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    • Connecting Media Theory to Theological Reflection
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Digital Literacy Toolkit

Digital Literacy Toolkit

Lifelong Learning by VTS

  • Home
  • Context
    • New Ministry Context
    • New Media & Digital Literacy
    • Advocacy
    • Wider Conversations
  • Research
    • Four Domains of Practice
    • Impact
  • Literacies
    • Navigating Hybrid and Digital Cultures
    • Convening Hybrid and Digital Community
    • Maintaining a Posture of Experimentation
    • Cultivating a Spiritually Wise Digital Habitus
    • Creating and Curating Faith-Based Artifacts
    • Connecting Media Theory to Theological Reflection
    • Presenting Authentically and Pastorally Online
  • Resources
    • Assignments
    • Teaching Activities
    • How-To-Guides
  • Who We Are
  • Contact

Connecting Media Theory to Theological Reflection

Ability to critically reflect on new media theory and practice from a theological point of view and on religious belief and practice from a media studies point of view. A “synthetic” literacy of interdisciplinary connection and application.

Connecting Media Theory & Theological Reflction

Dr. Mary Hess

Research Interview Excerpts

What did the experts say?

“We are aware that social media is influencing theological discussion. The big change is that more people feel empowered to be doing theological reflection. As I tell the students, every believer does theological reflection. You may not call it that, but you’re doing it. You’re asking yourself, ‘How do I believe this or what does this mean?’ Some people are professionally trained at that. The difficulty with that is they become almost too narrow.”

“I go through the media studies with them and say, now if you have just taken their primary communication tool away from them [youth], even if that’s the right thing to do, what is happening here? … I think for me I want to get students into the complexity of these issues both from the lived experience of the people showing up in their ministries as well as them as leaders making choices about how they will engage them.”

“They haven’t had the opportunity nor have they been pushed necessarily to think about some of the theology behind what they’re doing.”

REAL WORLD EXAMPLES


Networked Theology

Media studies scholar Heidi Campbell teams up with theologian Stephen Garner for a book-length reflection on “negotiating faith in digital culture.”
VISIT

The Digital Cathedral

Keith Anderson establishes and illustrates the metaphor of the medieval cathedral as a model of networked ministry.
VISIT

New Media Project Theological Essays

A group of scholars, journalists, and pastors studied how digital media were shaping six faith communities and offered these reflections to supplement their more descriptive case study work.
VISIT

EXPLORE THE RESOURCES FOR CONNECTING


Digital Literacies for Ministry

Foundational Research Now Published

May 15, 2020

The research upon which this website is based now appears in multiple peer-reviewed journals!

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Using Online Reviews to Share Resources

September 2, 2019

Lisa Kimball, professor of Christian Education at VTSMargie Baker, Digital Coach This activity

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Case Study & Toolkit Assignment: Parish Administration

February 14, 2019

Kathryn GloverMargie Baker This is a two-part assignment for a one-week intensive course on

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Bad Girls of the Bible: Online Course

December 19, 2018

Are you curious about how to design and facilitate an entirely online course? This guide offers a

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Crowdfunding for a Cause

December 18, 2018

This crowdfunding assignment has been successfully launched by Adam Copeland in seminary classes

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Understanding Networked Religion

December 18, 2018

The ministry landscape facing church leaders today is profoundly shaped by new media ...

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Presenting on Social Media Platforms

December 18, 2018

This group presentation assignment calls for analysis of social media platforms that pair well

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Mapping Media and Religious Practices

December 18, 2018

This classroom activity by Mary Hess is intended to get participants reflecting on the similarities

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Examining Media: Representation and Reality(ies)

December 18, 2018

This exercise by Mary Hess adapts an activity by Media Literacy Educator Renee Hobbs intended to

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