Online Communities, Religious

Understanding Online Religion

Reflective of the Internet in general, religion online is a marketplace of multiple options. Every major religion, from Islam and Christianity to Zoroastrianism, is represented in cyberspace, and new religions unique to the Internet, such as Technopaganism (neopaganism adapted and celebrated in a technological context), have also made their appearance.

Bauwens (1996) has identified three conceptions of spiritual engagement online: the electric Gaia, the god project, and the sacramental cyberspace. In the electric Gaia, technology is considered necessary for people to improve their sense of self and being. In the god project, technology becomes a crude substitute for spiritual power or enables people to search for the deus ex machina, the god who appears suddenly to solve a problem. In sacramental cyberspace, the Internet is a place to further the aims of various religions or even to serve as a tool for transmitting spiritual energy.

Helland (2000) has suggested two classifications of the ways that people use the Internet for spiritual purposes—religion online and online religion. Religion online refers to the transfer of traditional forms of one-to-many communication to the online environment, such as establishing a Web site for a religious organization. Online religion refers to new forms of communication through many-to-many networked interaction, such as online prayer or worship services. According to both Bauwens and Helland, online religion gives religious practitioners the ability to re-present their beliefs and practices and thereby either to create religious innovations or to repackage old ideas.

Cyberreligion also gives spiritual seekers the opportunity to explore diverse religions easily. Brasher (2001) surveyed a spectrum of new religious expressions online, from cyberpilgrimages and virtual shrines to cyberseders that help people celebrate Judaism. By invigorating the concepts of sacred time, presence, and spiritual experience, cyber-religion allows people to see the religious cultural heritage of many faiths and thus can contribute to interfaith understanding.

Forms of Religious Online Communities

The term religious online community encompasses a variety of interactive online groups that share a common religious bond or affiliation and unite through a specific faith-based discussion topic. While some online religious communities are formed through formally recognized religious institutional structures, many spring up at the grassroots level, emerging as people find others online and form a group conversation on a specified topic. Online religious communities focus on various religious issues, including spirituality or mysticism, [Page 1028]beliefs such as prophecy or liturgy, and denomination or organization, such as Catholic, Hindu, or Baptist. While many Web sites refer to themselves as online communities, most provide interaction only with hypertext and images rather than with actual people. True online religious communities are those facilitating two-way interactions between individuals and groups through various computer technologies.

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