Kennet Granholm is Docent in Comparative Religion at Åbo Akademi University, Finland and Assistant Professor in the History of Religions at Stockholm University, Sweden

Marcus Moberg is Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Comparative Religion at Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Sofia Sjö is Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Comparative Religion at Åbo Academy University, Finland

1. Introduction Kennet Granholm, Marcus Moberg and Sofia Sjö Part I: Theorising Media and Religion in the Public Sphere 2. Power, Control and Religious Language: Latin and Vernacular Contests in the Christian Medieval and Reformation Periods Peter Horsfield 3. Mediatised Religion and Public Spheres: Current Approaches and New Questions Mia Lövheim and Marta Axner 4. Theorising Religious Republicisation in Europe: Religion, Media and Public Controversy in the Netherlands and Poland, 2000-2012 David Herbert 5. Religion, Media and the Dynamics of Consumerism in Globalising Societies François Gauthier Part II: Media, Popular Culture and Contemporary Religious Sensibilities and Communities 6. Mass-mediated Popular Culture and Religious Socialisation Marcus Moberg and Sofia Sjö 7. Media and the Nonreligious Teemu Taira 8. Constructing Segregated Communities: Or How Britain Became 'Muscularly Liberal' Siobhan Holohan Part III: Impacts and Outcomes of Contemporary Encounters between Religion, Media and Popular Culture 9. Now the Bible is an App: Digital Media and Changing Patterns of Religious Authority Tim Hutchings 10. Controversial Popular Culture and Controversial Religion: Theorising the Connections Titus Hjelm 11. Lab Rats and Tissue Samples: The Human in Contemporary Invented Religions Carole M. Cusack

In an era of heightened globalization, macro-level transformations in the general socioeconomic and cultural makeup of modern societies have been studied in great depth. Yet little attention has been paid to the growing influence of media and mass-mediated popular culture on contemporary religious sensibilities, life, and practice. Religion, Media, and Social Change explores the correlation between the study of religion, media, and popular culture and broader sociological theorizing on religious change. Contributions devote serious attention to broadly-defined media including technologies, institutions, and social and cultural environments, as well as mass-mediated popular culture such as film, music, television, and computer games. This interdisciplinary collection addresses important theoretical and methodological questions by connecting the study of media and popular culture to current perspectives, approaches, and discussions in the broader sociological study of religion.