printMedia Theory and the Future of the Church
Berezina N.V.
Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Researcher Institute of Socio- Political Research of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia A-editor@yandex.ru
Berezina N.V. Media Theory and the Future of the Church. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2024. No 8. P. 137-145
The religious aspects of the theory of G. M. McLuhan, the founder of media theory, are considered in application to the current situation in the Russian Orthodox Church. McLuhan’s ideas about the Christian Church, the reasons for its flourishing in the first centuries and weakening in the 15th century (the era of the Reformation, schisms and of Protestantism) are still little known to researchers. According to McLuhan, in modern times, Christianity is repeating the mistakes of the 16th century, which is why Christianity risks weakening and splitting again. McLuhan admits that Eastern Orthodoxy is more in line with the spirit of modernity, for Russia is one of the countries not advanced in written culture as far as the West. McLuhan aims his criticism at the Catholic Church of the Second Vatican Council times, but we clearly see that the behavior of Russian Orthodoxy today might serve as an equally vivid illustration of ignoring the problems of changing eras. Analysis of the construction of the basis of the concept, derived by the author from speeches, interviews and open letters of M. McLuhan, research on the quantity and quality of Orthodox Christians in post- Soviet Russia, taken from open sources, conveys information about the policy of the Orthodox Church in modern Russia, as well as important conclusions of the author.
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