From Sacred Text to Internet (Paperback)

This title is one of five which make up a series that offers an in-depth introduction to contemporary themes and challenges in religious studies. Each textbook works to ensure that readers understand the relevance of methodologies to lived experience and gain the ability to transfer analytic skills to the study of religion in context. The following key issues are discussed: representation and interpretation; modernity and social change; civil religion; the impact of globalization on religion; and the growth of alternative religion. "From Sacred Text to Internet" addresses two key issues affecting the global spread of religion: first, the impact of new media on the ways in which religious traditions present their messages, and second, the global relocation of religions in novel geographical and social settings. The book offers extended studies of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and a wide-ranging survey chapter that refers to the presence on the Internet of many of the world's most influential religions. The chapters explore the relationship between scholarly reconstructions of the life of Jesus and representations of Jesus in contemporary popular cultures; the production and use of sacred images for the Hindu mass market; how Buddhism is represented and spread in the West; the Islamization of Egypt, its causes and influences; and the uses to which the Internet is put by religions as well as how information technology has influenced the future shape of religion.