Hess, Mary E. 1963-

PERSONAL:

Born January 21, 1963; partner of Eric Celeste; children: Alex and Nathaniel. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1985; Harvard University, M.T.S., 1992; Boston College, Ph.D., 1998.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Luther Seminary, 2481 Como Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108. E-mail—mhess@luthersem.edu.

CAREER:

Educator and writer. National Assault Prevention Center, Columbus, OH, director of adolescent programming, 1986-87; Governor's Committee, Columbus, communications director to the First Lady, 1987-89; Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Washington, DC, Ohio Chapter director, 1989-90; Cambridge Forum, Cambridge, MA, media coordinator, 1990-91; Public Conversations Project, Cambridge, MA, research assistant, 1991-92; Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, consultant to master's program, Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry, 1994-97, postdoctoral research fellow and director of Religious Education and the Challenge of Media Culture Project, 1997-2000, lecturer in religious education, 1997-2000; Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, associate professor of educational leadership, 2000—.

MEMBER:

Religious Education Association (member of executive committee, 2000-03), International Study Commission on Media, Religion, and Culture, Catholic Theological Society of America, and American Academy of Religion.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and contributor, with Peter Horsfield and Adán M. Medrano) Belief in Media: Cultural Perspectives on Media and Christianity, Ashgate (Burlington, VT), 2004.

Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All That We Can't Leave Behind, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Lanham, MD), 2005.

(Editor and contributor, with Stephen D. Brookfield) Teaching Reflectively in Theological Contexts: Promises and Contradictions, Krieger (Malabar, FL), 2008.

Contributor to books, including Religion and Popular Culture: Studies on the Interaction of Worldviews, edited by Daniel Stout and Judith Buddenbaum, Iowa State University Press (Ames, IA), 2001; The Conviction of Things Not Seen: Worship and Ministry in the 21st Century, edited by Todd E. Johnson, Brazos Press (Grand Rapids, MI), 2002; Mediating Religion:Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture, edited by Jolyon Mitchell and Sophia Marriage, T&T Clark/Continuum (London, England), 2003; New Paradigms in Bible Study, edited by Robert Fowler, Trinity Press International, 2004; Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication and Media, edited by Daniel A. Stout, Routledge (New York, NY), 2006; and Christian Education as Evangelism, edited by Norma Cook Everist, Fortress Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2007.

Contributor of articles, editorials, and book reviews to periodicals, including Teaching Theology and Religion, Religious Education, Connections, Religion & Education, Listening: Journal of Religion and Culture, and Clergy Journal. Author of the Web blog Tensegrities. Associate editor of Religious Education, 1999-2002. Also member of the editorial boards of Journal of Lutheran Ethics (online), 2001-06; Journal of Media and Religion, 2001—; Religious Education, 2002—; and Journal of Religious Leadership, 2003-05.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mary E. Hess is a religion educator who has an interest in the ways in which religious educators can meet the challenges posed by media culture. A profile of the author on the Luther Seminary Web site noted that the author "is well prepared to ask difficult questions in our post-modern, mass mediated culture." The profile also included this statement: "In particular she is deeply engaged by the difficult questions that emerge in a world where ‘Will and Grace’ and ‘Providence’ are more often understood as television shows, than theological categories."

Hess is the editor, with Peter Horsfield and Adán M. Medrano, of Belief in Media: Cultural Perspectives on Media and Christianity. The book features essays by international scholars from a wide range of disciplines and who are also members of the International Study Commission on Media, Religion, and Culture. The contributors explore how the interaction between media and Christianity has changed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. They present a variety of essays, most of which include case studies, that provide an overview of approaches and issues in seeing media and Christianity from a cultural perspective.

The book is divided into three sections. Part I provides a cultural perspective and an overview of some approaches to study. Among the topics discussed are how the media covers religion, how communication technology and religious authority connect, and how religious groups use the media. Part II looks at mediated Christianity throughout the world, from Pentecostal media images in Africa to how Ethiopian Protestantism uses visual media. Part III focuses on Christian institutions, with a primary emphasis on the Roman Catholic Church. In one essay, a contributor looks at how migration and a strong media presence has changed the Catholic way of life in Thailand. In addition to coediting the book, Hess contributes an essay in Part III titled "Rescripting Religious Education in Media Culture." In her essay, the author examines the growing importance of popular culture in people's lives and ways in which Christian churches and institutions can adapt to this increasing influence on people.

"Belief in Media is an intriguing journey into the realm of religion and the media," wrote a contributor to the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, adding later in the same review that "this volume is a useful addition to scholarly studies of religion and media." Paul A. Soukup, writing in Communication Research Trends, noted that the book "raises many issues in the study of media, religion, and culture."

In her 2005 book Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All That We Can't Leave Behind, Hess looks at new digital technologies and the growth of media culture and how these may be used in theological studies. For example, she discusses how a wide-ranging media culture has created new expectations in students of every discipline. She also looks at the power of the digital media on everyone, including the faithful.

Writing in the book's introduction, the author notes: "To me, theological reflection lives and breathes amidst movies and music, in the interwoven webs of the Internet, and in the daily and quite ordinary ways in which digital technology is built into just about every form of media we now engage. If we are to teach and learn in contemporary culture, we have to engage these media. For me, digital technologies provide a wonderful entry point into popular culture."

In her book, the author begins by discussing theological education in changing times and questioning technology and pedagogy in theological education. She goes on to discuss pedagogy in theological education and creating new learning experiences for the twenty- first-century students. Hess explores teaching and learning in online formats and how educators should remember lessons of the past while teaching in the modern digital age. She also explores racism in theological education and digital cultures and provides "low-tech" exercises that engage media cultures.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Hess, Mary E., Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All That We Can't Leave Behind, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Lanham, MD), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Communication Research Trends, September, 2006, Paul A. Soukup, review of Belief in Media: Cultural Perspectives on Media and Christianity, p. 23.

Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, spring, 2006, review of Belief in Media.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005, review of Engaging Technology in Theological Education, p. 23.

Teaching Theology and Religion, 2007, review of Engaging Technology in Theological Education, pp. 199-200.

ONLINE

Luther Seminary,http://www.luthersem.edu/ (May 2, 2008), faculty profile of author.

Mary Elizabeth Hess Home Page,www.luthersem.edu/mhess (May 2, 2008).

Tensegrities,http://www.religioused.org/tensegrities (May 2, 2008).