SAC Presents: Angela Rudert

Digital Word: new age gurus and the creation of scripture Looking at a particular guru, Anandmurti Gurumaa, and her engagement with multi-media technology, this presentation takes as its premise the “traditional” idea that the guru's words are also Word (scripture) and it examines how digital technology and the guru’s own innovations (in response to particular audiences and markets) are changing the very way we encounter scripture today. We will examine how contemporary gurus disseminate teachings, how audiences hear and see Word in various digital forms and in various formats through the gurus’ own multimedia websites (and via larger public domains of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter) in order to observe how digital Word, even as it responds to a particular audience, expands beyond that audience opening itself up to ever new conversation partners. Included among the gurus’ audiences are textual and ethnographic scholars of religion, whose own location in the preservation of scripture today cannot be ignored.