Page 12 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

Preface

At the beginning of the twenty-first century one cannot fail to notice the
marked presence of religion throughout the globe. Electronic and digital
media have become more easily available for new expressions of identity
and politics of belonging. This has offered possibilities for religious groups
to assert their public presence and to appeal to new audiences. However,
there is also a remarkable display of religious forms and elements in public
culture outside the domains of institutionalized religion. Diverse phenom-
ena such as the skilful adoption of television and video by Pentecostal-
Charismatic churches, the efficient use of audiocassette sermons for the
spread of Islamic reform movements, the appearance of spiritual sites of
veneration in cyberspace, the emergence of new charismatic prophets
whose fame spreads via the media, or the representation—and for some
viewers: presence—of spirits and divine power in movies, challenge us to
develop new perspectives on religion, and religious modes and moods of
binding and belonging in our time.
The cover image, painted by the Ghanaian artist Gilbert Forson, evokes
many of the questions that are now provoked, in a time when modern
devices such as video cameras have become part and parcel of religious
practices. How does the eye of the camera affect the image of Jesus? Does
the cloudy substance that emanates from the camera suggest that his image
remains invisible, or does this substance rather suggest a new aura that the
image of Jesus achieves by being mediated and circulated via a video-film?
Furthermore, given that Forson’s image emerged in a setting in which
Pentecostal-Charismatic churches make skilful use of the new availability

of media as video-film, television, radio, and print, it also raises questions
such as: What happens when religions adopt new media? How does this
affect the message, the ways in which believers are reached and addressed,
and the role of religion in the public realm?
This volume explores the rearticulation and concomitant transforma-
tion of religion as it occurs through the negotiation and incorporation of
newly accessible mass media and the specific styles of binding that go along
with them. It focuses on neotraditional religions such as Candomblé in