About
About the Journal for Religion, Film and Media
JRFM is a peer-reviewed, open access, online publication. It offers a platform for scholarly research in the broad field of religion and media, with a particular interest in audio-visual and interactive forms of communication. It engages with the challenges arising from the dynamic development of media technologies and their interaction with religion in an interdisciplinary key. It is published twice a year, in May and November.
JRFM is edited by a network of international experts in film, media and religion with professional experience in interdisciplinary research, teaching and publishing, linking perspectives from the study of religion and theology, film, media, visual and cultural studies, and sociology. It is published in cooperation between different institutions in Europe and the USA, particularly the University of Graz, the University of Munich and Villanova University, in cooperation with the Schüren publishing house in Marburg.
Announcements
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2024-11-15
New issue "Escaping the Moment. Time Travel as a Negotiation of Transcendence" is now available
How much we would sometimes like to travel back in time to do things differently, make different decisions or undo them. A glimpse into the time after us would also be desirable from time to time. Unfortunately - or perhaps rather - fortunately, time travel has so far only been possible in our imagination. Who knows what could happen if everyone could suddenly jump around in time and change its course to their own liking ... All little creators...
This issue examines not only the fascinating and highly popular topic of time travel and its adaptations in various media, but also sheds light on its religious, ethical, and sociological implications from a variety of perspectives.
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2024-06-14
Call for Papers. Death, Loss and Mourning in Film and Media
JRFM 2026, 12/1 (May 2026); Deadline submissions: 1 June 2025
Death, Loss and Mourning in Film and Media
What are then the narratives the media and popular culture offer us about death? How can media, online spaces, influencers, and popular culture be a part of loss and mourning? What notions of an afterlife do films and the online world provide? How are religious imaginaries about death reinvented in media representations? These are some of the questions we encourage authors to explore in this upcoming issue of the Journal for Religion, Film and Media. Though focusing on death, this issue is also very much about life. It aims to highlight how death, loss, and mourning is also a part of what it means to be human, a notion not always acknowledged in today’s culture.
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2024-05-06
Call for Papers. Exploring the Diversity of Representations of Islam in Film and TV Series
JRFM 2025, 11/2 (November 2025); Deadline submissions: 15 February 2025
Exploring the Diversity of Representations of Islam in Film and TV Series
This issue of JRFM examines the diversity of media representations of the rich and varied world of Islamic traditions and practices. We recognize that Islam and film interact on many levels, in particular as this medium provides a space for exploring contentious themes, for challenging stereotypes, and for experimenting with imagination. This issue investigates this fascinating field by specifically exploring the breadth and depth of the relationship between varied practices and traditions of Islam and audiovisual media, particularly films and TV series.
Volume 10, No. 2Escaping the Moment. Time Travel as a Negotiation of Transcendence
Issue description
Time travel is a widespread popular cultural motif that copes with the transcendent, as it goes beyond physical boundaries and exceeds what is empirically observable. As the contributions in this issue show, the time travel motif not only expresses the tension between a Now an ... See the full issue