Reviews for Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media: Explorations in Media, Religion, and Culture

The average rating for Practicing Religion in the Age of the Media: Explorations in Media, Religion, and Culture based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-12 00:00:00 Jason Franklin While I did not have the time to devote to reading the entire book (I'm reading certain chapters as background and for potential theoretical/methodological framework(s) for my MA thesis), the essays I read were excellent. One of these days I hope to read more of the essays. I was particularly (and pleasantly!) surprised by the accessibility of the writing. Too often academic books are written in a way that makes them incomprehensible to the novice or lay person; this book is a delightful exception. The essays gave me historical background on the emerging field of Religion, Media, and Culture Studies, methodological tips, fascinating insight into online communities of a decade ago, and in general gave me much food for thought. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in media studies, internet studies (if such a field exists), and the interaction of religion and new media. What kept this from being a five-star book is the fact that so many of the essays deal with Christianity (only four out of seventeen chapters deal explicitly with non-Christian examples, and of those, only two are non-Abrahamic traditions).

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-12 00:00:00 Justin Jackson I'm slightly unsure on how to properly rate/critique a piece that isn't fiction or a creative work, but I'll do my best. I read this book for a human rights course, and as a student, I found that the questions Michael Perry brought up were fundamental to building a foundation of any theory of human rights. However, sometimes the points he made when addressing the questions were difficult to follow because he repeated himself quite a bit. I also disagreed with his stance in the first chapter ("Is the Idea of Human Rights Ineliminably Religious?"). His view is very biased in the beginning (and he does address it), but he does make some good points (when you understand them). In general, my rating is based on the execution/way it was written more than the actual content. I will add, however, that about a third of this book is footnotes/citations, so while it is clear that he did his research, I do question the originality of the work.