Deus in Machina: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between
Deus in Machina: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between
Associate Professor of Communication Studies
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Abstract
Drawing upon a wide range of historical and ethnographic examples, this book approaches the study of religion and technology from an interdisciplinary perspective, synthesizing recent work in the anthropology and history of religion, media studies, and science and technology studies. The book comprises eleven original case studies plus an introduction that critically assesses the existing literature on religion and technology, and suggests future paths of scholarly inquiry. Discussions range across different religious traditions (including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Spiritualism, Buddhism, and Vodou) in different regions of the world (including Western Europe, United States, Ghana, Brazil, and Japan), and with regard to an array of technologies and technological procedures (including clocks and other timekeeping devices, magically empowered cables, belts, and talismans, kidney dialysis machines, and Internet-mediated commercial transactions). The fundamental operating premise of the book is that religion and technology do not refer to two mutually exclusive realms of knowledge, practice, and experience, but rather to a continuum of relationships between and among diverse material and immaterial entities, forces, and actors. Each chapter offers a concrete case study, attending to the things that lie “in between” religion and technology as they are commonly divided, and on that basis provides new analytical insight into the very construction of these categories in scholarly as well as non-academic discourses.
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Front Matter
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Introduction: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between
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Equipment
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Calendar, Clock, Tower
John Durham Peters
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Ticking Clock, Vibrating String: How Time Sense Oscillates Between Religion and Machine
Wolfgang Ernst
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The Electric Touch Machine Miracle Scam: Body, Technology, and the (Dis)authentication of the Pentecostal Supernatural
Marleen de Witte
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The Spiritual Nervous System: Reflections on a Magnetic Cord Designed for Spirit Communication
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Calendar, Clock, Tower
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Bio-Power
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An Empowered World: Buddhist Medicine and the Potency of Prayer in Japan
Jason Ānanda Josephson
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Does Submission to God's Will Preclude Biotechnological Intervention? Lessons from Muslim Dialysis Patients in Contemporary Egypt
Sherine F. Hamdy
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The Canary in the Gemeinschaft? Disability, Film, and the Jewish Question
Faye Ginsburg
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An Empowered World: Buddhist Medicine and the Potency of Prayer in Japan
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(Re)Locating Religion in a Technological Age
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End Matter
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