Here are some pictures of all the people I met at the various colleges and seminaries. Everyone was beautifully welcoming, and treated me like royalty. These guys should be careful because a white guy like me could get very used to that.

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It’s also because Kerala is one of the world’s most religious places on the planet, and when it comes to religious diversity, may be one of the world’s most peaceful. Though predominantly Hindu, Kerala claims to be the oldest Christian and Muslim missionary outposts. It is believed St Thomas arrived with his Gospel as early as 60AD, and many say that European colonialists of the second millennium were so cut to find the place already Christianised. Here we have photos of the Syrian Orthodox Church of St Thomas (you know him, that guy who didn’t really believe Jesus came back, and according to the Syrians, was the only witness of Mary’s Assumption), and a complex to commemorate his arrival at the point of his disembarkation. The shrine inside allegedly contains a piece of his arm. A bell tolls automatically at the shrine’s opening, calling all pilgrims, including many who have come from some other parts of his corpse in Ortona, Italy.

According to my good mate Fr Jose, my gracious host throughout my stay, Kerala is about forty percent, Christian, and the Catholic:Protestant:Evangelical ration is about 2:1:1. Though of all religious advertising that I could see on TV and posters and billboards on every street, most were either Hindu or Evangelical. Indeed January and February seem to be the state’s festival season, and the time for the world’s pilgrims to come together, whether they be Hindu, Hare Krishna, Jane or how-cool-is-JC-right-now dudes. And like Hindus, Christians proudly wear their religion of the sleeve, and their house, and their car etc. I couldn’t tell if way they adorned themselves or their belongings was more to evangelise than it was some breed of Animist-Christian sanctification.

Though there are about as many Christians in Kerala as there are Hindus, Islam is running a very close third (a ratio of about 4:4:3). Islam has been here since the seventh century, and was welcomed by the people, to the extent that the first mosque was commissioned by the then Hindu king. The mosque itself contains a museum that celebrates not only Islam but the state’s Hindu and Christian heritage. Its curator wanted to offer a tour of the entire complex, and told much of how the three religions lived and worked in harmony in Kerala, but he found it difficult to share my attention with all the attendants present who wanted to tell me their own stories of the place. I think they saw me as a bit of a weird novelty, and assumed that because I greeted them in Arabic, that I was Muslim. I didn’t really try to correct them– not sure if that was a good thing to do or not.

This above is the mosque, and below is a model of the three major religious centres of Kerala, used in presentations on the place’s history.

But Kerala is also Hindu, and I saw brilliant examples of this. I have actually no idea whether these were weekly events or if it was a particular time of year, but I saw houses and families everywhere being greeted by elephants and drums, and music seemed to fill the air.

Ah, elephants, so many elephants…

In the middle of my first night in the country I was woken by what I thought was the boogey man finally coming to get me, only to discover a little later (after much embarassment) that my room overlooked a hidden Hindu temple, where people meet at all hours to chant. It eventually became my nightly lullaby… (sorry there’s not much to see in this video, but it is like 4am).

Anyway, my lectures focussed a little less on theory and more on practical tips about making a blog and blogging etiquette. While I definitely prefer all the theory stuff (hey, so sue me), I think I provided a bit of what they need.

Frs Jose, Andrew and Vinus have been awesome hosts for me, and very supportive. I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with them. This is about the time when I call up my kids and say “How would you like to live in India? I’ll meet you at the airport in 20 hours!” Pics to come later.

Here are a few of the topics I’ll be talking about:

Human interaction in Cyberspace

The worldwide web (internet) is a virtual world (Cyberspace) alongside our natural world. Internet technology helps humans create social environments that shape their understandings of self, the world, and the other. Particularly, the web 2.0 technology and the networked communities, blogs and podcasts provide virtual space for all forms human interaction.

Religion Online

Ever since the birth of internet, religion is present and active in cyberspace. The increasing popularity of these Internet tools to express a religious identity and seek connections with others has impact on how people participate in religious institutions in the real world. Many fear that religion online will lead to the ultimate demise of organized religions like Christianity. Others think that the democratizing force of online religion affects the authority of the traditional religious offices. What is the future of religion in the digital age?!

Godcasting: exploring religious audiences and podcasting communities

Today, religious programs are the second most popular genre of podcasting. Blogging and podcasting are working to create and enhance online religious communities, and shape relationships between producers and consumers of podcasted religious content. Specifically, it is interesting to explore how bloggers connect online life in a highly technologised society with traditional notions of religious life. This workshop will be an exploration on how the web 2.0 technology and the networked communities, blogs and podcasts provide virtual space to explore new forms of religious expression.

IMPACT is is a Portal for Communication Research, Training and Formation. It is a Christian response to the challenge of the emerging communication culture. IMPACT program aims at forming leaders conversant with the predominant and emerging communication culture.

