New Visibility Of Religion Research Articles

Developing religious literacy through popular culture fandom: engaging religious issues in Fleabag fan fiction

ABSTRACT This article analyses 120 fan-authored stories focusing on the character of the ‘Hot Priest’ in the television comedy Fleabag (BBC/Amazon 2016–2019), examining how fans use their fandom to explore religious issues and develop religious and theological literacy. This challenges the ‘banality’ of media representations of religion suggested by Stig Hjarvard’s mediatisation thesis through exploring fan responses to a ‘secular’ television show. As they engage through fandom, fan authors participate in reflection on contemporary Catholic issues and discuss God’s character and interpretations of Scripture. This is a form of ‘serious play’ that allows for detailed meditation on these subjects. Although fans’ engagement with religious issues is not a reversal of the decline of religious affiliation in the West, it is a sign of the ‘new visibility of religion’ in which examples of both ‘traditional’ and new religion emerge in novel, and often unexpected, contexts.

Negative Capabilities: Investigating Apophasis in AI Text-to-Image Models

Through a case study of images generated by Swedish artist Steph Maj Swanson using an AI text-to-image (T2I) model, this article explores the strategy of negative weight prompting in T2I models as a phenomenon of apophasis. Apophasis is a linguistic strategy commonly deployed in texts of mystical theology to express the ineffability of God through negative concepts. In this article, a comparison of apophatic strategies in mystical texts and T2I models is engaged to highlight the mutual benefit of theorising AI with the help of religious theory and concepts. With this, the article builds on previous work on the New Visibility of Religion, enchantment, and post-secularism—especially the research of Beth Singler on religious continuities in representations of AI. Recent work on AI prompt engineering, computational linguistics, and computational geometry is invoked to explain the linguistic processes of T2I models. Poststructuralist semiotics is then employed to theorise the search for the Transcendental Signified in apophatic theology. The article concludes that linguistic theology can help to elucidate technological use cases, subsequently arguing for further dialogue between scholars in artificial intelligence and religious studies, and for a revaluation of religion in the technological sphere.

Posthuman Priests: Exploring the ‘New Visibility of Religion’ in Robotic Re(-)presentations of Religious Rituals

In 2017, visitors to a church in Wittenberg were given the opportunity to receive blessings from a robot. The so-called ‘robot priest’, named ‘BlessU-2’, poses a lot of questions and possibilities. One of these is about the ways that robots might mediate and represent religious teachings, beliefs, and experiences, which is the focus of this paper. Taking Hoelzl and Ward’s ‘new visibility of religion’ hypothesis, the paper asks about what kind of visibility BlessU-2—and similar robots in religious contexts—represents: is it whimsical; novel; authentic; secular? By locating the robot in historical and theological frameworks, the nuances of what it represents and how it might be seen to mediate religiosity in some way are revealed and discussed.

Sacred Architecture and Public Space under the Conditions of a New Visibility of Religion

Embedded in the paradigm of the “New Visibility of Religion,” this article addresses the question of the significance of sacred buildings for public spaces. ‘Visibility’ is conceived as religion’s presence in cities through the medium of architecture. In maintaining sacred buildings in cities, religions expose themselves to the conditions of how cities work. They cannot avoid questions such as how to counteract the tendency of public space to erode. Following some preliminary remarks on the “New Visibility of Religion,” I examine selected sacred buildings in Vienna. Next, I focus on the motifs of the city, the “ark” as a model for sacred buildings and the aesthetic dimension of public space. Finally, I consider the contribution of sacred buildings to contemporary public spaces. What is at issue is not the subject that moves in public and visits sacred buildings with the aim of acquiring knowledge or with the urgency to act, but rather the subject that feels and experiences itself in its dealings with public space and sacred buildings. In this context, I refer to the experience of disinterested beauty (Kant), anachronism, multi-perspectivity (Klaus Heinrich), and openness (Hans-Dieter Bahr).

The New Visibility of Religion and Its Impact on Populist Politics

The marginalised research field of populism and religion has mainly focused on the positive aspects of how religion and populism can be combined with mutual benefits for both parties, whereas the critical potential and limitations that religion and theology pose to populist politics has often been overlooked. The following essay intends to contribute to the complex research area of religion and populism, by focusing on the negative side, that is, the incompatibilities of religion and theology with populism. It is suggested that the very nature of religious belief and theological convictions impose limits on their use in populist politics.

The AI Creation Meme: A Case Study of the New Visibility of Religion in Artificial Intelligence Discourse

Through a consideration of examples of the AI Creation Meme, a remix of Michelangelo’s Creazione di Adamo featuring a human hand and a machine hand nearly touching, fingertip to fingertip, this article will tackle the religious continuities and resonances that still emerge in AI discourse in an allegedly ‘secular age’. The AI Creation Meme, as a highly visible cultural artefact appearing in a variety of forms and locations, will be analyzed and discussed for its religious, apocalyptic, and post-humanist narratives, along with reference to earlier work on the New Visibility of Religion—specifically, Alexander Darius Ornella’s consideration of the New Visibility of Religion and religious imagery of the 2006 film, Children of Men. Work that outlines the aspects of critical post-humanism, speculative post-humanism, and transhumanism in relation to the contemporary post-secular age will also be addressed to expand on the implicit apocalyptic messages of the AI Creation Meme. Such a consideration of repeating and remixed imagery will add to the scholarly conversation around AI narratives and the entanglements of religion and technology in our imaginaries of the future.

