Elizabeth Drescher, Phd

I am a Christian spirituality scholar who explores the practice of faith by ordinary believers today and in the past. I am particularly interested in how ordinary believers have reshaped the Church by using resources that are traditionally thought of as being under the control of "elite" religious and academic authorities in the contexts of their daily lives. In pre-modern Christian communities, this often involved access by laypeople and lower clergy to spiritual and theological writings and the involvement of laypeople in the day-to-day management of cathedrals, churches, and guilds. Today, new social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are much at the center of new practices of religious leadership, communication, and community, and this is the focus of much of my current research, writing, and speaking. My book Tweet If You Jesus: Communication, Leadership & Community in the Digital Reformation will be released by Church Publishing in Spring 2011. I am available for speaking engagements, workshops, and preaching with church communities, dioceses, and other organizations.