The Digital Church is a truly unique, apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy tale set in the near future, as the earth races towards an undiscovered black hole in the heavens. The story's central character is Martin Henzel, a dark and cynical Hollywood underground artist in his late-twenties, who doesn't know who he is, where he's going, or why he's here. His nightclub world of alcohol and one night stands will come crashing in around him, when he goes on a date with his co-worker, Megan Jamison, whose rich and powerful father, Nathan, is involved in a plan to commit terrorism on a genocidal scale. Martin suddenly finds himself being contacted by a bizarre spiritual entity that exists within the purple fire of nightmare visions, some of which are all-too-real, as the truth of impending genocide sees city after city around the globe methodically being destroyed. Ultimately, Martin will be forced to answer a deeply troubling question within himself: "Can you love?" The future of the entire world rests in the balance of Martin Henzel's damnation or redemption as a violent roller-coaster ride of terror and emotion lands him center-stage within the towering walls of the last hope for humanity-The Digital Church.

A nuanced look at the rhetorical narratives used by conservative Republicans and evangelicals to make both personal and political choices As a political constituency, white conservative evangelicals are generally portrayed as easy to dupe, disposed to vote against their own interests, and prone to intolerance and knee-jerk reactions. In Decoding the Digital Church: Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump, Stephanie A. Martin challenges this assumption and moves beyond these overused stereotypes to develop a refined explanation for this constituency’s voting behavior. This volume offers a fresh perspective on the study of religion and politics and stems from the author’s personal interest in the ways her experiences with believers differ from how scholars often frame this group’s rationale and behaviors. To address this disparity, Martin examines sermons, drawing on her expertise in rhetoric and communication studies with the benefits of ethnographic research in an innovative hybrid approach she terms a “digital rhetorical ethnography.” Martin’s thorough research surveys more than 150 online sermons from America’s largest evangelical megachurches in 37 different states. Through listening closely to the words of the pastors who lead these conservative congregations, Martin describes a gentler discourse less obsessed with issues like abortion or marriage equality than stereotypes of evangelicals might suggest. Instead, the politicaleconomic sermons and stories from pastors encourage true believers to remember the exceptional nature of the nation’s founding while also deemphasizing how much American citizenship really means. Martin grapples with and pays serious, scholarly attention to a seeming contradiction: while the large majority of white conservative evangelicals voted in 2016 for Donald J. Trump, Martin shows that many of their pastors were deeply concerned about the candidate, the divisive nature of the campaign, and the potential effect of the race on their congregants’ devotion to democratic process itself. In-depth chapters provide a fuller analysis of our current political climate, recapping previous scholarship on the history of this growing divide and establishing the groundwork to set up the dissonance between the political commitments of evangelicals and their faith that the rhetorical ethnography addresses.

What are the ecclesiological challenges and opportunities raised by technology? How have developments related to the COVID-19 global health crisis impacted churches, forcing a swift move to mediated and online worship? And how will this change the shape churches of theological and programmatic choices for years to come? Drawing together a diverse group of theologians and media scholars, this volume considers the key theological question churches and religious leaders need to engage with as they look towards long term strategies involving church life and technology.

The Digital Audio Music List by Howard Ferstler is unique for its detailed exploration of the technology behind high-definition recordings. The author goes beyond identifying excellent recordings and explains the techniques used in making them, the analysis of various kinds of recorded sound, and the nature of the equipment used to reproduce the performance. He discusses recording techniques and approaches, emphasizing the relationship between microphone placement, recording equipment, and the resulting sound.