DISCURSO DE DÍAZ BERTRANA EN VENEZUELA [Material gráfico]

Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria, 201

Religious revelation, secrecy and the limits of visual representation

This article seeks to contribute to a more adequate understanding of the adoption of modern audiovisual mass media by contemporary religious groups. It does so by examining Pentecostal-charismatic churches as well as the Christian mass culture instigated by its popularity, and so-called traditional religion in Ghana, which develop markedly different attitudes towards audiovisual mass media and assume different positions in the public sphere. Taking into account the complicated entanglement of traditional religion and Pentecostalism, approaching both religions from a perspective of mediation which regards media as intrinsic to religion, and seeking to avoid the pitfall of overestimating the power of modern mass media to determine the world, this article seeks to move beyond an unproductive recurrence to oppositions such as tradition and modernity, or religion and technology. It is argued that instead of taking as a point of departure more or less set ideas about the nexus of vision and modernity, the adoption of new mass media by religious groups needs to be analyzed by a detailed ethnographic investigation of how these new media transform existing practices of religious mediation. Special emphasis is placed on the tension between the possibilities of gaining public presence through new media, and the difficulty in authorizing these media, and the experiences they induce, as authentic. Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications

Re-envisioning the sites and sights of the late twentieth century study of religion

In this paper the author shares some of the findings, observations, and stimulating insights from colleagues and students gathered during visits to various parts of the world.The academic study of religion must now encompass more than it has done until now the effects of modern media and communications technologies, global consumption patterns, cultural mobility, and changing geo-political configurations. Scholars of religion are are being outpaced by these developments, whether because of the limitations of vision, or the shortsightedness of theoretical lenses.' The argument is that sites such as art, the media, Internet, outer space, diasporas, global culture, nature, and the public space deserve critical attention - not just for reasons of content, but because these new or neglected sites offer a potential challenge to our categories and concepts. Focus has to be shifted increasingly from bounded local cultures to transnational cultural flows and the significance of place has to be reexamined. This paper has suggests a number of pathways that are deserving of more exploration by scholars of religion. What we choose to include or exclude from our gaze affects the nature of our discourse(s) through and through. The whole business of "seeing" is integral to both the academic enterprise as well as the political economy of the academic study of religion. This paper highlights some of the exciting new areas that face us as students of religious ideas and phenomena, and point to their methodological implications