Seeing Through the Media: A Religious View of Communications and Cultural Analysis - Softcover

Warren, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1563382113 ISBN 13: 9781563382116

Publisher: Trinity Press International, 1997

Synopsis

Michael Warren seeks in this book to develop strategies to counteract the Christian church's loss of cultural influence in an age of electronic media. While Christianity should offer a vision of things shaped by its own patterns of communal living, it is often stymied in the process of religious formation by the powerful influence of the messages the electronic media convey. Part of the religious leaders task, therefore, is to break the uncritical view of film and television and to introduce reasoned judgment about what Christians should either value or condemn in them.Seeing Through the Media attempts to put basic skills of cultural analysis into the hands of ordinary persons, particularly those who gather with others guided by a religious tradition to worship God. These skills include: a rethinking of the word culture itself; finding the usually anonymous names and faces behind any electronic communication; understanding how culture is produced; skill in decoding the iconic images we see and the metaphoric images by which we see; the ability to evaluate what we see and hear; and new forms of personal and communal agency.“A profound and engaging study in which weighty issues are handled with commendable clarity and concision.” –Chris Arthur, University of WalesMichael Warren is Professor for Religious Education and Catechetical Ministry in the Department of Theology, St. John’s University, New York, and the author of Faith, Culture, and the Worshiping Community and Youth, Gospel, Liberation.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Warren is Professor for Religious Education and Catechetical Ministry in the Department of Theology, St. John's University, New York, and author of Seeing through the Media: A Religious View of Communications and Cultural Analysis (Trinity).

Review

"A profound and engaging study in which weighty issues are handled with commendable clarity and concision." —Chris Arthur, University of Wales (Chris Arthur)

"Overall, this is a reflective, thoughtful look at understanding the media. The issue of religion and the academy is a thorny one, with continual discussions on whether religious academics should be open about their beliefs or hide them for fear of negatively influencing their students and peers. One side of the debate fears that religious beliefs may be dangerous in general because of a tendency towards dogmatism and intolerance. Another believes that excluding religion entirely is in itself dogmatic and intolerant, and that if professors may advocate particular political, cultural or economic ideologies, religious should certainly be allowed to take its place." —American Reporter (American Reporter Book Review)

"Never was such a book more urgently needed. The media, after all, have become the new gospels; communicators the new high priests. What media and gospels have in common, Warren suggests, is a claim to ultimacy. The difference between them, however, is that the religious claim to ultimacy is open and explicit: the media claim is masked in narratives and images which imply rather than insist, which are subliminal rather then overt. This makes it all the more necessary not to take media messages at their face value...Michael Warren's book provides us with some invaluable signposts to the future." — The Furrow (John Horgan The Furrow)

"This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with how to bring the gospel message to bear on contemporary culture...Warren's book challenges us to see that our vocation as humans and as followers of Jesus requires us to question and contest all that is inhuman while recognizing all that is positive about culture." —Don Walker, Catholic New Times (Don Walker Catholic New Times)

"...excellent questions for discussion at the end of each chapter make this a good resource for any type of encounter and sharing group." —Church & Synagogue Library Association (Csla-Church and Synagogue Library Assoc.)

"Written with a palpable sense of mission, which will be especially appreciated by pastors and educators vexed by similar questions. These books are calls to action, provoking both the theoretical underpinnings and the step-by-step "how to's" of taking control of the sometimes ambiguous cultural forces that come to bear on lives of faith." — Anglican Theological Review (Joanne Maguire Anglican Theological Review)

"Warren offers very practical questions designed to encourage cultural analysis. Seeing Through the Media makes a compelling case for the danger of absorbing popular culture uncritically and for the role that the church can play in countering that temptation." —The Princeton Seminary Bulletin (Carolyn Herring The Princeton Seminary Bulletin)

"a crucial piece, missing until now, in the conversation on forming people in faith... an important resource for the Church..." — David F. White (David F. White (printed in The Living Light))

"A profound and engaging study in which weighty issues are handled with commendable clarity and concision." —Chris Arthur, University of Wales (Sanford Lakoff)

"Never was such a book more urgently needed. The media, after all, have become the new gospels; communicators the new high priests. What media and gospels have in common, Warren suggests, is a claim to ultimacy. The difference between them, however, is that the religious claim to ultimacy is open and explicit: the media claim is masked in narratives and images which imply rather than insist, which are subliminal rather then overt. This makes it all the more necessary not to take media messages at their face value...Michael Warren's book provides us with some invaluable signposts to the future." — The Furrow (Sanford Lakoff The Furrow)

About this edition

• Publisher: Trinity Press International
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1563382113
• ISBN 13: 9781563382116
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224