Communication

Religion, as a collective phenomenon, cannot be conceived of without taking communication into account. Nevertheless, the sense of the communicative element in religion has been mostly implicit or completely lacking in religious studies. This paper explores some of the recent openings in the study of religion and communication, focusing on religion and the media in the modern world. The paper closes by delineating some future prospects for the field. Resumo É necessário levar em conta a comunicação quando tratamos da religião como fenômeno coletivo. Na maior parte dos estudos acadêmicos da religião, porém, o elemento comunicativo é tratado de forma implícita ou, então, falta por completo. Este artigo explora algumas aberturas recentes no estudo de religião e comunicação, concentrando-se nas relações entre a religião e os meios de comunicação no mundo moderno. Ele é concluído com o delineamento de algumas perspectivas futuras do campo. From a sociological perspective, religion is inherently intertwined with communication. Although religious experience is personal, the symbols and language used to interpret it are socially determined (Luckmann, 1967, 44-45; McGuire, 1992, 8). Thus, on a very foundational level, it could be said that communication is always present in the study of religion and culture. For example, as Hoover and Lundby (1997, 10) put it (referring to Max Weber's famous formulation): "how was the exchange between the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism possible without accounting for the communication of these ideas? " This remark notwithstanding, the sense of the communicative element in religion has been mostly implicit or completely lacking in religious studies (White, 1997, 44-45). * TITUS HJELM is a researcher in the Department of Comparative Religion at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is currently working on a book on social constructionism for Routledge. www.pucsp.br/rever/rv4_2005/p_hjelm.pdf 1