Religion and Cyberspace

"Religion and Cyberspace" explores how religious individuals and groups are responding to the opportunities and challenges that cyberspace brings. It asks how religious experience is generated and enacted online, and how faith is shaped by factors such as limitless choice, lack of religious authority, and the conflict between recognized and non-recognized forms of worship. Combining case studies with the latest theory, its twelve chapters examine topics including the history of online worship, virtuality versus reality in cyberspace, religious conflict in digital contexts, and the construction of religious identity online. Focusing on key themes in this groundbreaking area, it is an ideal introduction to the fascinating questions that online religion presents.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Waves of Research, Morten T. Højsgaard, Margit Warburg; Part 1 Coming to Terms With Religion and Cyberspace; Chapter 2 The Mediation of Religious Experience in Cyberspace, Lorne L. Dawson; Chapter 3 Utopian and Dystopian Possibilities of Networked Religion in the New Millennium, Stephen D. O'Leary; Chapter 4 Cyber-Religion, Morten T. Højsgaard; Part 2 Religious Authority and Conflict in the Age of the Internet; Chapter 5 Crossing the Boundary, Eileen Barker; Chapter 6 Seeking for Truth, David Piff, Margit Warburg; Chapter 7 A Symbolic Universe, Massimo Introvigne; Part 3 Constructing Religious Identities and Communities Online; Chapter 8 Constructing Religious Identity On the Internet, Mia Lövheim, Alf G. Linderman; Chapter 9 Online Buddhist Community, Mun-Cho Kim; Chapter 10 Virtual As Contextual, Debbie Herring; Chapter 11 Christian Web Usage, Michael J. Laney; Chapter 12 Digital Waco, Mark MacWilliams;