Media Theory, Religion and Theology

Author: Jon Krakauer
ISBN: 9781400032808
Pages: 432
Summary: Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. He now shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders, taking readers inside isolated American communities where some 40,000 Mormon Fundamentalists still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God.

At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

Author: Robert H. Woods
ISBN: 9780830828821
Pages: 347
Summary: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." --from Hebrews 13:8 "Change happens." --from a bumper sticker As long as there has been a church, there has been Christian communication--"people of the book" bearing "the good news" from one place to another, persuading, teaching and even delighting an ever-broadening audience with the message of the gospel. Amid ongoing advances in technology and an ever-more-multicultural context, however, the time has come for a broad appraisal of the state of evangelical communications. Quentin Schultze and Robert H. Woods Jr. have assembled scholars from across the country to analyze and assess a wide range of media including
* radio
* popular music
* worship music and media
* television
* film
* periodicals
* books
* Internet
* church drama
* comics
* gaming
* theme parks
* advertising
* public relations
* merchandising These shifting media, and the communications enterprise as a whole, are put in cultural and ethical perspective. Also addressed are Catholic and Jewish perspectives on the state of religious media.

Author: George M. Marsden
ISBN: 9780802805393
Pages: 218
Summary: In this historical overview of American fundamentalism and evangelicalism, Marsden provides an introduction to these growing religious movements and a deeper analysis of two themes that have been especially prominent and controversial in these traditions--views of science and views of politics.

Author: Marshall Mcluhan, Lewis H. Lapham
ISBN: 9780262631594
Pages: 392
Summary: with a new introduction by Lewis H. Lapham


This reissue of "Understanding Media" marks the thirtieth anniversary (1964-1994) of Marshall McLuhan's classic expose on the state of the then emerging phenomenon of mass media. Terms and phrases such as "the global village" and "the medium is the message" are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan's theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate.

There has been a notable resurgence of interest in McLuhan's work in the last few years, fueled by the recent and continuing conjunctions between the cable companies and the regional phone companies, the appearance of magazines such as WiRed, and the development of new media models and information ecologies, many of which were spawned from MIT's Media Lab. In effect, media now begs to be redefined. In a new introduction to this edition of "Understanding Media", Harper's editor Lewis Lapham reevaluates McLuhan's work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes that have occurred in the last part of this century.

Author: Mark Silk
ISBN: 9780252067426
Pages: 200
Summary: The book Unsecular Media:Making News of Religion in America packs a great deal of information into just 172 pages. The book discusses the ideologies of the American media when covering religious news. It's relatively interesting, but parts of the book were confusing, unfocused, and didn't seem to fit into the overall narrative. However, his overall concepts of religious news coverage in the American media is very interesting and I personally agreed with the main themes of the book.