From Jesus to the Internet: A History of Christianity and Media

This ambitious, resourceful, and clearly written book makes the major contribution of showing how fundamentally integrated religion and media always have been throughout the history of Christianity. The power of media from writing to print, from imagery, music, and architecture to radio, film, and television has been to make accessible what Christians experience in their faith. Horsfield properly locates the study of media at the heart of the study of the religion. DAVID MORGAN, Duke University Tracing the implications of the adoption of new media technologies into Christian modes of communication among believers and with the divine over a period of 2000 years, Peter Horsfield draws a fascinating and fresh picture of contestations, breaks, and reformations in the dynamic history of Christianity. This well–written, imaginative book does not only throw recent work on modern mass media and Christianity into historical relief, it also makes a convincing case for the fruitfulness of a media perspective to capture salient transition points that rearticulate the Christian tradition and reset its role and place in society. BIRGIT MEYER, Utrecht UniversityFrom Jesus to the Internet is the first systematic survey of the historical relationship between Christianity and media. Although many see the relationship between religion and media as a distinctly modern phenomenon, in this book the scholar Peter Horsfield examines Christianity through its history as a mediated phenomenon, showing how profoundly it has been shaped by the many media forms used in embodying and spreading its stories.In a lively and engaging chronological narrative, the book demonstrates the ways in which Christianity s beliefs, rituals, theological thought, institutional forms, economic views, and political systems have been conceptualized and developed over time as a result of its media practices. It takes a broad view of media, including communication technologies and industries as well as cultural and material practices. The narrative moves through all of the major periods in Christian history and includes coverage of oral cultures, the practices of Jesus, writing, printing, material practices, visual expressions, and the present digital era. With insights into some of Christianity s most hotly debated contemporary issues, this ambitious and wide–ranging book provides an indispensable historical basis for this fast–developing interdisciplinary field.