Author: Read Mercer Schuchardt

Read Mercer Schuchardt is Associate Professor of Communication at Wheaton College. He is the co-author of Understanding Jacques Ellul. He and his wife Rachel have ten children and live in Wheaton, IL.

The Reformation as Media Event

A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of a talk given in 2016 at the Wheaton Theology Conference. The book can be purchased here and an alternate version of the video can be viewed here.  If historians are to attempt to write […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 7)- Technological Determinism

The following excerpt is the seventh portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the printing press produced, in all of the above, the “technological determinism” that is the very reductionist, simplistic, and dismissive concept proposed by many contemporary scholars to buffer themselves against the percepts of […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 6)- The Counter-Reformation

The following excerpt is the sixth portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the Printing Press produced the vast majority of the Counter-Reformation. A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 5)- The Reach of the Printing Press

The following excerpt is the fifth portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the Printing Press produced a multitude of other changes in religious and cultural life in Europe, and many other things independently of the Reformation, but part and parcel of its mindset and formal […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 4)- The Cure of the Reformation

The following excerpt is the fourth portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the printing press produced the cure of the Reformation. A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of a […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 3)- The Mindset of the Reformation

The following excerpt is the third portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the printing press produced the mindset of the Reformation. A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of a talk […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 2)- Indulgences

The following excerpt is the second portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the printing press produced the cause of the Reformation. A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of a talk […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 1)- Technologies of Devotion

The following excerpt is the first portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which Johannes Gutenberg, a devout Catholic, was interested in manufacturing technologies of religious devotion, and how the Printing Press was a natural spiritual heir to the Pilgrim’s Mirrors he was previously producing. A version […]

The Reformation as Media Event – Introduction

Second Nature Journal will be releasing Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece The Reformation as Media Event in an introduction and seven subsequent sections. A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of a talk given in 2016 at the Wheaton Theology Conference. Each […]

Media Literacy Books of the Near Future

Classic media literacy books, re-imagined for the near future in which they will be necessary:   1. The Emojis of Style   2. How to Read a Blog   3. Why Johnny Can’t Tweet