Media and Religion: Foundations of an Emerging Field. Daniel A. Stout. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012. 204 pp. $120.00 hbk. $34.95 pbk.Reviewed by: Hugh M. Culbertson, Ohio University, Athens, OH, USADOI: 10.1177/1077699012472021Religious experience can scarcely exist without communication. Study of one of these entities seemingly requires study of other. Yet religion and communication scholars seldom develop theory or do research based on insights from both fields.Daniel Stout, a professor of journalism and media studies at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has written this book to promote a subdiscipline drawing on two realms. He likens this project to discovery that sociology and psychology could not study all relevant phenomena by theorizing and researching separately, so they created a new field called social psychology.Stout has coauthored books with religion and media scholar Judith Buddenbaum, formerly of Colorado State, to further this collaborative effort. He also served as founding coeditor of Journal of Media and Religion.This compact, tightly edited volume makes a strong case. It covers symbols within religion (e.g., pyramids in Egypt and Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California). But it devotes more emphasis to communication external to religion that may affect it. For example, TV program The 700 Club promotes a particular brand of Christianity. More than a century ago, evangelist Dwight L. Moody was called a rival of P. T. Barnum as mastermind of the Greatest Show on Earth. And, of particular concern to Stout, Andrew Comstock hampered intellectual inquiry by confiscating, burning, and censoring racy books and images to protect people from smut.The author emphasizes that, in this postmodern era, scholars and journalists need to define religion broadly. Until fairly recently, field focused primarily on traditional faiths-particularly Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Also of interest were denominations and sects within faiths. Now, however, new denominations, and even new religions, crop up quite often, and serve many traditional functions, albeit in new and different ways. Results include creating a sense of awe, real meaning in life, and often (not always) a comforting or disconcerting concept of life after death.Stout seeks to add clarity and coherence to this analysis by emphasizing a concept called Numinous, which has at least four elements. These include1. Ritual. Elvis Presley fans come to Graceland, Elvis's home in Memphis, each year to celebrate King. They dress and fix their hair much as he did.2. Core beliefs that help bind fans to each other. Star Trek fans-Trekkies- share a positive vision of world and how it can be improved through innovation, technology, and science. …