Below is a selection of my previous works in the field. To open some of them, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download for free by going to the Adobe site here. Each link opens a new window.
New thoughts on the status of the religious Cyborg
This paper is a reconsideration on Brenda Brasher’s 1996 and 2001 imaginings on the spiritual Cyborg, in light of recent developments in Internet technology and changes in popular usage, published in the Journal of Technology, Theology and Religion.
Imaging religious identity
An article exploring the construction of religious identity through an analysis of aesthetics, focussing on visual imagery and design in emerging church blogs. It has been published in Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet.
Online Religious Advertising in Australia
This is a paper I presented at the Conference of Religion, Media and Culture in Sao Paulo, August 2008. In it I offer a review of three web sites promoting religious youth festivals, and argue how denominations are masking themselves to position themselves in niche markets, reflecting an overall disenchantment with denominational labels among today’s young Australians.
Christianity 2.0 – a new religion for a new web
Apologies that the title is so similar to another paper above; it shows my lack of imagination. This is a paper presented to AoIR in Vancouver 2007 and is a reflection of interviews with emerging church bloggers, attempting to understand the Christian life online. I made the same presentation to the Coming Out conference in Sydney in December 2007.
Blogging religion
Here is a reflection on methodology, its problems and opportunities.
Why bother with the media?
This is a paper I wrote for a Brisbane Anglican magazine called The Eagle. Open…
The Internet and identity
This is my very first university lecture. The text is here; the PowerPoint presentation is here. The HTML illustration is here, and the YouTube examples are here, here and here.
Religion 2.0 – heralding a new wave of online religion
This is a paper I gave to Zadok ages ago that got published in the first edition of 2008. My first publication under the name Paul Emerson Teusner. I was quite chuffed about that. Anyway, it explores the changes that web 2.0 applications have made to engaging with and thinking about this whole online religion thing.
Identity construction in the "emerging church" blogosphere
My first steps toward a comprehensive theoretical framework for studying how "emerging church" bloggers construct individual and communal religious identities.
Theories of Communication and Persuasion
In 2008 I coordinated my first course for the School of Applied Communication at RMIT. Below are copies of the slides used in each lecture. I’ve been asked to produce a course book based on my lectures for RMIT, so notes from that book will accompany these slides.
- Week 1. Introduction to theories of communication.
- Week 2. Considering the effects of media.
- Week 3. Considering media as text.
- Week 4. Media discourses.
- Week 5. Media as technology.
- Week 6. Old web vs Web 2.0.
- Week 7. Considering the mass media industry.
- Week 8. Media persuasions and the other voice.
- Week 9. Media as culture.
- Week 10. Postmodernism and popular culture.
- Week 11. Audiences, identity and interactivity.
Electronic media, popular culture and spirituality
My first paper on the subject. This is a two-part essay. The first section looks at the cultural shift that electronic media has made in the West and its impact on youth culture in Australia. The second part looks at what this means for established church structures and congregations. Open…
Resident Evil
This is my favourite work to date, and was the most fun to research. This paper looks at the genre of horror as a tool for religious exploration. There are some cool pictures inside to make it an enjoyable read. Open…
Virtual Church
This is presentation I gave at the Australian Student Christian Movement Virtual Church conference, 29 June 2006 in Melbourne. A bit of theory around how we approach the virtual in CMC and in religion.