Call Description

In the initial waves of religion and internet research focus was often placed on how the internet would drastically change religious practice and ideology, due to growth of religious communities online and integration of religious rituals and practices into digital environments. Much attention was given to the novel uses and trends such as those seen in New Religious Movements online where once fringe or secretive religious groups were given a public platform making them more visible. Focus was also placed on how mainstream religions, such as Christianity and Islam, were appropriating to new media technologies or critiquing internet use and with a particular focus on the United states and Western Europe. As the internet has become increasingly embedded in the everyday lives of many researchers attention is now being drawn to the connection between online and offline religious practice, structures and belief. Furthermore, the rise of new software and models of internet communication, often referred to as Web 2.0, has created a heightened interest in issues of user lead content creation and web based social interaction. At the heart of these developments is an important issue, considering to what degree spiritual practices online are transformative or to what extent they reflect larger changes in religious culture and institutions offline. This special issue of Information, Communication and Society (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rics) seeks to explore this area by considering what we think we know about the relationship between online and offline religion and what issues are still are in need of more detailed investigation.

Aims and Scope

In particular this special issues aims to explore the relationship between online and offline forms of religious practice and community. Key questions include:
- What is truly unique about the performance of religion online?
- How is the practice and conception of religion online connected to offline practices, communities and institutions?
- In what ways does religion online reflect trends seen offline in religious culture and practice?
- How do these transformations connect with issues of globalization and glocalization?

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

- The interactions between online communities and offline religious institutions
- How participants in online religious activities frame their involvement in offline religious groups
- Responses of offline religious authorities to religious manifestations and practices online from their community or tradition
- Religious organizations and/or denominations use of the internet, or debates regarding official policy towards and new media use
- Attempts of diasporic communities to connect with their faith tradition and sacred sites via the Internet
- Theoretical work that links research on contemporary religious practice to online religion, i.e. the relationship between internet use and everyday religion, the role of emotions in religious internet use
- How religious actors deal with questions of time, space and information management in online and offline society
- How Virtual worlds and computer games seek to present or re-present "sacred space"

Submission Details

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract to the guest editors as an e-mail attachment to religiononline@yahoo.com no later than 10 February 2010. The four best abstracts will also be submitted as a panel for consideration at the International Media, Religion and Culture Conference to be held in Toronto, Canada (9-13 August 2010, http://journalism.ryerson.ca/cms/websites/CMRC2010/index.aspx). Please include full contact information and a biographical note (up to 75 words) on each of the authors and indicate whether you wish to be considered for the MRC panel submission.

Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by 6 March 2010 and will then be invited to submit a full paper to the guest editors. Final manuscripts should be no more than 8,000 words, including notes and references, conform to APA style, and submitted by 20 August 2010. Please note all papers will be subject to anonymous peer review following submission.

Important dates:

10 February 2010: Deadline for abstract submission
6 March 2010: Announcement of results and full paper invitations
9-13 August: MRC Conference (http://journalism.ryerson.ca/cms/websites/CMRC2010/index.aspx)
20 August 2010: Submission of full papers October 2011: Publication of special issue

Malcolm X was a separationist until he went to Mecca. Life had taught him that American blacks and whites could not live in harmony, and that freedom could only come from the usurping of power from one race to the other. Anything better would be a pipe dream, a fairy tale. Then he went to Mecca. On his return, he announced that living together as siblings rather than enemies is possible, because he had seen it. Anything better is not only possible; it is actual, it is living and it is present.

We who only ever get superficial glimpses of this holy city, in stories and pictures that flood Western media to either glamorise or demonise, but always make alien and unknowable, could describe Mecca as a virtual reality. Engaging all senses in ritual and spectacle, entrants lose themselves in the mass, immersed in a spirit of communion. Yet while many abide there, few reside there. It is an city out of time, both eternal and momentary, a cittá invisibile, a quantum place. Politics and commerce cram themselves into its doorways, and sometimes creep in, but are always thwarted. Even the temporal self is relinquished. Individuals shed themselves of the clothes and adornments of ordinary life, so that there are no wives or pop-stars, kings or doctors. They let the place write on them with white linen, rubbing out their everyday identity.

Recent conversations with some Muslim friends give me the impression that the converse is true. Mecca is not the virtual reality; Earth is. In Mosques as in homes and offices at designated prayer moments, Muslims turn their bodies in Mecca’s direction, and turn their bodies into nodes in the network of Islam. For Muslims, daily living is but an emanation, a projected image, of the true life that is found far away in space and time. The Hajj, a pillar of Islam and a directive for all in the faith, means pilgrimage. It is notable that Muslims are asked that, at least once in their lives, to not be in Mecca, but go there. While the experience of being in the holy city may transform the individual, what is important for the faith is the leaving their home and returning, so that the world may be transformed.

I will not be so arrogant and simple as to say that Cyberspace is to the spiritual Cyborg as Mecca is to the Muslim. I will say that both Cyborgs and Muslims have something to teach us about our virtual/actual dichotomy. Two bloggers in my study said to me:

[Blogging] provides new opportunities but at the end of the day it’s still not the same level of community. But it helps us keep in touch. For example, these guys are far more significant for me in my Christian life than people in my local church. [...] I wouldn’t survive in a local church without connections like this. Talking with these guys every other night sort of helps you survive [...] it’s one thing being marginalised, it’s another thing to be able to talk about it over the net.

I actually need one foot in both or else I don’t survive.

It seems the Cyborg identifies her/his situation as on the edge of both real world and online community life. Neither are complete. The spirituality of the Cyborg is not named by their residence in Cyberspace, but in the pilgrimage to and from it, in an endeavour to both be transformed and reform the communities and relationships in daily living.