Religious Interactions in Deliberative Democratic Systems Theory

The following essay begins by outlining the pragmatist link between truth claims and democratic deliberations. To this end, special attention will be paid to Jeffrey Stout’s pragmatist enfranchisement of religious citizens. Stout defends a deliberative notion of democracy that fulfills stringent criteria of inclusion and security against domination. While mitigating secular exclusivity, Stout nonetheless acknowledges the new visibility of religion in populist attempts to dominate political life through mass rule and charismatic authorities. In response, I evaluate recent innovations in deliberative democratic systems theory (DDST). By adding a pragmatist inflection to DDST, I aim to apprehend the complex religious interactions between partisan interest groups as well as the trust-building capacities of minipublics.

“Wonderful”, “Hot”, “Good” Priests: Clergy on Contemporary British TV and the New Visibility of Religion Thesis

This article examines the “new visibility of religion” thesis through a case study of recent depictions of priests and ministers in British television drama and comedy. It focuses on four award-winning shows produced between 2009 and 2019 with clergy as central characters: Broadchurch, Broken, Fleabag and Rev. Clergy on these shows are depicted positively, in ways that contrast with portrayals in the 1990s and earlier 2000s. The shows demonstrate an active sympathy for, and engagement with, theological themes, and awareness of the important social role that clergy play in inner-city parishes. While some elements of these depictions support the idea of a “new visibility”, at the same time, they reiterate narratives of continuing religious decline in Britain. Rather than unproblematically celebrating faith, the shows use religion to critique neoliberal welfare policy and sacralise notions of community. This “new visibility” is also shown to contribute to the continued invisibility of some religious viewpoints in the media. This article concludes that despite these limitations, recent portrayals of clergy offer new opportunities for religious debate and conversation, particularly within media and fan commentary.

The Distinctiveness of Diaconia and the Post-Secular Condition: Gustaf Wingren Revisited

The new visibility of religion in the public sphere calls for a rethinking of what characterizes the distinctiveness of diaconia. In the context of nordic Lutheran theology this question has traditionally been treated within the framework of the two kingdoms doctrine. However, in more recent years, prolific theologians such as Ola Sigurdson and Tage Kurtén have questioned the viability of this framework. Given the current post-secular condition, they claim, Nordic Lutheran theology must seek to overcome the separation of religion and politics that the two kingdoms doctrine has given way to. The present article argues that Gustaf Wingren’s (1910–2000) account of diaconia represents a rewarding point of departure for such an effort. Drawing on both Irenaeus’ concept of recapitulatio and the distinction between the two kingdoms of Luther, Wingren develops an understanding of diaconia which makes the particularities of faith productive in the interpretation of diaconal practice, while simultaneously confirming the universal character of God’s creative activity. Thus he paves the way for a dialectic approach to the distinctiveness of diaconia, which makes it possible to move beyond the dichotomization of religion and politics typical of protestant modernity, without dismissing still valuable aspects of the two kingdoms idea.

Reflexivity and Rapprochement: Explorations of a ‘Postsecular’ Public Theology

Abstract Accounts of secularization, decline and marginalization in relation to the public position of religion in western society have failed to account for the continued vitality and relevance of religion in the global public square. It is important, however, to challenge simplistic accounts and think of the new visibility of religion (not least in Europe) in terms of complexity and multi-dimensionality. This article will ask how public theology might contribute constructively to repairing our fractured body politic and promoting new models of citizenship and civic engagement around visions of the common good.

Is God Back? Reconsidering the New Visibility of Religion,edited by Titus Hjelm

<i>Is God Back? Reconsidering the New Visibility of Religion,</i>edited by Titus Hjelm

Book Review: Is God Back? Reconsidering the New Visibility of Religion

Book Review: Is God Back? Reconsidering the New Visibility of Religion

Making sense of the postsecular: theological explorations of a critical concept

Current debates on ‘the postsecular’ focus on the alleged new visibility of religion in the public sphere. They overcome earlier neglect or indifference toward religion by acknowledging its importance and cast doubt on traditional binaries between ‘secular’ and ‘religious’. How should systematic theology take up the challenge of these debates? Is ‘the postsecular’ a chance to reconsider religion beyond modernist critiques or should one be critical of too easy celebrations of ‘the return of religion’? As an introduction to a special issue on this theme, this article argues that theology should take it as a chance for new dialogues with unexpected allies, opponents, and critics. This calls for an attitude of openness and a willingness to think anew, without losing one’s roots in a specific orientation. Theology’s contribution can be (1) rethinking core notions from the theory of religions, (2) asking for the specific perspective that religion may introduce and (3) the constructive reinterpretation of – partly forgotten – symbols of religions. After discussing the state of the art in debates on ‘the postsecular’ in the first article, the other contributions of this special issue take up these theological tasks in dialogue with thinkers like Richard Kearney, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Paul Ricoeur.

