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"The remarkable commercial success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in 2004 came as a surprise to the Hollywood establishment, particularly considering the film’s failure to find production funding through a major studio. Since then the Biblical epic, long thought dead in terms of mains ... more

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Vi porto una buona notizia. Inchiesta sul modo di comunicare nella Chiesa

Antonio Interguglielmi

Todi (IT): Tau Editrice (2020), 225 pp.

"Una ricerca sul modo di comunicare della Chiesa, partendo dall’omelia, fino al web e ai Social, esplorando il mondo di radio, tv, cinema e teatro. L’opera è realizzata con la collaborazione di giornalisti ed esperti che la comunicazione la costruiscono ogni giorno dal di dentro. Ne risulta un� ... more

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Kirchliche Pannen und ungenutzte Potenziale: Grundlagen religiöser Kommunikation im digitalen Umfeld

Wolfgang Beck

Forum Weltkirche, issue 4 (2020), pp. 30-33

"Längst ist die Kirche auch in den sozialen Medien angekommen. Gleichzeitig reagieren viele Bistümer aber noch verhalten auf die digitale Glaubensverkündigung und Evangelisierung im Web. Dabei bergen die sozialen Medien das bislang wenig genutzte Potenzial zur Beziehungspflege, das oft verloren g ... more

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The Routledge Handbook of African Theology

Elias Kifon Bongmba (ed.)

London; New York: Routledge (2020), xvii, 534 pp.

"Theology has a rich tradition across the African continent, and has taken myriad directions since Christianity first arrived on its shores. This handbook charts both historical developments and contemporary issues in the formation and application of theologies across the member countries of the Afr ... more

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Comunicar a fé: Por quê? Para quê? Com quem?
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Moisés Sbardelotto

Vozes (2020), 192 pp.

"Com uma linguagem simples e acessível, a obra faz uma cuidadosa análise da práxis comunicacional da Igreja e busca compreender como a comunicação se tornou um dos núcleos de reflexão e ação eclesiais. “O livro nasceu a partir de um caminho de acompanhamento, escuta e diálogo sobre a mis ... são e a pastoral de cristãs e cristãos em várias regiões do Brasil. Com isso, pude perceber a importância de aprofundar a reflexão sobre o agir da Igreja a partir do olhar da comunicação, para que ela seja o eixo articulador e propulsor das diversas pastorais e de suas expressões”, destaca Sbardelotto. O livro está dividido em três partes. A primeira delas – “Comunicação e fé hoje: por quê? Para quê? Com quem” – reflete sobre as raízes da comunicação, a partir de uma releitura comunicacional da Criação do mundo e do relato da Anunciação-Encarnação, buscando entender a ação de um “Deus comunicativo”. Sbardelotto também analisa, nesta seção, a comunicação encarnada de Jesus e elementos de uma espiritualidade igualmente encarnada do comunicador cristão. E, para concluir, tece críticas à “mundanidade comunicacional” e a certas expressões de um “catolicismo de massa”, revelando que “evangelizar não é mercadejar”. Na segunda parte, o foco é a “A alegria de comunicar: o Papa Francisco e a comunicação”. Nesses capítulos, o autor aprofunda o olhar sobre a comunicação do papa, seus gestos e palavras. Para isso, analisa os principais documentos do atual pontífice, a partir do olhar da comunicação. Por fim, na terceira parte, o livro aborda o ambiente comunicacional contemporâneo, convidando a “Comunicar o Evangelho em tempos de rede”. Inspirando-se no pensamento comunicacional de Francisco, Sbardelotto convoca a uma “revolução da ternura” no âmbito da comunicação, desafiando os leitores e leitoras a serem “samaritanos comunicacionais” e a fazerem uma “opção comunicacional pelos pobres”. Analisa, também, o preocupante fenômeno das fake news e do ódio em rede, desafiando a pensar o “sentido relacional da verdade” e a pôr em prática uma “boa comunicação”, com tudo o que essa expressão implica." (https://centroloyola.org.br) more

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Muslim Online Prayer in a Sociocultural Context

Wael Hegazy

CyberOrient, volume 14, issue 2 (2020), pp. 64-84

"The article argues that the debate over the online prayer is not just an ordinary fatwa issued by religious scholars for the Muslim Ummah, but it rather goes through a complicated process of social, identarian, cultural, authoritative, and transnational caveats. The physicality entailed by this deb ... more

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Christliche Influencer: In der Aufmerksamkeitsspirale

Elisabeth Hurth

Herder Korrespondenz, issue 4 (2020), pp. 38-40

"Christiche Akteure im Netz: Die einen bieten allerlei Lebensdienliches, die anderen punkten mit Provokationen. Die Kirchen sollten sich von diesem Medienphänomen nicht zu viel versprechen. Denn es steht für ein Christentum, das sich der digitalen Marktlogik unterwirft und nicht in der realen Welt ... more

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ISIS Propaganda: A Full-Spectrum Extremist Message

Stephane J. Baele, Katharine A. Boyd, Travis G. Coan (eds.)

