On Digital Gnosticism : Toward Reception and Territoriality of Heresy in Swedish Podcasting, 2021–2025
Kuhlin, Joel LU
(2026)
In Aries Book Series
- Abstract
- What defines “Gnosticism” articulated in contemporary Swedish podcasting? Rather than presuming the stability of a theological concept, this explorative study gesture toward a theoretical shift in analysis from origin or tradition to a digital reception. Gnosticism functions here as an encoded resource that circulates across epistemic territories, it is claimed, where meaning emerges through mediated reception of religion rather than as univocal inheritance. In this unique cartography, an investigation of a delimited corpus of Swedish podcasts, published between 2021 and 2025, examines Gnosticism mobilized and foregrounded in episode titles, show notes, hashtags, content or thematic structuring. Empirical material comprises eleven... (More)
- What defines “Gnosticism” articulated in contemporary Swedish podcasting? Rather than presuming the stability of a theological concept, this explorative study gesture toward a theoretical shift in analysis from origin or tradition to a digital reception. Gnosticism functions here as an encoded resource that circulates across epistemic territories, it is claimed, where meaning emerges through mediated reception of religion rather than as univocal inheritance. In this unique cartography, an investigation of a delimited corpus of Swedish podcasts, published between 2021 and 2025, examines Gnosticism mobilized and foregrounded in episode titles, show notes, hashtags, content or thematic structuring. Empirical material comprises eleven episodes drawn from ten Swedish podcasts, attempting to encircle an expressive domain shaping a present-day religious scene. The podcasts span a wide ideological spectrum: from apologetically invested conversations, articulated by Christian theologians and church leaders, to historically oriented discussions engaging academic scholarship, as well as conspiratorial and alternative-spiritual articulations. In terms of theory, analysis is framed within an appeal to “knowledge actor” and reception-critical perspective informed by Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model. The podcast episodes present Gnosticism from the perspective of contemporary knowledge actors which articulate authority, suspicion, critique, and soteriological imaginaries, in a digital age. On this basis, the material identifies three analytically distinct yet overlapping discursive territories. It becomes possible to speak of a dominant, a negotiated, and an oppositional territoriality defining the reception of digital Gnosticism. Said categories intend to capture how Gnosticism is continually encoded with meaning rather than suggest fixed typologies. Lastly, the analytical vocabulary developed here extends an invitation to future inquiry into digital Gnosticism and to a deeper analysis of the non-analog reception history of heresiological concepts. Digital Gnosticism contributes conceptually to research on digital religion and reception history by demonstrating how a dogmatic legacy of late antiquity is territorialized and reconfigured in late modernity. This framework captures processes through which historical religious material is rendered as binary data and transmitted as audio, thereby dissolving certain appeals to continuity. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4d5abadd-fe00-467b-bf4f-708422bade1d
- author
- Kuhlin, Joel
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- in press
- subject
- keywords
- Gnosticism, Podcasting, Reception, Religion, Heresy, Territoriality, Stuart Hall, Encoding, Decoding
- host publication
- Swedish Gnosis : The Reception of Gnosticism in Sweden 1600–2025 - The Reception of Gnosticism in Sweden 1600–2025
- series title
- Aries Book Series
- publisher
- Brill
- ISSN
- 1871-1405
- project
- Scripture and Secularism: Mapping the Impact of the Bible on Conceptualizations of Europe
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 4d5abadd-fe00-467b-bf4f-708422bade1d
- date added to LUP
- 2026-09-04 07:55:07
- date last changed
- 2026-09-17 08:56:55
@inbook{4d5abadd-fe00-467b-bf4f-708422bade1d,
abstract = {{What defines “Gnosticism” articulated in contemporary Swedish podcasting? Rather than presuming the stability of a theological concept, this explorative study gesture toward a theoretical shift in analysis from origin or tradition to a digital reception. Gnosticism functions here as an encoded resource that circulates across epistemic territories, it is claimed, where meaning emerges through mediated reception of religion rather than as univocal inheritance. In this unique cartography, an investigation of a delimited corpus of Swedish podcasts, published between 2021 and 2025, examines Gnosticism mobilized and foregrounded in episode titles, show notes, hashtags, content or thematic structuring. Empirical material comprises eleven episodes drawn from ten Swedish podcasts, attempting to encircle an expressive domain shaping a present-day religious scene. The podcasts span a wide ideological spectrum: from apologetically invested conversations, articulated by Christian theologians and church leaders, to historically oriented discussions engaging academic scholarship, as well as conspiratorial and alternative-spiritual articulations. In terms of theory, analysis is framed within an appeal to “knowledge actor” and reception-critical perspective informed by Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model. The podcast episodes present Gnosticism from the perspective of contemporary knowledge actors which articulate authority, suspicion, critique, and soteriological imaginaries, in a digital age. On this basis, the material identifies three analytically distinct yet overlapping discursive territories. It becomes possible to speak of a dominant, a negotiated, and an oppositional territoriality defining the reception of digital Gnosticism. Said categories intend to capture how Gnosticism is continually encoded with meaning rather than suggest fixed typologies. Lastly, the analytical vocabulary developed here extends an invitation to future inquiry into digital Gnosticism and to a deeper analysis of the non-analog reception history of heresiological concepts. Digital Gnosticism contributes conceptually to research on digital religion and reception history by demonstrating how a dogmatic legacy of late antiquity is territorialized and reconfigured in late modernity. This framework captures processes through which historical religious material is rendered as binary data and transmitted as audio, thereby dissolving certain appeals to continuity.}},
author = {{Kuhlin, Joel}},
booktitle = {{Swedish Gnosis : The Reception of Gnosticism in Sweden 1600–2025}},
issn = {{1871-1405}},
keywords = {{Gnosticism; Podcasting; Reception; Religion; Heresy; Territoriality; Stuart Hall; Encoding; Decoding}},
language = {{swe}},
publisher = {{Brill}},
series = {{Aries Book Series}},
title = {{On Digital Gnosticism : Toward Reception and Territoriality of Heresy in Swedish Podcasting, 2021–2025}},
year = {{2026}},
}