Mediating Faith: Faith Formation in a Trans-media Era
The church struggles with media. Whether it is a denomination negotiating the 24-hour news cycle or a church evaluating how online games influence the youth group, the role of media in the church, and the importance of understanding media for the church, has never been greater.
In Mediating Faith, Clint Schnekloth offers an insightful tour, evaluation, and theological response to the trans-media era. Far from frightening, Schnekloth highlights the opportunities and the riches of this fascinating time.
- Publisher Fortress Press
- Format Paperback
- ISBN 9781451472295
- eBook ISBN 9781451479713
- Dimensions 6 x 9
- Pages 126
- Publication Date February 1, 2014
Contents
Contents:
Introduction
Part One: Emerging Media Contexts and Minority Reports
1. Examining Trans-media Effects
2. Listening to the Quasi-luddites’ Legitimate Laments
Part Two: The Meaty Analysis Section
3. The Effects of Catechumenal Preaching
4. The Effects of MMPRPG’s Procedural Rhetoric
5. More Prosaic Media Forms and Formation
Part Three: The Proposal
6. On Pneumatology and Material Culture
7. Beauty, Eschatology, Sociality: The Way Forward
Summary and Conclusion
Bibliography
Endorsements
“Clint Schnekloth offers the churches, theologians, and the denizens of digitally-mediated environments an informed, experienced, thoughtful pathway into the attentive apprehension of the convergence of ecclesial life with the revolution that suffuses our worlds. Mediating Faith carries the authority of someone who has let the environment teach him its effects, its limitations, its possible promises and betrayals, and above all the signs of the Spirit already at work within the circumstances he narrates. Other such works exoticise digital environments with the bemused distance of a European explorer describing ‘new worlds’ (the condescending *dis*orientalism of pundits unfamiliar with the cultures on which they’re pontificating); Schnekloth sees loveliness and risk and uncertainties, and he introduces his readers to them with generous appreciation and judicious caution.”
—A. K. M. Adam
University of Oxford
“The church whose Gospel was propelled by the technology of Gutenberg has in the twenty-first century struggled to figure out how our fellowship in Christ relates to the new communication technologies. Clint Schnekloth offers us a breakthrough path forward in interpreting the relationship between social media and the media gratiae (the means of grace).”
—John Nunes
Valparaiso University
“Although Schnekloth himself observes ‘we do not as of yet have a complete sense of the effects of new media on our present culture and faith formation,’ at the same time he makes a significant contribution to that analysis in this insightful volume. Replete with examples, anecdotes, observations, and research, Mediating Faith will be of use and interest to the pastor, the professor, and the observers of religious and cultural trends alike. Unsettling and hopeful."
—Paul E. Hoffman
Lead Pastor, Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church of Seattle, WA
“Wow—this is an excellent piece of work. It hooked me and wouldn’t let go (a remarkable achievement for this genre)... Clint Schnekloth is to be congratulated for integrating such diverse streams into a readable and applicable text, one that pushes the conversation forward and is at once technological, theological, and anthropological. Impressive.”
—Ryan Bolger
Fuller Theological Seminary
“Clint Schnekloth’s Mediating Faith offers an important voice into a vital conversation about how new media is changing the culture, changing the church, and changing what it means to live the life of faith. Theologically grounded and richly resourced from across disciplinary boundaries, Schnekloth gracefully explores how churches can find space to share and transform ministry practice and how they might make space for silence, reflection, and deeper formation in the ‘always on’ digitally-integrated locales. His work will help ministry leaders to understand new media locales not merely as collections of technologies that can make communication more expansive, efficient, and inexpensive, but as ‘cultures enlivened by the Spirit that serve as centers of repeating action, continuing places of possibility’ where formation is richly transformed and transformative.”
—Elizabeth Drescher
Santa Clara University
“Clint is a good writer. Made my brain sing for a while. You can use social media to reach people you otherwise couldn’t. Clint’s doing it already.”
—Drew Curtis
Founder, Fark.com
“Acknowledging the spurious eschatological promises of new technologies, Clint Schnekloth helps us see the rise of new media as neither utopia nor dystopia, yet conveys a sense of urgency for the church; failing to use these powerful new media to form faith will be a loss to the church and the world. Mediating Faith makes a case for catechesis as digital virtual play, in which one is self-engaged and self-directed, moving at one’s own pace. In gaming, one learns the game by playing the game. Should not faith formation be akin to this?”
