Tim Hutchings

Contact

• workRoom C11 Humanities
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work+44 (0)115 84 68935
• Tim.Hutchings@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Dr Hutchings is a sociologist of digital religion and Religious Education. His PhD (Durham University, 2010) was an ethnographic study of five online Christian churches. His subsequent work has included postdoctoral fellowships at Durham University and The Open University (UK) and Umea University and Stockholm University (Sweden), studying topics ranging from the Bible as a digital text to death and mourning in online communities. He joined the University of Nottingham in 2018.

Expertise Summary

Dr Hutchings is interested in the relationship between religion, media and culture, with particular attention to digital forms of Christianity. His research has included studies of online worship; digital evangelism and formation; online community; digital publishing and e-reading; apps and games; and death and dying. He also studies the teaching of Religious Education in primary and secondary schools, and works with the national organisation TRS-UK to build better links between schools and universities. His teaching focuses on religious ethics, media ethics, the study of religion, and research methods.

Teaching Summary

Dr Hutchings teaches undergraduate courses in "Religion, Media and Ethics" and "Abraham's Children" (an introduction to method and theory in the study of religion, with particular attention to… read more

Research Summary

Dr Hutchings researches widely across the field of religion, media and culture. His current studies include attention to Christian videogames, online worship, Christian responses to the Covid-19… read more

Recent Publications

• TIM HUTCHINGS and CLAIRE CLIVAZ, eds., 2021. Christianity and Digital Humanities: An Introduction De Gruyter.
• TIM HUTCHINGS and KAREN O'DONNELL, 2021. Digital pedagogy and spiritual formation: Training for ministry and games for children. In: TIM HUTCHINGS and CLAIRE CLIVAZ, eds., Christianity and Digital Humanities: An Introduction De Gruyter. 281-300
• TIM HUTCHINGS and CLAIRE CLIVAZ, 2021. Introduction. In: TIM HUTCHINGS and CLAIRE CLIVAZ, eds., Christianity and Digital Humanities: An Introduction De Gruyter. 1-20
• TIM HUTCHINGS, 2020. The Changing Role and Function of Journalism for Religious Organisations. In: KERSTIN RADDE-ANTWEILER and XENIA ZEILER, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Journalism Routledge. 46-61

• View all publications

Dr Hutchings teaches undergraduate courses in "Religion, Media and Ethics" and "Abraham's Children" (an introduction to method and theory in the study of religion, with particular attention to religious pluralism and interfaith contact). His teaching experience includes classes in social-scientific research methods, death studies, popular culture and digital media.

Dr Hutchings is available to supervise graduate research on issues related to: religion, media and culture; digital religion; the sociology of religion; interfaith relations; religious media ethics; religion and popular culture; religion and journalism; or the study of RE/Religion and Worldviews teaching.

Current Research

Dr Hutchings researches widely across the field of religion, media and culture. His current studies include attention to Christian videogames, online worship, Christian responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, and religious journalism.

He is also researching the shift to "religion and worldviews" in RE teaching in England, including studies of worldview as an approach, teaching worldviews in the classroom, and teacher responses to the worldview debate.

Future Research

Dr Hutchings is developing a multi-religious research programme exploring how communities think ethically about media and technology. His research explores three questions: How do religious communities use digital media to teach ethical principles? What ethical principles guide religious communities in developing a healthy relationship to media use? And how do religious communities understand the positive and negative contributions of media to a flourishing society?

