The Handbook of Religion and Communication

Provides a contemporary view of the intertwined relationship of communication and religion

The Handbook of Religion and Communication presents a detailed investigation of the complex interaction between media and religion, offering diverse perspectives on how both traditional and new media sources continue to impact religious belief and practice across multiple faiths around the globe. Contributions from leading international scholars address key themes such as the changing role of religious authority in the digital age, the role of media in cultural shifts away from religious institutions, and the ways modern technologies have transformed how religion is communicated and portrayed.

Divided into five parts, the Handbook opens with a state-of-the-art overview of the subject’s intellectual landscape, introducing the historical background, theoretical foundations, and major academic approaches to communication, media, and religion. Subsequent sections focus on institutional and functional perspectives, theological and cultural approaches, and new approaches in digital technologies. The essays provide insight into a wide range of topics, including religious use of media, religious identity, audience gratification, religious broadcasting, religious content in entertainment, films and religion, news reporting about religion, race and gender, the sex-religion matrix, religious crisis communication, public relations and advertising, televangelism, pastoral ministry, death and the media, online religion, future directions in religious communication, and more.

• Explores the increasing role of media in creating religious identity and communicating religious experience
• Discusses the development and evolution of the communication practices of various religious bodies
• Covers all major media sources including radio, television, film, press, digital online content, and social media platforms
• Presents key empirical research, real-world case studies, and illustrative examples throughout
• Encompasses a variety of perspectives, including individual and institutional actors, academic and theoretical areas, and different forms of communication media
• Explores media and religion in Judeo-Christian traditions, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, religions of Africa, Atheism, and others

The Handbook of Religion and Communication is an essential resource for scholars, academic researchers, practical theologians, seminarians, mass communication researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students taking courses on media and religion.

YOEL COHEN is Professor Emeritus of Mass Communication, and former Chair of The School of Communication, at Ariel University, Israel. He is a chairperson of the Religion and Communication working group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). He is the author of God, Jews and the Media: Religion and Israel’s Media; Media Diplomacy; and editor of Spiritual News: Reporting Religion Around the World.

PAUL A. SOUKUP, S.J., is Professor and past Head of the Department of Communication at Santa Clara University, where he teaches courses in technology, communication, and theology. He is the author of Communication and Theology a Christian Communication: A Bibliographical Survey Media; and The Media Ecology of Theology: Communicating Faith Throughout the Christian Tradition, and co-editor of Mass Media and the Moral Imagination and Fidelity and Translation: Communicating the Bible in New Media.