A hard-hitting, insightful look at religion on the Internet explores a heavenly host of fascinating topics, from online monasteries to millennial hype, and their influence on our concept of God, worship, and the practice of faith.
Explores a host of topics from online monastaries to millennial hype, and their influence on our concept of God, worship, and the practice of faith.
Brasher (religion and philosophy, Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio) looks at how the Internet has allowed traditional religions to reach the unaffiliated, and anyone to start a religion for the cost and effort of getting a domain name. She argues that the spread of religion to cyberspace does not signal technology's triumph over faith, but assures religion's place in the wired universe alongside commerce and communication. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
The future of online religion is now!Operating online allows long-established religious communities to reach the unaffiliated like never before. More startling is the ease by which anyone with internet access can create new circles of faith. Electronic shrines and kitschy personal Web "altars" express adoration for living celebrities, just as they honor the memory of long-departed martyrs. In Give Me That Online Religion, online religion expert Brenda Brasher braves a new world in which cyber concepts and technologies challenge conventional ideas about the human condition--all the while attempting to realize age-old religious ideals of transcendence and eternal life.
As the Internet continues its rapid absorption of culture, Give Me That Online Religion offers pause for thought about spirituality in the cyber-age. Religion's move to the online world does not mean technology's triumph over faith. Rather, Brasher argues, it assures religion's place in the wired universe, along with commerce and communications--meeting the spiritual demands of Internet generations to come.
