The theme of the 3rd triennial consultation, held at the Riverside Innovation Centre at the University of Chester, focused on the extent to which media, information and communication technologies now represents a new, largely autonomous, ‘public’ sphere with global reach and an increasingly influential (and not necessarily benign) role to play in mediating religious and spiritual concerns and representing religion to a wider public.

Contributions explored the ways in which electronic media function as powerful means for religious organizations to mediate their presence and message into wider society; the ethical and theological dimensions of the production and consumption of media and popular culture; media, citizenship and religious literacy; the impact of globalisation on practices of communication; and how new forms of broad­cast, network and social media affect practices of faith amongst global diasporas.