Christian Movements, Media and Society in Modern America

Dear Colleagues,

From the beginning days of the early church, Christians have used contemporary media to share the Good News, promote their evangelical work, and voice their visions for society. What started with circulated letters and hand-written copies of the Gospel developed into pamphlet wars with the invention of the printing press, then newspaper broadsides, and eventually radio broadcasts, televangelism, and social media influencers (Horsfield, 2015). With each new medium, Christians have engaged new ways to share their message and shape larger society. However, each new medium has also in turn influenced and reimagined Christian practices. In a digital world that is both more mediated and more isolated than ever, it is crucial to understand how Christian movements are utilizing media to share their message. How Christians build community, reform society, and how, in turn, cultural movements in society and media today are reforming Christian movements has far-reaching effects. Numerous scholars have profiled specific Christians or Christian movements on their use of media (Abelman and Hoover, 1990; Dick, 2019; Evensen, 2003; Ferré, 1988; Hadden, 1993; Hendershot, 2004; Hendershot, 2011; Littlefield and Opsahl, 2024; Schulze, 1990; Sutton, 2007; Ward, 2016). Scholars have also looked at secular news coverage of religion (Sloan, 2000; Winston, 2012) and the religious roots of the secular press (Evensen, 1989; Underwood, 2002). Others have looked specifically at the intersection of religion, media, and politics (Hughes and Littlefield, 2025; Kintz and Lesage, 1998; Mann and Winchester, 2025; Ridgely, 2020; Waters, 2025; Wilson and Djupe, 2020; Winston, 2023) and on how this amalgamation influences specific political views (Mann and Winchester, 2025; Perry and Snawder, 2016; Veldman, 2004). More recent studies have looked at Christian movements and social media (Griffin, 2024), but this interaction is the least covered. Although there has been plenty of good scholarship on Christian movements and media, particularly via edited book collections, the field is still relatively undeveloped. As a result, major gaps in the historiography and in current media studies remain.

We at the Religions journal thus seek submissions for a Special Issue examining Christian movements, media, and society in the United States. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. We welcome all methodologies and seek historical studies of how Christians, media, and society have intersected; ethnographical accounts of how Christian movements are engaging media and society; and media studies analyses of current movements and impact. Research areas may include the following:

• How Christian leaders or wider movements have utilized media to promote their messaging;
• Research that illuminates the media endeavors of Christian leaders or movements, such as investigating Christian magazines, radio shows, podcasts, television networks, social media campaigns, and live streams;
• How the news has covered Christian leaders or movements;
• How Christian movements have used media to forge community and shape identity;
• How Christian movements have used media to reform society;
• The intersection of faith, media, and ideology in forging the messaging of the Christian Right or Left in North American politics.

Expected Impact. We hope that this Special Issue will stimulate new research in how Christian movements have used the media to shape society and how these movements have been shaped in turn, spurring new research at the intersection of religion, media, society, politics, and culture.

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

• Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
• Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
• Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
• External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to Guest Editors Christina Littlefield, (christina.littlefield@pepperdine.edu) associate professor of Communication and Religion at Pepperdine University, and Jason Lee Guthrie, (JasonGuthrie@clayton.edu) associate professor of Communication and Media Studies at Clayton State University. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purpose of ensuring their proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

References:

Abelman, Robert, and Stewart M. Hoover. Religious Television: Controversies and Conclusions. Ablex Pub. Corp., 1990.

Evensen, Bruce J.  “The Evangelical Origins of the Muckrakers.” American Journalism 6, no. 1 (1989): 5–29, https://doi.org/10.1080/08821127.1989.10731178.

Evensen, Bruce J. God’s Man for the Gilded Age: D.L. Moody and the Rise of Modern Mass Evangelism. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Ferré, John P. A Social Gospel for Millions: The Religious Bestsellers of Charles Sheldon, Charles Gordon, and Harold Bell Wright. Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1988.

Dick, Bailey. “‘Is It Not Possible to Be a Radical and a Christian?’: Dorothy Day’s Evolving Relationship with the Patriarchal Norms of Journalism and Catholicism.” Journalism History 45, no. 4 (2019): 311–29, https://doi.org/10.1080/00947679.2019.1631083.

Griffin, Lauren Horn. “How #Trad Catholics Challenge Current Constructions of Christian Nationalism: Counterknowledge, Masculinity, and Elite Aesthetics on Instagram.” Journal of Media and Religion, 23, no. 1-4 (2024):50-73, DOI: 10.1080/15348423.2024.2408970.

Hadden, Jeffery K. “The Rise and Fall of American Televangelism.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 527, No. 1, (1993): 113–130, 121.

Hendershot, Heather. What’s Fair on the Air?: Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest. University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Hendershot, Heather. Shaking the World for Jesus: Media and Conservative Evangelical Culture. University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Horsfield, Peter G. From Jesus to the Internet: A History of Christianity and Media. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2015.

Hughes, Richard T.  and Christina Littlefield, Christian America and the Kingdom of God: White Christian Nationalism from the Puritans through January 6, 2021, updated and expanded edition. University of Illinois Press, 2025.

Kintz, Linda and Lesage, Julia. Media, Culture, and the Religious Right (University of Minnesota Press, 1998).

Littlefield, Christina and Falon Opsahl, “Promulgating the Kingdom: Social Gospel Muckraker Josiah Strong.” American Journalism 34, no. 3 (2017): 289–312, https://doi.org/10.1080/08821127.2017.1344060.

Mann, Marcus and Daniel Winchester, “Beyond Polarization: Right-Wing News as a Quasi-Religious Phenomenon.” Sociological Theory 43, no. 2 (2025): 115–40, https://doi.org/10.1177/07352751251326951.

Perry, Samuel L. and Kara J. Snawder, “Longitudinal Effects of Religious Media on Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage.” Sexuality & Culture 20, no. 4 (2016): 785–804, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-016-9357-y.

Ridgely, Susan B. “Conservative Christianity and the Creation of Alternative News: An Analysis of Focus on the Family’s Multimedia Empire.” Religion and American Culture 30, no. 1 (2020): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/rac.2020.1.

Rodgers, Ronald. “The Social Awakening and the News: A Progressive Era Movement’s Influence on Journalism and Journalists’ Conceptions of Their Roles,” Journalism History 46, no. 2 (2020): 81–105, https://doi.org/10.1080/00947679.2020.1724586.

Sloan,  W. David. The Media and Religion in American History. Vision Press, 2000.

Schulze, Quentin, ed. American Evangelicals and the Mass Media. Zondervan, 1990.

Sutton, Matthew. Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2007.

Doug Underwood. From Yahweh to Yahoo!: The Religious Roots of the Secular Press. University of Illinois Press, 2002.

Veldman, Robin Globus. “The New Civil Religion: How Conservative Broadcasters’ Religious Discourse Erodes Support for Climate Action.” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture 18, no. 3 (2024): 345–75, https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.23605.

Ward, Mark ed., The Electronic Church in the Digital Age: Cultural Impacts of Evangelical Mass Media (Praeger, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2016).

Waters, Ken. Words That Shape Us: How America’s Most Influential Evangelical Magazines Craft the Narrative of Christian Culture. Faithcomm, Incorporated, 2025.

Wilson, Angelia R.  and Paul A. Djupe, “Communicating in Good Faith? Dynamics of the Christian Right Agenda.” Politics and Religion 13, no. 2 (2020): 385–414. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755048319000543.

Diane H. Winston. Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision. University of Chicago Press, 2023.

Diane H. Winston, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media. Oxford University Press, 2012.

Dr. Christina Littlefield
Dr. Jason Guthrie
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.