• TIM HUTCHINGS and CLAIRE CLIVAZ, eds., 2021. Christianity and Digital Humanities: An Introduction De Gruyter.
• TIM HUTCHINGS and KAREN O'DONNELL, 2021. Digital pedagogy and spiritual formation: Training for ministry and games for children. In: TIM HUTCHINGS and CLAIRE CLIVAZ, eds., Christianity and Digital Humanities: An Introduction De Gruyter. 281-300
• TIM HUTCHINGS and CLAIRE CLIVAZ, 2021. Introduction. In: TIM HUTCHINGS and CLAIRE CLIVAZ, eds., Christianity and Digital Humanities: An Introduction De Gruyter. 1-20
• TIM HUTCHINGS, 2020. The Changing Role and Function of Journalism for Religious Organisations. In: KERSTIN RADDE-ANTWEILER and XENIA ZEILER, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Journalism Routledge. 46-61
• TIM HUTCHINGS, KWABENA ASAMOAH-GYADU, GIULIA EVOLVI and SAM HAN, 2020. Global Perspectives on Religion, Media and Public Scholarship Religion, Media and Digital Culture. 9(2), 1
• CELINE BENOIT, TIM HUTCHINGS and RACHAEL SHILLITOE, 2020. Worldview: A Multidisciplinary Report Religious Education Council.
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2019. "The Light of a Thousand Stories": Design, Play and Community in the Christian Videogame Guardians of Ancora Online: Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet. 14(9), 8
• TIM HUTCHINGS, 2019. "Who Do You Remember?" Religion, Facebook and Existential Media. In: TAMARA KOHN, MARTIN GIBBS, BJORN NANSEN and LUKE VAN RYN, eds., Residues of Death: Disposal Reconfigured Routledge. 52-66
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2019. Angels and the Digital Afterlife: Death and Nonreligion Online Secularism and Nonreligion. 8, 7
• TIM HUTCHINGS, 2019. Emotion, Ritual and Rules of Feeling in the Study of Digital Religion. In: ALPHIA POSSAMAI-INESEDY and ALAN NIXON, eds., The Digital Social: Religion and Belief De Gruyter. 110-128
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2019. Digital Christianity. In: GEORGE D. CHRYSSIDES and STEPHEN E. GREGG, eds., The Bloomsbury Handbook to Studying Christians Bloomsbury.
• TIM HUTCHINGS and KATYA LINDEN, 2018. Tourists at Chernobyl: Existential Meaning and Digital Media. In: MATTIAS FRIHAMMAR and HELAINE SILVERMAN, eds., Heritage of Death: Landscapes of Emotion, Memory and Practice Routledge. 209-222
• TIM HUTCHINGS, 2018. Digital Futures of Religion Journalism. In: YOEL COHEN, ed., Spiritual News: Reporting Religion Around the World Peter Lang. 91-108
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2018. Ethnography, Representation, and Digital Media. In: JONAS IDESTROM, ed., What Really Matters: Scandinavian Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography Pickwick. 227-246
• TIM HUTCHINGS, 2017. Creating Church Online: Ritual, Community and New Media Routledge.
• TIM HUTCHINGS and JOANNE MCKENZIE, eds., 2017. Materiality and the Study of Religion: The Stuff of the Sacred Routledge.
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2017. Design and the digital Bible: persuasive technology and religious reading JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RELIGION. 32(2), 205-219
• HUTCHINGS, TIMOTHY, 2017. "We are a United Humanity": Death, Emotion and Digital Media in the Church of Sweden JOURNAL OF BROADCASTING & ELECTRONIC MEDIA. 61(1), 90-107
• HUTCHINGS, TIM and MCKENZIE, JOANNE, 2017. Introduction: The Body of St Cuthbert. In: TIM HUTCHINGS and JOANNE MCKENZIE, eds., Materiality and the Study of Religion: The Stuff of the Sacred Routledge. 1-13
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2017. Augmented graves and virtual Bibles: Digital media and material religion. In: TIM HUTCHINGS and JOANNE MCKENZIE, eds., Materiality and the Study of Religion: The Stuff of the Sacred Routledge. 85-99
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2015. E-Reading and the Christian Bible STUDIES IN RELIGION-SCIENCES RELIGIEUSES. 44(4), 423-440
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2015. Digital Humanities and the Study of Religion. In: SVENSSON, PATRICK and GOLDBERG, DAVID THEO, eds., Between Humanities and the Digital MIT Press. 283-294
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2015. Now the Bible Is an App: Digital Media and Changing Patterns of Religious Authority. In: MARCUS MOBERG, SOFIA SJO and KENNET GRANHOLM, eds., Religion, Media, and Social Change Routledge. 143-161
• GELFGREN, STEFAN and HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2014. The Virtual Construction of the Sacred: Representation and Fantasy in the Architecture of Second Life Churches NORDIC JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND SOCIETY. 27(1), 59-73
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2014. The Dis/Embodied Church: Worship, New Media and the Body. In: VINCETT, GISELLE, ed., Christianity in the Modern World: Changes and Controversies 37-57
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2013. Death, Emotion and Digital Media. In: DOUGLAS DAVIES and NATHANIEL WARNE, eds., Emotions and Religious Dynamics 191-211
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2012. Wiring Death: Dying, Grieving and Remembering on the Internet. In: DOUGLAS DAVIES and CHANG-WON PARK, eds., Emotion, Identity and Death: Mortality Across Disciplines 43-58
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2012. Are You Ready to be Second?: Christian Recruitment Online Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology. 6(2), 233-245
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2012. I am Second: New Media and Christian Storytelling Australian Journal of Communication. 39(1), 71-86
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2011. Contemporary Religious Community and the Online Church INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY. 14(8), 1118-1135
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2010. Online Christian Churches: Three Case Studies Journal for the Academic Study of Religion. 23(3), 325-345
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2010. The Politics of Familiarity: Sight, Sound and the Body in the Online Church Online: Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet. 4, 63-86
• HUTCHINGS, TIM, 2007. Creating Church Online: A Case-Study Approach to Religious Experience Studies in World Christianity. 13(3), 243-260