New York: Oxford University Press (2020), xii, 287 pp.

"This book offers a comprehensive overview and analysis of the Islamic State's use of propaganda. Combining a range of different theoretical perspectives from across the social sciences, and using rigorous methods, the authors trace the origins of the Islamic State's message, laying bare the strateg ... more

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‘Dear Hindu Friends’: Official Diwali greetings as a medium for diplomatic dialogue

Melanie Barbato

Religion, volume 50, issue 3 (2020), pp. 353-371

"This article discusses greeting messages as a genre of interreligious communication. Greeting messages are defined as official communication issued by religious institutions and addressed to the members of another religious community on the occasion of specific feast days or anniversaries. Drawing ... more

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Interreligious dialogue groups and the mass media

Gritt Klinkhammer

Religion, volume 50, issue 3 (2020), pp. 336-352

"Interreligious dialogues have received attention since they were introduced as a security policy and social pacification measure after the attack on 9/11. This essay examines the development of interreligious dialogue in Germany as well as the influence of media discourses on interreligious dialogu ... more

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Interreligious contact and media: Introduction

Anna Neumaier, Gritt Klinkhammer

Religion, volume 50, issue 3 (2020), pp. 321-335

"Religious pluralisation entails interreligious contacts of different kinds and at various levels. At the same time, an increasing mediatisation affects the perception of and encounter with other religious traditions and their adherents. These relations between interreligious contact and media have ... more

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Trust in Institutions

Church, Communication and Culture, volume 5, issue 3 (2020), pp. 293-510

"Speaking of trust in the Catholic Church necessarily leads to talking about the management of the crisis of clerical sexual abuse by its leaders. The focus is on managing responsibility and information, with case studies by Paulina Guzik and Patrick O'Brien. The first deals with the case of Poland, ... emphasizing the need for accountability and suggesting five actions to regain trust. O'Brien offers a map of the management of abuses in the 197 dioceses of the United States, and points to transparency in communication and government as a key to regaining trust. As you will read in these pages, neither the communicator nor the communication serves to mask a negative reality. The institution must justify its existence only if it is a good for society, even if it makes mistakes. This question is approached from a theological point of view: Is it still possible to trust the Church? To answer this question, Marco Vanzini highlights the tensions that characterize and define the identity of the Church: such as her divine origin and her human composition, or the inner coexistence of holiness and sin, among others. On the other hand, Gabriel Magalhães, taking a cue from passages of sacred and universal literature, invites reflection on the contrast between human and divine justice, highlighting the excessive and almost ‘scandalous’ nature of divine mercy. Faced with the reality of a certain human solidarity in evil, he explores the need for collective guilt and forgiveness as a common horizon that allows trust to be recovered at the social level. It is precisely ‘the Church communicator’ on whom the article by Professors Gil and Gili puts the focus. His role as spokesman for an institution and bearer of a message gives him great responsibility. The credibility that he demands and needs, the authors maintain, depends to a great extent on his human and professional virtues. Creative fidelity, reliable transmission of an ideal and embodiment of the values he communicates are expected from him. Internal communication in organizations, with the transformation of the channels through which trust travels – more horizontal and collaborative than vertical and hierarchical (Botsman Citation2017) – represents a challenge for those who govern the organization. Receiving trust from the leadership in turn generates confidence in the workers. To put these ‘spirals of trust’ into action, Gara and La Porte analyze one of the most important moments in the relationship between an employee and an organization: recruitment. Trust, they say, must be considered one of the great strategic tools of the Human Resources department. In the legal field, Moreno and Díaz show with a case study the ‘legal defense of corporate reputation’, where law and communication work in a complementary way. In recent years, especially with the digital revolution, new fields of interaction have opened up with their own followers, as well as new spaces for vulnerability (e.g. privacy, personal data, copyright…). In this context of the Internet, the authors present the crisis of reputation of an NGO linked to the Church and show how law and communication are two strategic tools of the organizations destined to collaborate. Looking at trust management in the public sector is a necessary source of inspiration for an institution like the Church. María José Canel conducts the academic interview with Steven Van de Walle on trust in public administration. He deals with a wide range of topics: from the ways of measuring trust and its typologies, to the influence of emotions on the inspiration of trust. The interview offers some comparative considerations between some other institutions, such as NGOs, and the Church. It also includes a final reflection on the new scenario created by COVID-19, which is testing citizens’ trust in the state and the health system. In the public sphere, the management of vulnerability takes on a particular nuance in the case of high reliability organizations, entities that by their nature must avoid errors at all costs (Lekka Citation2011). Sanders takes the criteria of the HROs as her model to measure the trust that the British government has earned (or lost) with its public communication during the pandemic generated by the COVID-19, a situation that has tested the strength of social relations – especially trust toward public services – and that will merit another special issue of this journal." (Editorial: Contents of the special issue, pages 295-296) more

