Deus in Machina: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between

Acknowledgments

ix acknowledgments This book was first conceived during conversations that took place while I was a visiting fellow at the Center for Religion and Media at New York University in 2003–2004. My thanks to all the members of the Center during that time, especially Faye Ginsburg, Angela Zito, Elizabeth Castelli, and Mazyar Lotfalian. In January 2007 I convened a colloquium at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) entitled “Deus in Machina,” which led to the present volume. I wish to acknowledge the following financial supporters, without whom this colloquium would not have happened: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; the Office of the Dean of Social Science, McMaster University; the Office of the Vice President (Research), McMaster University; the Office of the Provost, McMaster University; and the Office of the Dean of Humanities, McMaster University. Acknowledgement must also be given to the participants in that colloquium who greatly sharpened our collective understanding of religion and technology, especially, but not only: James Benn, Ellen Badone, Thomas A. Carlson, Yasser Haddarah, Stephen Hughes, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Travis Kroeker, Mazyar Lotfalian, Carly Machado, Valentina Napolitano, Celia Rothenberg, Mark Rowe, and Dorien Zandbergen. A special word of thanks goes to Benjamin Fleming for his tremendous help as the colloquium’s administrative assistant. At Fordham University Press, I wish to thank above all Helen Tartar, whose vision, exacting standards, and scholarly passion are unparalleled in academic publishing. It has been a sheer pleasure to work with her, alongside the other diligent staff members of the press––not least, Thomas Lay––who helped bring this book to its successful conclusion. For his contribution to this book, John Durham Peters wishes to thank Routledgeforpermissiontoadaptandrevisethepreviouslypublishedentries “Calendar” and “Clock” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media, ed. Daniel A. Stout (New York: Routledge, 2006), 57–59, 77–79. Sherine Hamdy wishes to thank the journal Anthropology Quarterly for x Acknowledgments allowing her to reprint several passages from her article “Islam, Fatalism, and Medical Intervention: Lessons from Egypt on the Cultivation of Forbearance (Sabr) and Reliance on God (Tawakkul),” 82, no. 1 (2009): 97–120. John Lardas Modern wishes to thank the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion for granting him permission to revise his previously published article “Deus in Machina Movet: Religion in the Age of Technological Reproducibility,” 18, no.1 (2006): 1–36. Jeremy Stolow wishes to thank Routledge for permission to reprint a few lines from his earlier publication of “Technology” in Key Words in Religion, Media and Culture, ed. David Morgan (New York: Routledge, 2008), 187–97. As the editor, I wish to thank all the contributors of this volume for their ongoing commitment to this project, as well as my many friends, colleagues, mentors, and students who offered valuable insight, lively debate, and encouragement on the long road that edited books so often must travel (there are too many of you to be listed by name; let me hope you know you are being addressed here). On behalf of all the book’s contributing authors, I also wish to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers who provided helpful comments on earlier drafts of the book. For their help in preparing the manuscript for submission to the press, I thank my editorial assistants, Erin Despard and Brian Fauteux. The final word of thanks, as always, goes to my family, Danielle and Malka, for all their support and love; they are the deities who animate my machine. Deus in Machina ...