"This book examines the unique synergy between religion and technology, and explores the many ways that technology is shaping religious expression, as well as ways that religion is coming to influence technology"--Provided by publisher.

Religion in American Today describes how sacred powers and secular religions have overtaken and infiltrated Christianity. Secular religion is now dominant in America: It assumes the forms of personal religion and political religion. Christianity makes its living within the confines of these secular religions. The point of the book is to identify the idolatry in what now passes for Christianity. Technology and the political state are socially constructed as sacred powers. As such they are idols. In its slumber Christianity embraces technology and the political state to the point of becoming subordinate to them. Concurrently technology and the political state give rise to the dominant secular religions. Personal religion acts as a consumer service, a psychological technique, to acquire health and happiness in this life. Political religion is a consequence of politics replacing religion in the quest for collective meaning in a technological society. Political movements become religious revivals and political parties, churches. This book is an attempt to awaken Christians to the idols that beckon.

We are witnessing an unprecedented technological revolution. Every sphere of life from communications, work, economy, leisure, our homes, and health care is being digitised. These far-reaching changes demand careful consideration and discernment by churches participating in God’s redemptive work around the world. Digitalization of society is radically changing both the methods and conditions of missions. For the first time, this book explores the implications of digitality for Missio Dei in thought and practice. Bringing together theologians, missiologists, computer scientists and practitioners, the book considers a diverse range of topics from evangelism to pastoral care, cyber pilgrimages to biases in algorithms, public theology to homiletics and inculturation to contextualization. Chapters include: Worship, Community and Missio Dei in a Digital Age - Maggie Dawn Finding Jesus Online: Digital Evangelism and the Future of Christian Mission - Steve Hollinghurst 'Digital Inculturation - Katherine G. Schmidt Mission: An adventure of the (digital) imagination - Jonny Baker Interactive technologies, Missio Dei and grassroots activism - Erkki Sutinen Strategic and Pastoral Reflections on Digital Media and Contemporary Spirituality - John Drane Public Faith, Shame, and China’s Social Credit System - Alexander Chow

As society continues to experience increases in technological innovations, various industries must rapidly adapt and learn to incorporate these advances. While there are benefits to implementing these technologies, the sociological aspects still need to be considered. Technology Adoption and Social Issues: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is an innovative reference source for the latest academic material on the various effects of technology adoption, implementation, and acceptance. Highlighting a range of topics, such as educational technology, globalization, and social structure, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for academicians, professionals, and researchers who are interested in the latest insights into technology adoption.

In Interplay of Things Anthony B. Pinn theorizes religion as a technology for interrogating human experiences and the boundaries between people and other things. Rather than considering religion in terms of institutions, doctrines, and creeds, Pinn shows how religion exposes the openness and porousness of all things and how they are always involved in processes of exchange and interplay. Pinn examines work by Nella Larsen and Richard Wright that illustrates an openness between things, and he traces how pop art and readymades point to the multidirectional nature of influence. He also shows how Ron Athey's and Clifford Owens's performance art draws out inherent interconnectedness to various cultural codes in ways that reveal the symbiotic relationship between art and religion as a technology. Theorizing that antiblack racism and gender- and class-based hostility constitute efforts to close off the porous nature of certain bodies, Pinn shows how many artists have rebelled against these attempts to counter openness. His analyses offer a means by which to understand the porous, unbounded, and open nature of humans and things.

Religion in the 21st century is a phenomenon that cannot be taken for granted, and is undergoing transformations that present us with new challenges both from a scholarly and societal perspective. The nuanced and multifaceted way in which these features are analyzed in this book should be welcomed by all who are interested and concerned with the role of religion on the contemporary scene. The combination of accessible scholarship and challenging positions makes this a book for everyone who is interested in religion in the secularized parts of the world. The volume contributes to an understanding of how it is not, after all, a contradiction to be both fully modern and religious. Jan-Olav Henriksen, Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway --

Issues and Trends in Technology and Human Interaction consists of research in the areas of e-commerce through law and culture, intellectual capital in knowledge management, and the philosophy of technology, among other topics. This book also investigates the interaction of technology and humans from a variety of viewpoints, and presents technology assessment of software/hardware development, interaction and conversion between technologies and their impact on society, and phenomenology of e-government.

New media, including digital and social media, play a central role in producing and reproducing socio-cultural and religious practices. Its presence has not only resulted in changes to the ways in which religious beliefs are practiced, but has also altered the way religious meanings are expressed. How has new media technology informed and influenced religious engagement and participation? In what ways has new media technology enabled religious groups to practice and preach their religious beliefs to a broader audience? To what extent has the emergence of social media and social networking sites shaped religious discourses and religious practices? This volume offers a unique, Africa-centred perspective in response to these questions. While presenting new scholarly developments in the fields of media, religion and culture in Africa, this book also provides empirical and theoretical insights into the intersection between new media and religion.

This handbook explores the diversity of religious practice in tribal cultures in India. It looks at the interactive spaces where the religious practices of tribes and other communities have changed and adapted through the years in contemporary India. Tribe as a social category emerged in India during the colonial period; this handbook departs from the conventional approaches to studying ‘tribal religion’ and analyses the intersections of spirituality, rituals, gender and identities within tribal religion through a crosscultural and pan-Indian perspective. Tribes in India follow various religious denominations including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and traditional indigenous faiths. The chapters in this volume provide insights into the cross-cultural religiosity of tribes via ethnographic accounts and the study of animism, life cycle rituals, ancestor worship, shrines and religious institutions, revivalism, religious identities, religious conversion, transcendental religious spaces and the space for gender, identity and politics within religious traditions. It also discusses conflicts, contestations, anxieties within and the politics of religious traditions and identities in India and how tribal communities and the state negotiate with these issues. This and its companion handbook, The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Readings on Tribe and Religions in India: Emerging Negotiations, provide a comprehensive look into the religious life and practices of a very diverse group of tribes in India. This book will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the fields of religion, anthropology, indigenous and tribal studies, social and cultural anthropology, sociology of culture, sociology of religion, development studies, history, political science, folkloristic, and colonialism.

This groundbreaking volume arose out of the Postcolonial Roundtable in 2010, with contributors addressing the intersection of postcolonialism and evangelicalism. Looking at themes like nationalism, mission, Christology, catholicity and shalom, this volume explores new possibilities for evangelical thought, identity and practice.