offer a fresh conceptual engagement with the contemporary cultural-political phenomenon of “flawed saints” commemoration through the lens of contemporary popular culture, taking the culture of commemoration of Diego Maradona as a case study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
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26 pages, 24920 KiB  
Article
Modernization and Inheritance of Folk Beliefs in the Digital Age: A Case Study in the Southeastern Coastal Areas of China
by Guoliang Liu, Xinyi Huang and Yinghan Li
Religions 2024, 15(7), 847; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070847 - 15 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1284
Abstract
With the processes of urbanization and population migration in China, local traditional folk beliefs are facing a crisis of inheritance, including the loss of believers and the decline of religious buildings. However, in the southeastern coastal areas of China, with the development of [...] Read more.
With the processes of urbanization and population migration in China, local traditional folk beliefs are facing a crisis of inheritance, including the loss of believers and the decline of religious buildings. However, in the southeastern coastal areas of China, with the development of society and the advancement of science and technology, folk beliefs have shown a trend of modernization, gained widespread attention from young people, and shown a good trend of inheritance. This study focuses on the modernization of folk beliefs in the southeastern coastal areas of China, exploring how folk beliefs are adapted to contemporary life and the key role of information technology in the protection of religious buildings. The study found that the modernization of folk beliefs in China’s southeastern coastal areas is mainly reflected in the portrayal of gods in cartoonish images, the popularity of music, and the modernization of communication methods. By analyzing the modernization process of folk beliefs in the southeastern coastal areas of China, this study reveals the adaptation and development of folk beliefs in modern society. Based on the reality of contemporary Chinese society, this study also explores the future modernization trend of folk beliefs and discusses the possibilities and potential risks of the application of digital technology in folk belief inheritance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
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20 pages, 14449 KiB  
Article
Llamas, Barter and Travel Rituals: An Ethnographic Study on the Esquela Tusuy Dance of the Uchumiri Peasant Community, Condesuyos, Peru
by Aleixandre Brian Duche-Pérez and Lolo Juan Mamani-Daza
Religions 2024, 15(5), 534; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050534 - 26 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1449
Abstract
The “Esquela Tusuy” dance is a cultural manifestation deeply rooted in the Uchumiri Peasant Community (Condesuyos, Peru), reflecting the intersection between traditional cultural practices and community identity. This ethnographic study reveals how the dance, beyond being a mere artistic expression, is a complex [...] Read more.
The “Esquela Tusuy” dance is a cultural manifestation deeply rooted in the Uchumiri Peasant Community (Condesuyos, Peru), reflecting the intersection between traditional cultural practices and community identity. This ethnographic study reveals how the dance, beyond being a mere artistic expression, is a complex system of meanings that articulates social relations, economic practices of barter, and Andean spirituality, through the veneration of Pachamama and Apu Coropuna. The dance is organized around rituals that include the preparation, journey, and return of the llama herders, being a living expression of collective memory and a mechanism of social cohesion. The adopted methodology was based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews, allowing a detailed understanding of Uchumiri’s cultural dynamics. Despite contemporary challenges, “Esquela Tusuy” remains a central pillar for the affirmation of cultural identity and community resistance, underlining the importance of dance in the conservation of cultural heritage and in the articulation of local identities against national narratives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
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14 pages, 293 KiB  
Article
Adventism and Mediatization of Fake News Becoming a Church
by Stefan Bratosin
Religions 2024, 15(4), 492; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040492 - 17 Apr 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2129
Abstract
This article explores the becoming-church of fake news against the background of the rise of the mediatization of faith and religious beliefs through classic media supports, such as newspapers, magazines, and journals, between 1840 and 1863 in the United States. The analysis focuses [...] Read more.
This article explores the becoming-church of fake news against the background of the rise of the mediatization of faith and religious beliefs through classic media supports, such as newspapers, magazines, and journals, between 1840 and 1863 in the United States. The analysis focuses on the expression of Seventh-day Adventist Church beliefs in the Adventist press before 1863. The observation of this corpus follows the construction of the “narrative” of fake news from the story propagated by William Miller. The aim is to understand how the Seventh-day Adventist Church was created in the media from the fake news of William Miller. The article shows that the mediatization of William Miller’s fake news made the Seventh-day Adventist Church appear as the embodiment of an agnostic movement, as the material trace of a cultural expression of romanticism, but also as a spiritual organization, with a social and auxiliary political vocation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
18 pages, 340 KiB  
Article
Hybrid Social Spaces and the Individualisation of Religious Experience in the Global North: Spatial Aspects of Religiosity in Postmodern Society
by Bulcsu Bognár
Religions 2024, 15(2), 241; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020241 - 17 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1351
Abstract
This paper interprets the changing traits of religiosity in modern and postmodern societies from the perspective of spatial turn. The analysis examines the impact of social experience and action on spatial structure and how changes in spatial structure have influenced individual actions and [...] Read more.
This paper interprets the changing traits of religiosity in modern and postmodern societies from the perspective of spatial turn. The analysis examines the impact of social experience and action on spatial structure and how changes in spatial structure have influenced individual actions and experiences over the past decade, with a specific emphasis on the relationship to transcendence. The analysis explores the impact of the interaction of social spaces and actions on religiosity, in order to provide new insights into the interpretation of religious phenomena through a novel approach to the study of religion. It focuses on the consequences of individualisation, hybridisation, and globalisation, and analyses how these transformations are shaping contemporary religiosity in the global north. The paper argues that spatial structural changes are reinforcing more individualised forms of religiosity, often separated from traditional institutionalised religiosity. This gives greater scope to subject-organised ‘patchwork religiosity’, which inevitably reinforces a new kind of religious syncretism. The reflection unravels the spatial aspects of this transformation in a novel way. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
16 pages, 6950 KiB  
Article
Islamic Caricature Controversy from Jyllands-Posten to Charlie Hebdo from the Perspective of Arab Opinion Leaders
by Lana Kazkaz and Míriam Díez Bosch
Religions 2023, 14(7), 864; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070864 - 1 Jul 2023
Viewed by 2346
Abstract
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 editorial cartoons in September 2005. Cultural and political relations between the West and the Arabic and Islamic worlds have witnessed multiple events that revealed the nature and understanding of historical [...] Read more.
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 editorial cartoons in September 2005. Cultural and political relations between the West and the Arabic and Islamic worlds have witnessed multiple events that revealed the nature and understanding of historical relations between the worlds, and the role of contemporary media in formulating them. After this incident, the phenomenon of Western media handling of Islamic religious symbols began to arouse interest, where they faced angry responses in the Arabic and Islamic worlds, which denounced Denmark, while Denmark, as a country, refused to apologize to Muslims for what they considered a major abuse, which led some Arab countries to suspend relations with the latter. Additionally, in January 2015, the French magazine Charlie Hebdo was targeted in a deadly attack on its headquarters in Paris, killing 12 people for its “red-line cartoons” on Islam. This study seeks to understand the positions of a group of opinion leaders comprised of intellectuals and influencers who represent cultural and political currents in a number of Arab countries from the phenomenon of cartoons in Western media. This study aimed to evaluate them on the intense reactions of rage witnessed in multiple Islamic countries that occurred after the release of these drawings, and ask them basic questions: Did the Arab media, opinion leaders, and intellectuals have an inciting role that provoked the Western media’s handling of Islamic religious symbols or did this practice coincide with the Arab-Islamic cultural context and its limits? Answering the above questions helped to reveal the features of continuity and change in the perception of opinion leaders in the Arab world on the role of Western media in the dialogue and cultural conflict between the Arab-Islamic and Western worlds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
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Review

