Book Review

摘要

Deus in Machina is an important volume, representing the critical interjections of philosophy of science and technology approaches into the current debates about the relations actively produced and negotiated between religion, media, technology, and culture. While the chapters represent a wealth of disciplinary approaches (anthropology, communication studies, religious studies, and history are all present), the volume is held together by a common goal: To push back against the common claim that technology (and media more broadly) is an ontologically separate realm from other cultural or social forces (p. 2). This project borrows most readily from cultural studies as each chapter attempts to resituate the various projects of modernity that have rendered religion, technology, and science asunder. It comes as no surprise, then, that Bruno Latour appears as a particular intellectual darling among the volume's varied bibliographies. While the "media turn" in religious studies has meant that more attention has been paid to media saturation and mediation in general, Deus in Machina advances the conversation through its clever attention to the critical work that both categories "religion" and "technology" are made to perform in these contexts.