Process Pop-Up: New Streams: Finding Faith Online
Event Type:
- Dialogue, Discussion
- (Online)
Program:
- Process Pop-Up
Featuring:
- Matthew Baker, Kate Eaton, Robert Nicastro, and Josh Patterson
Organizers:
- Process & Faith and Center for Process Studies
Where do you find inspiration? In a house of worship? Or do you find your faith is fed more these days through online media?
In those halcyon days before Covid, most people never heard of podcasts, and almost no one listened to two to three hour conversations on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify. But the pandemic threw all of us into online spaces we didn’t even know existed. Podcasting is big news.
According to Nancy Marshall (also known as The PR Maven) in an article for Forbes magazine, “Nowhere is the podcast more popular than in the United States, which lays claim to the most podcast listeners in the world (over 100 million). The growth in recent years has been astounding. Nearly 80% of Americans over the age of 12 are now aware of podcasts—up more than 30% from a decade ago. Even in 2015, only a minority of Americans considered listening to podcasts in their day-to-day lives. So much has changed in less than a decade.”
Some of those podcasts and online experiences are now devoted to explorations around faith and spirituality. In the progressive space, podcasts like Homebrewed Christianity, (Re)Thinking Faith, Brew Theology, War Machine, Hunger for Wholeness, several from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, and others are gaining new listeners every day.
Of course, churches had to respond to the fact that their doors were closed too, and worship streaming became the new norm, with varying degrees of success. But some organizations found a way to deliver high quality worship experiences via Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube.
This event will gather a panel of speakers who have been using new media to talk about and experience faith online. We’ll find out how this has impacted them and their listeners as we open our minds to new ways of being faithful.
Featuring
Matthew Baker is an independent researcher working at the intersection of process and radical theologies, Continental philosophy, new materialisms, and embodied cognition. His interests range across thinkers like Whitehead, Deleuze, Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Merleau-Ponty with an abiding curiosity toward the esoteric and hermetic currents within mainstream theological traditions, expanded theories of consciousness, technology, and the ecological and civilizational stakes of our present moment. He has cohosted and produced several podcasts, including ‘Interrupted‘, the official podcast of the Westar Institute, ‘War Machine‘, and ‘The Catacombic Machine‘. Matt is also a professional graphic, sound, and instructional designer, and is currently working as Organizational Change Management Lead for Veolia North America, where he leads change strategy for large-scale enterprise transformation initiatives.
Kate Eaton founded Mishkhah in January 2010 to reveal the mystery of Christ by stirring the senses and opening the heart. Through careful integration of music, images, textures, found objects, light, movement and prayer, we are invited to rediscover the landscape of our souls as we encounter the Holy. Kate brings her experience in directing the arts and music for the first 20 seasons of the Wilderness, a Sunday night service at Saint John’s Cathedral in Denver, CO. Since 2007, the Wilderness has drawn hundreds of new worshipers and regularly gathers a congregation of 100+. Since founding Mishkhah, Kate has partnered with churches, conventions, conferences and a seminary to share her experience in creating worship environments. Her passion lies in returning to the rhythm of the liturgy and to spiritual practices that have shaped people’s lives over centuries.
Robert Nicastro is a theologian and author whose work explores the intersection of religion, science, and technology. Drawing on evolutionary theology and the philosophy of emergence, he investigates how technological development is reshaping human identity, planetary consciousness, and the future of religious meaning. His work seeks to articulate a more integrated vision of humanity’s place within an evolving cosmos and to cultivate forms of meaning capable of addressing the fragmentation of modern life. His doctoral dissertation, The Future as Sole Support: Metaphysics, Hyperphysics, and the Theology of Teilhard de Chardin, offers a reinterpretation of Teilhard’s cosmic vision as a compelling metaphysical framework for addressing the complex challenges of the twenty-first century.
Josh Patterson is a Creative Director and Podcaster from Baltimore who specializes in Process Theology. He has a BA in Digital Media and is currently finishing his Master’s in Theology. Josh is the founder and host of the (Re)thinking Faith Podcast. Josh’s podcasting and writing focus on Process Theology, Radical Theology, Existentialist Philosophy, and what it means to be human. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, playing ice hockey, and spending time with his friends.
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