—Michael Rinehart
Bishop, Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod of the ELCA
“Mediating Faith is an exciting exploration of the place of media in the life of the Church. Schnekloth sheds light on the complex ‘virtual world’ of new technology by making links to the ways in which through preaching and catechism the Church has historically mediated the faith. Through making these connections, this book represents a significant contribution to the debate around the future shape of the Church.”
—Pete Ward
King's College London
—A. K. M. Adam
University of Oxford
“The church whose Gospel was propelled by the technology of Gutenberg has in the twenty-first century struggled to figure out how our fellowship in Christ relates to the new communication technologies. Clint Schnekloth offers us a breakthrough path forward in interpreting the relationship between social media and the media gratiae (the means of grace).”
—John Nunes
Valparaiso University
“Although Schnekloth himself observes ‘we do not as of yet have a complete sense of the effects of new media on our present culture and faith formation,’ at the same time he makes a significant contribution to that analysis in this insightful volume. Replete with examples, anecdotes, observations, and research, Mediating Faith will be of use and interest to the pastor, the professor, and the observers of religious and cultural trends alike. Unsettling and hopeful."
—Paul E. Hoffman
Lead Pastor, Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church of Seattle, WA
“Wow—this is an excellent piece of work. It hooked me and wouldn’t let go (a remarkable achievement for this genre)... Clint Schnekloth is to be congratulated for integrating such diverse streams into a readable and applicable text, one that pushes the conversation forward and is at once technological, theological, and anthropological. Impressive.”
—Ryan Bolger
Fuller Theological Seminary
“Clint Schnekloth’s Mediating Faith offers an important voice into a vital conversation about how new media is changing the culture, changing the church, and changing what it means to live the life of faith. Theologically grounded and richly resourced from across disciplinary boundaries, Schnekloth gracefully explores how churches can find space to share and transform ministry practice and how they might make space for silence, reflection, and deeper formation in the ‘always on’ digitally-integrated locales. His work will help ministry leaders to understand new media locales not merely as collections of technologies that can make communication more expansive, efficient, and inexpensive, but as ‘cultures enlivened by the Spirit that serve as centers of repeating action, continuing places of possibility’ where formation is richly transformed and transformative.”
—Elizabeth Drescher
Santa Clara University
“Clint is a good writer. Made my brain sing for a while. You can use social media to reach people you otherwise couldn’t. Clint’s doing it already.”
—Drew Curtis
Founder, Fark.com
“Acknowledging the spurious eschatological promises of new technologies, Clint Schnekloth helps us see the rise of new media as neither utopia nor dystopia, yet conveys a sense of urgency for the church; failing to use these powerful new media to form faith will be a loss to the church and the world. Mediating Faith makes a case for catechesis as digital virtual play, in which one is self-engaged and self-directed, moving at one’s own pace. In gaming, one learns the game by playing the game. Should not faith formation be akin to this?”
—Michael Rinehart
Bishop, Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod of the ELCA
“Mediating Faith is an exciting exploration of the place of media in the life of the Church. Schnekloth sheds light on the complex ‘virtual world’ of new technology by making links to the ways in which through preaching and catechism the Church has historically mediated the faith. Through making these connections, this book represents a significant contribution to the debate around the future shape of the Church.”
—Pete Ward
King's College London
Samples
Workshops
Clint Schnekloth is available upon request for presentations and workshops.
For more information or to arrange a speaking engagement, please contact the author directly at perichoresis2002@mac.com.
For more information or to arrange a speaking engagement, please contact the author directly at perichoresis2002@mac.com.
Interview
KUAF, the flagship station of National Public Radio for western Arkansas, interviews Clint Schnekloth about his book, Mediating Faith
Social Media Church holds a podcast with Clint Schnekloth on his use of new media in his church community
Life and Liberty interviews Clint Schnekloth for a podcast about his new book, Mediating Fatih
Social Media Church holds a podcast with Clint Schnekloth on his use of new media in his church community
Life and Liberty interviews Clint Schnekloth for a podcast about his new book, Mediating Fatih