fishers, surfers and casters

This site is closing.



Well, d’uh, really, since it’s been way too long since I’ve made any use of it. Hosting and domains are more costly than they should be, given what’s available for free. Frankly, I just haven’t had the time to post any new or real thoughts in a while.



I will continue when I get some free time, but I will do it in a free service, perhaps tumblr or wordpress.com somewhere. I’ll let you know via Twitter.



A huge thank you goes out to my favourite German, Angela Teusner, who provided the great template design and photography. If I set up anything new, I’ll make sure the designs are reproduced there.



Ciao for now. See all y’all around.

The newest edition of Studies in World Christianity focusses on material religion. It has an article by Ryan Torma and me on materiality, aesthetics, and digital religion. Check it out.

Someone forgot to tell me, so I had to look for myself. I’m happy to announce that my PhD thesis is available for view/download at the RMIT library, via this link: http://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/view/rmit:6138.

I understand that to cite the thesis, this is the reference to use:

Emerson Teusner, P 2010, Emerging church bloggers in Australia: Prophets, priests and rulers in God’s virtual world, PhD Thesis, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University.

Nadja Miczek and Simone Heidbrink are (according to an email received from them) happy to announce the release of the special issue of “Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet” on “Aesthetics and the Dimension of the Senses”! (Please see: http://www.online.uni-hd.de/.)

When we look on the various representations of religious groups and individuals on personal homepages, in weblogs, in virtual worlds or the like and when we follow their communications on religious topics online, the visual and auditive aspects of the medium seem to play a major role. Using pictures, videos, icons, as well as music and other sounds, the internet users can design a multisensual virtual environment which might implicate its own notion of “aesthetics”.

As the aesthetic and sensual dimensions of religions and rituals on the internet have long been a neglected area of research, we called upon theoretical and methodical reflection as well as on empiric studies referring to these topics. – And many renowned scholars answered with interesting and inspiring articles with which we hope to contribute and give some impulse to the still ongoing discussion on the different theoretical, methodical and methodological approaches to “aesthetics and the dimension of the senses” in the context of religion and religious practice online.