Nomadit rippituolissa : medioidun uskonnon moraalisen järjestyksen dynamiikka (post)modernin television ja kulttuurin kontekstissa

The study Nomads in the Confessional: The Dynamics of the Moral Order of Mediated Religion in the Context of (Post)modern Television and Culture is concerned to explore mediated relations between religion, media and culture. Its main focus is on mediated Christianity. The study draws from different academic and intellectual traditions: the sociology of religion, the history of ideas and media studies. It is primarily a theoretical piece, but it also uses empirical data to deepen the discussion and understanding of the nature of mediated religion. The data is analyzed by using ritual media studies as a methodological tool. The object of the analysis is a Christian television show "The Confessional", a series of nine programs broadcast by the Finnish national commercial channel MTV3 in 1997. The show was produced by an independent Lutheran group, and it had connections to the urban ecumenical movement called St. Thomas Mass. The objective of the study is to describe how mediated religion as a cultural process is linked to the larger media and cultural spheres and contexts. These links are first deconstructed and then reconstructed by discussing how mediated religion constructs moral order - in other words - how it ties individuals to social spheres and levels. It is argued that the most profound tie binding individuals to the social sphere in the field of religion, media and culture is that of consumption. The cultural logic of consuming - the need to choose, buy, sell and exchange identities in a continuous ritualistic play - can be seen as a moral order structure common to each of the categories of religion, media and culture. In this piece of work it is most thoroughly explored by studying the category of mediated religion