Religion and Cyberspace Stephen asked for this review a while back. It’s been so long since I’ve read it that I’m not sure my review will be thorough, but I’ll give it a shot.

Religion in Cyberspace presents the latest in research into online religion. Rather than seeking an overview of how the Internet is used for religious purposes, the book endeavours to map out what researchers are thinking about the interplay between Internet, religion and everyday life. The introductory chapter makes this clear: we are in the advent of a new wave of research into religion online that considers how offline religious practice and online religion are related in the lives of 21st century users.

Part I: Coming to terms with religion and cyberspace revisits and revises old theories and practices of research into religion online. Concepts about the virtual and the real are explored again, with the realisation that many in our culture are spending more and more time in online spaces, where important transactions are made and encounters are given meaning. Meditations on the future possibilities of religion are reconsidered, together with ponderings of how much of “real world” religion will possibly be replicated in cyberspace.

Part II: Religious authority and conflict in the age of the Internet delves into the social structures that constitute online religious communities, bearing uptopian and dystopian imaginings with actual occurrences. I found the article by Eileen Barker on authority and control in online communities fascinating and disconcerting.

Part III: Constructing religious identities and communities online was (obviously) of particular use to my study on religious blogging, not just in presenting findings on how the Internet allows for identity performance, but in how the Internet favours contextual theology and allows for marginal religious attitudes to find a home and a centre.

Although published in the last couple of years, the apparent absence of any research into Web 2.0 applications - like blogs and social networking sites - does not mean the book does not prepare the reader for thinking about how religion online will be shaped - and influence the use of - these new technologies. I see the book as a great milestone in the development of Internet research into religion, marking the next step forward for those interested in religion online and establishing a canvas for picturing the place where online and offline religion meet.

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