Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Yale University Divinity School, New Haven, CT, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-49).

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Yale University Divinity School, New Haven, CT, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-49).

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Yale University Divinity School, New Haven, CT, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-49).

Thesis (M.A.B.S.)--International School of Theology, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-106).

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Yale University Divinity School, New Haven, CT, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-49).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-105).

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of Degree Master of Arts in Sociology In the Graduate School of Humanities School of Social Sciences Department of Sociology University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg 2016. / The advent of new media, more specifically social media, has galvanized and radically revolutionized how religion is experienced, lived and expressed in (South) Africa. Social media has transmogrified the orthodox and normative modes of religious engagement and interaction. Day-to-day religious practices have become highly reliant on the (new) media. It is only logical therefore to foreground and locate the (new) media within the deeper inquiries relating to social phenomenon and social life. Social media has become the benchmark for understanding the transitions with regards to conceptualizing social phenomenon like Neo-Pentecostalism, which in recent times has taken the African continent by storm. This study explores how church performances and practices of controversial South African Neo-Pentecostal church End Time Disciples Ministries, led by notoriously shady and delinquent Prophet Penuel are represented on Facebook. The study is interested in analysing the online representations of church performance of this particular church. Moreover, the study committed at understanding how audiences (those who engage and interact on Facebook page) decode and interpret the messages and representational exhibitions disseminated through the church’s Facebook page. Through the employment of a rigorous Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), both visual and lexical semiotic choices on the Facebook page were analysed in order to demystify discursive, ideological and investments of power. It must be lamented that the intersections between religion and new/social media have been marginally ignored within qualitative epistemic inquiries. This study provides a breath of fresh air in that regard. The current status quo enlightens us that social relations have become vehemently digitized. It is therefore relevant and expedient for digital platforms to be taken seriously within sociological intellectual inquests. Church performances are receiving great impetus and potency on new/social media domains but minimal scholastic investment has been channelled in that direction. The End Time Disciple Ministries Facebook page is a platform where the most salient and non-salient representational projects of violence, power, exploitation, manipulation, hegemony, patriarchy are exhibited for public broadcast and consumption. / MT2017

This dissertation is a qualitative and interpretive project aimed at understanding the historical relationship between new media and religion. My primary research question asks how religious institutions handle the excitement and threat of new technology. To answer this question I conduct a series of case studies of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ (LDS/Mormon) relationship with three of the most important twentieth-century media: emerging radio, television, and Internet technologies. More specifically, I analyze how these electronic media were understood through their organizational histories, how they were talked about in their novelty and transitional states, and their religious institutionalization over time. This dissertation argues that Mormon media are best understood through the concept of Zion: a sacred city and a holy people. As a social, cultural, theological, and material endeavor, Zion is impossible without modern technology. The history of Mormon media is a history of a people’s perpetual attempts to be in the world but not of the world--to stand apart in uniqueness and unity while yet remaining close enough to promote positive change. This is the paradox of Zion, and the paradox of twentieth-century media: both rely on the very things they seek to transcend. It is through media that Mormonism was founded, struggles, and thrives. Through case studies of radio, television, and the Internet it is clear that media function as the material and metaphysical infrastructure of the religion and the interface through which Mormonism positions itself in relation to the world. This dissertation argues that understanding media, and ultimately ourselves by extension, is a process of discovery and creation guided by experimentation, trial and error, entrepreneurial pragmatism, and improvisation. Mormonism teaches that understanding media requires discipline, work, and faith. Media are fundamentally agents of compromise.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-105).