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Church and Social Media Today

S. Sebastian Periannan

Jeevadhara: A Journal for Socio-religious Research, volume 50, issue 295 (2020), pp. 55-67

"Social media serves to strengthen human and social relations through connectivity, and promotes a culture of free enterprises beyond boundaries. Church recognizes that sodal media and networks are a 'gift from God'. Without authentic love, sense of unity and urgency for charity, the social media co ... more

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Muslim Feminist, Media Sensation, and Religious Entrepreneur: Aminata Kane Koné as a Figure of Success in Côte D'Ivoire

Frédérick Madore

Africa Today, volume 67, issue 2-3 (2020), pp. 17-38

"This article analyzes the career path of Aminata Kane Koné, a highly educated Ivorian Muslim woman, who has emerged as a female figure of success. A prominent activist of the Association des Élèves et Étudiants Musulmans de Côte d'Ivoire in the 2000s, she has become a self-made religious entre ... more

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Judenhass im Internet: Antisemitismus als kulturelle Konstante und kollektives Gefühl

Monika Schwarz-Friesel

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb), Sonderausg. (2020), 167 pp.

"Die unterschiedlichen Quellen des Judenhasses finden mit den medialen Möglichkeiten des 21. Jahrhunderts einen nie gekannten Resonanzboden, der Anonymität wahrt und Reichweite ermöglicht. Latente und virulente antisemitische Stereotype werden mit aktuellen Bezügen aufgeladen und verstärkt. Mon ... more

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Kommunikation ist Mission

Fabrizio Colombo

Forum Weltkirche, volume 139, issue 4 (2020), pp. 18-23

"Kommunikation und die modernen Medien sind für ihn kein bloßes Instrument, sondern Teil des heutigen Lebensumfelds der Menschen. Seit vielen Jahren schult Fabrizio Colombo katholische Jugendliche, kirchliche Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter sowie Priester und Bischöfe in Afrika im Umgang mit dig ... more

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Querida Amazonía: Versión popular de la Exhortación Apostólica con las propuestas del documento final del Sínodo para la Amazonía

Quito: Red Eclesial Panamazónica (REPAM) (2020), 56 pp.

"Presentamos a ustedes esta versión popular que integra el documento final del Sínodo para la Amazonía (DF) y la exhortación apostólica del Papa Francisco “Querida Amazonía” (QA), como un solo llamado integral. Uno sin el otro no está completo, por ello deben ser trabajados siempre de man ... more

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Einführung in die Homiletik

Wilfried Engemann

Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag; UTB, 3., neu bearb., aktual. und erw. Aufl. (2020), 709 pp.

"Die Homiletik ist ein Schlüsselfach der Theologie. Im Dialog mit allen anderen theologischen Disziplinen sowie mit den benachbarten Human- und Geisteswissenschaften entwickelt sie Kriterien für eine zeitgenössische Kultur der Predigt. Unter Einbeziehung aktueller Forschungsergebnisse legt Wilfri ... more

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The Distanced Church: Reflections on Doing Church Online

Heidi A. Campbell (ed.)

Digital Religion Publications; Religion & Digital Culture Studies Network for New Media (2020), 93 pp.

"In March/April 2020 most churches around the world have been forced to close their doors due to the need for social distancing and local lock-downs in order to fight off the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The result was traditional churches had to make an unplanned and swift transition towards techn ... more

Comunicar a fé: Por quê? Para quê? Com quem? Top Insights

Comunicar a fé: Por quê? Para quê? Com quem?
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