Way back in 2005 I had the pleasure of heading to Auckland to sit with Australian and NZ teachers and postgrad students for two days, exploring the concept of virtual theology. It was an informal setting, where we offered research ideas and did our best to support each other seek new endeavours in researching religion online. The outcome was a special edition in the Oz/Kiwi theological journal Colloquium. That was special for me, my first published article.

Though I couldn’t physically join the group again today, my supervisor and I linked up with the Auckland gang via telephone to explore ideas in research religious authority online. A “special guest” was Heidi Campbell, who has already produced work on the theme, published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and is now seeking how religious authority is understood in blogging.

I offered something similar yet different, suggesting to the group that I could do some more thinking on how the emerging church bloggers in my sample understand and respond to Technorati and Google authority ranking systems according to their religous ethics, and some considerations about what types of posts, or pieces of information, receive high Technorati/Google ranking in an emerging church blog.

To see who else was at the colloquium, go here.

We left the telephone link-up to our devices with a view to connect again with a paper each. While I feel really supported by many faculty members at RMIT, religion online is not your everyday research field in Melbourne. So meeting up with these guys is a very special privilege.

Thank you guys, especially Tim for organising both 2005’s and today’s event with such little time at your disposal.