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11 pages, 207 KiB  
Review
Confession Using Audio Visual, Distance Technologies
by Carlos M. Del Rio
Religions 2024, 15(2), 214; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020214 - 13 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1097
Abstract
Celebrating the sacrament of penance or confession restores a state of grace in a person’s soul. This is vital for a life of faith to which all human persons are called, but only Roman Catholic believers can experience. Celebrating this sacrament requires a [...] Read more.
Celebrating the sacrament of penance or confession restores a state of grace in a person’s soul. This is vital for a life of faith to which all human persons are called, but only Roman Catholic believers can experience. Celebrating this sacrament requires a private and confidential conversation between an ordained priest and a baptized person. By reviewing sensory perceptions, we conclude that being in the “same location” is not necessary for two persons to celebrate penance. As the world adjusted to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, using distance technologies facilitated meaningful communications, including therapeutic conversations around mental health. We believe that using visual technologies can also help celebrate the sacrament of penance or confession. We suggest a pastoral adaptation may help bring absolution to persons from various locations seeking forgiveness. We believe our suggestions are ontologically probable and canonically adaptable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)

Other

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15 pages, 281 KiB  
Essay
The Impact of Online Media on Religious Authority
by Mónika Andok
Religions 2024, 15(9), 1103; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091103 - 12 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1098
Abstract
The aim of this study is to reveal in an interpretive way how computer-mediated communication, the Internet, and social media can be grasped by authority models and how these new types of authority influence religious communities that are (also) present on online platforms. [...] Read more.
The aim of this study is to reveal in an interpretive way how computer-mediated communication, the Internet, and social media can be grasped by authority models and how these new types of authority influence religious communities that are (also) present on online platforms. In some cases, computer-mediated communication weakened and made traditional church authorities porous, but in other cases, it specifically helped and strengthened them. In other words, the impact of digital media is not uniform or unidirectional in this respect. Although there is no doubt that the Internet has multiplied it, made it optional, and personalized it from the user’s point of view, it has made religious authority customizable. The power of choice means that, in the digital sphere, the user decides when, what form of network authority they will submit to, for how long, and why they do so. In the classics of the sociology of religion, the concept of authority appears in a hierarchical representation under the concepts of (social) order and rationality. In other words, it cannot be thought of in a way that is contrary to rationality and contrary to social order. In network communication, the concept of authority is subordinated to technology, or as Castells puts it, power can only be interpreted with the logic of the network. Of course, the technological network and its contents are under external (legal) control, but it is precisely the power of the symbolic struggles taking place here that shows how important this issue is in the 21st century. The concept of authority classified under technology will no longer be linked to order or rationality, but to the processes of control, datafication, and attention management on the part of the owners of the platforms, while from the users’ side to concepts such as identity, authenticity, choice, and voluntariness. Its boundaries will be malleable, and the phenomenon itself will multiply. In summary, we cannot talk about one single online religious authority but more types of religious authorities, which are continuously and discursively formed, change, and occasionally hybridize. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
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