Mediatization of Beliefs: The Adventism from “Morning Star” to the Public Sphere

Abstract

This article examines “the material becoming-forces of symbolic forms” mobilized by the Adventist beliefs in the public sphere of the United States of America during the 19th century. Particularly, the article focuses on the “transformation” of the prophetic letter’s secret of the Bible into “communicative action”, which is both civil and religious. The article aims to test the strengths and the weaknesses of Adventism’s symbolic function in the paradigmatic myth of the State, on the assumption that, in the creation of spiritual meaning in the present world, Adventism is an external referent to social transformation. Theoretical and exploratory in nature, this article also seeks to broaden the understanding of an atypical religion—“without particular religion”—through the old and the new media theory and research program of mediatization.

Keywords

• Adventism
• civil religion
• Freemasonry
• mediatization
• populism