Understanding the New Visibility of Religion

This article examines recent debates about the ‘return of religion’ to the European public sphere. It argues that there is widespread confusion between religion being more visible and religion having more impact on contemporary societies. The article asks what the 'new visibility of religion' means, how religion is contested and renegotiated in the public arena—or rather, in different publics—and what the effects of these struggles are on society, state and religion itself. It does so by providing an analytical overview five distinct approaches to the new visibility of religion: desecularization, de-privatization and post-secularity; the effects of ‘welfare utopianism’ on public religion; religion as a social problem; religion as expedient; and the mediatization or publicization of religion. The article concludes that what we are witnessing is a ‘secular return’ of religion, where religion is relevant for public discourse only by virtue of being either problematic or useful.

A genealogy of the secular versus religious schooling debate in New South Wales (part I): terror and suspicion

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a sustained growth in religious schooling in Australia with an accompanying debate over its merits. In turn, these debates in the realm of education are framed by broader questions in ostensibly secular-liberal nations like Australia over the ‘new visibility of religion’, most prominently in the spectacle of religiously-framed terrorist acts. The conjunction of this geopolitical context and the local debate over religious schooling focalised in the 2007–09 protests against a proposed Islamic school in the Sydney suburb of Camden, which have triggered a renewed emphasis on the importance of the secular principle in schooling. In this two part paper, I posit that the notion of ‘the secular’ is not a principle per se, but a strategic term deployed within particular political situations. I approach this through a genealogy of how religious and secular schooling have come to be understood as they are in New South Wales. Part I considers how the geopolitical and domestic political context of the present debate compares to that in the lead up to the formal separation of religious from secular schooling in 1880.

Religion in the Nordic Countries: Between Private and Public

ABSTRACTA new visibility of religion in public life can be observed in the Nordic countries. This visibility is not due to a popular claim for a return of religion in the public sphere. As research conducted at Uppsala University in Sweden indicates, the visibility of religion in the Nordic countries reflects several concurring factors: the state’s continued relationship with churches and other religions; the growth of new forms of social exclusion drawing religion into public discussions on ethical and social issues; growing religious pluralism prompting political and legal regulation; a spirituality relating to existential issues and issues related to quality of life. The results raise important questions about Nordic modernity. They suggest that religion becomes public in several ways and emerges as an arena that connects the private and the public beyond conventional distinctions.

Coverage of Religion in The Media In Nordic Countries In 1988&amp;#8211;2008 Conclusion

The four preceding articles in this volume of the Nordic Journal of Religion and Society were about the coverage of religion in the Nordic media and are related to the ongoing research programme entitled «The role of religion in the public sphere: A comparative study of the five Nordic countries» (NOREL). The overall research aim of the programme is to provide an outline of the changing role of religion in the public sphere since the late 1980s, and it is partly a continuation of an earlier study by Gustafsson (1985, 1987), which was a comparative study of religious change in the Nordic countries in 1930–1980. The results of the study allow us to discuss whether the changes give support to the notion of a new visibility of religion in the public sphere or whether they support the thesis of the decline of religion in the Nordic countries. The results also allow us to analyse whether the changes in the media reflect the actual changes in the religious situation: for example, the increase in religious diversity and the decline in church membership and attendance. Our findings may be used to discuss to what extent the five Nordic countries are similar or unique in the way they present religion in the media and what this reveals more generally about the religious situation in these countries.

Religious Elites in the Development Arena

The current issue of APAD-Bulletin concerns the ambiguous relationship between religion and development, particularly Christian and Muslim organisations involved in development policy and practice in different West African countries. Faith-based organisations present interesting challenges to received wisdom and the different contributions highlight the new visibility of religion in development arenas. This issue of the APAD-Bulletin is the first being produced at the Department of Cultural A...

The New Visibility of Religion in the Development Arena

Introduction Contrary to the widespread tendency to relegate religion to the rank of reactionary forces, religious actors and ideas have always been vectors of social change and important in development initiatives in Africa – one only has to think of Catholic missions’ or Islamic elites’ engagement with education in colonial times (Cooper 2006; Brenner 2001). However, such engagements got increasingly unnoticed when modernization theories of development became dominant in the 1950s and 1960s...

The New Visibility of Religion: Studies in Religion and Cultural Hermeneutics – Edited by Graham Ward and Michael Hoelzl

Journal of Religious HistoryVolume 34, Issue 4 p. 500-500 The New Visibility of Religion: Studies in Religion and Cultural Hermeneutics – Edited by Graham Ward and Michael Hoelzl Matthew Del Nevo, Matthew Del Nevo The Broken Bay Institute, NSWSearch for more papers by this author Matthew Del Nevo, Matthew Del Nevo The Broken Bay Institute, NSWSearch for more papers by this author First published: 15 November 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9809.2010.00950.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume34, Issue4December 2010Pages 500-500 RelatedInformation