Deus in Machina:Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between: Religion, Technology, and the Things in BetweenJeremy Stolow The essays in this volume explore how two domains of human experience and action--religion and technology--are implicated in each other. Contrary to commonsense understandings of both religion (as an "otherworldly" orientation) and technology (as the name for tools, techniques, and expert knowledges oriented to "this" world), the contributors to this volume challenge the grounds on which this division has been erected in the first place. What sorts of things come to light when one allows religion and technology to mingle freely? In an effort to answer that question, Deus in Machina embarks upon an interdisciplinary voyage across diverse traditions and contexts where religion and technology meet: from the design of clocks in medieval Christian Europe, to the healing power of prayer in premodern Buddhist Japan, to 19th-century Spiritualist devices for communicating with the dead, to Islamic debates about kidney dialysis in contemporary Egypt, to the work of disability activists using documentary film to reimagine Jewish kinship, to the representation of Haitian Vodou on the Internet, among other case studies. Combining rich historical and ethnographic detail with extended theoretical reflection, Deus in Machina outlines new directions for the study of religion and/as technology that will resonate across the human sciences, including religious studies, science and technology studies, communication studies, history, anthropology, and philosophy. |
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CH03_2012_05_FUP | 61 |
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CH11_2012_05_FUP | 261 |
Other editions - View all
Deus in Machina: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between Jeremy Stolow No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
Ahab American argued authenticity body Buddha Buddhist calendar Cambridge Canção Nova century charismatic Christian church communication concept contemporary context cosmic cultural cyberpunk cyberspace Davis Davis’s Deus in Machina dialysis disability discourse discussion divine empowered prayer ethical experience feedback film Friedrich Kittler genetic Ghana Haiti Haitian Vodou healing Hent de Vries Herman Melville Holy Spirit houngan human Ibid images imagination Jewish kaji kidney Kūkai last accessed living machine magic magnetic cord Mambo mechanical media technologies medicine medieval Melville Moby-Dick modern movement Mumford narrative neo-Confucian nervous system Neuromancer nineteenth nineteenth-century organ organ transplantation Oxford pastors patients Pentecostal popular posthuman practices practitioners relationship religion and technology religious representation ritual Science Fiction scientific secular sense Shingon social space Spiritualist Stanford story Talal Asad technical techniques telegraph telepathy television towers tradition transplant Ufology University Press Vodou Voodoo Western wheeled clock words York