Media and the Senses in Making of Religious Experience: An

Introduction
By Birgit Meyer

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A Critical Essay
in Partial Fulfillment for the
Requirement in Philo 261
Advanced Philosophy of Religion

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Submitted to:
Dr. Orlando Ali M. Mandane Jr., Ph.D.

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Submitted by:
Victor D. Baldesco Jr. MA Philo 1
February 5, 2011

Media and Religious Experience

 In this article, Media and the Senses in Making of Religious

Experience, Birgit Meyer contends that media is vital in the genesis of

religious experience. Here, media is understood in the broad sense: those

artifacts and cultural forms that make possible communication, bridging

temporal and spatial distance between people as well as between them and

the realm of the divine or spiritual. 1 Thus, Meyer argues that media and

practices of mediation invoke the divine or transcendental. In fact, Hent de

Vries argues that religion offers practices of mediation that bridge the

distance and make it possible to experience the transcendental.2

In order to grasp the affective appeal of religious media, it may be

useful to approach them as sensational forms that trigger, as well as

condense, religious experience.3 These sensational forms do not only convey

particular ways of making sense, but simultaneously tune the senses and

induce specific sensations, thereby rendering the divine sense-able and

triggering particular religious experiences.4

I affirm Meyer’s position that media can generate religious experience.

However, there are factors that must be considered first. Unless these

factors are achieved, media as a stimulus for religious experience would be

ineffective. Furthermore, I would like to point out that media can possibly

invoke the divine, depending on the circumstances, but not necessarily.

1
Birgit Meyer, Media and the Senses in Making of Religious Experience: An
Introduction. Vol. 4, Issue 2, p. 126.
2
Ibid., 127.
3
Ibid., 129.
4
Ibid.
 First, the religious media must be authorized. It must not contradict

the teachings, customs and traditions of the religious community which it

belongs. It must conform to the established beliefs of the religious

community. Otherwise, such media may not be suitable as an object for

religious undertakings. Thus, it would take away the possibility of invoking a

mystical encounter of the divine.

Second, the scope of the religious media is limited only to the devotees

of the religious community which it owes its meaning from. Indeed, this

condition may be weak since it may also be possible that a nonreligious can

have a religious experience through such media. However, I would stress out

that it is only an isolated case. I believe that in the religious sphere, it is

essential that the devotee or the subject must have a prior experience or at

least an idea, if not an understanding for the religious media to have an

effect. Nonetheless, I am not dismissing the possibility that a nonreligious

can have a religious experience. What I am saying is that such media is more

effective to those who belong to the same religious community than those

who don’t.

Finally, the religious media must not be misunderstood as the object of

devotion. Instead, it should just remain as a bridge for religious experience.

The danger comes in when the religious media ceases to be a bridge. When

it becomes the object of religious undertakings replacing the divine, then

religious experience would be impossible. Instead of drawing nearer the

religious subject to the divine, it now hinders the possibility of an authentic

religious experience.

Affirming that media can invoke the transcendental and thus have a

mystical experience of the divine, I can’t help but relate it to the fast

development of media in our technological age. I am referring to the

undeniable dominance of television and the Internet. Hence, the most

relevant question would be that, is it still possible to have religious

experience through television and the Internet? Can these media be used to

produce religious experience? Is religious experience still possible in this

technological age through such media? I would say yes. However, the

difficulties are becoming even more evident.

One difficulty is that, as media evolves so is man. The world has

reached a certain point of autonomy -- human beings have now come of age,

which affects, for example, the religious sphere.5 We now live in a pluralist

society in which the relationship of people to organized religion has been

weakened. And yet the spiritual needs appear to be more evident.6 People

receive, select and interpret the messages sent to them from their own

social and cultural viewpoints and, on the basis of that interpretation, draw

their own conclusions.

Also, it seems that we are lost in the digital age. The truth is that all

kinds of ironic, contradictory and even seemingly regressive things are

happening in the Internet world, and we have barely a clue how to interpret
5
Carlos A. Valle, Religion and the Media, http://www.religion-
online.org/showarticle.asp?title=273 (accessed February 3, 2011).
6
Ibid.
it all.7 If God is behind all of this, God surely has a sense of humor. If we are

in charge of our own destinies, we are truly lost in the cosmos.8

Another problem is the uncritical way in which so many religious

institutions and movements especially the church use media.9 It appears to

be that if it brings in more people, then it must be done. Hence, the purpose

of media as a bridge to the transcendental is lost. It is blinded by the alluring

opportunity that media offers to the religious sector. Now, the emphasis is on

the opportunity rather than in promulgating the experience of the divine.

These difficulties are only a few among the many difficulties that the

religious encounter in the technological age, particularly media. However,

despite these difficulties, it doesn’t mean that it is not achievable. Since the

scope of religion and technology particularly media is so vast, I guess it

requires a more intensive attention. Hence, it will be a best topic for my

research paper in philosophy of religion.

7
Quentin J. Schultze, Going Digital, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?
title=2210 (accessed February 3, 2011).
8
Ibid.
9
Peter Horsfield, Mass Media and Ministry, http://www.religion-
online.org/showarticle.asp?title=161 (accessed February 3, 2011).
REFERENCES:

Meyes, Birgit. “Media and the Senses in Making of Religious Experience: An

Introduction.” Material Religion Volume 4, Issue 2, pp. 124-135.

Horsfield, Peter, Mass Media and Ministry, http://www.religion-

online.org/showarticle.asp?title=161 (accessed February 3, 2011).

Schultze, Quentin J., “Going Digital”, http://www.religion-

online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2210 (accessed February 3, 2011).

Valle, Carlos A.,” Religion and the Media”, http://www.religion-

online.org/showarticle.asp?title=273 (accessed February 3, 2011).