Religion Online provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation.
1. Introduction, Lorne L. Dawson and Douglas E. Cowan
2. Cyberfaith: How
Americans Pursue Religion Online, Elena Larsen Part I: Being Religious in
Cyberspace
3. Popular Religion and the World Wide Web: A Match Made in
(Cyber) Heaven, Christopher Helland
4. Cyberspace as Sacred Space:
Communicating Religion on Computer Networks, Stephen D. O'Leary
5. Young
People, Religious Identity, and the Internet, Mia Lövheim
6. Religion and the
Quest for Virtual Community, Lorne L. Dawson Part II: Mainstream Religions in
Cyberspace
7. Reading and Praying Online: The Continuity of Religion Online
and Online Religion in Internet Christianity, Glenn Young
8. This Is My
Church: Seeing the Internet and Club Culture as Spiritual Spaces, Heidi
Campbell
9. Rip.Burn.Pray.: Islamic Expression Online, Gary R. Bunt
10. The
Cybersangha: Buddhism on the Internet, Charles S. Prebish Part III: New
Religions in Cyberspace
11. New Religions and the Internet: Recruiting in a
New Public Space, Lorne L. Dawson and Jenna Hennebry
12. The Internet as
Virtual Spiritual Community: Teen Witches in the United States and Australia,
Helen A. Berger and Douglas Ezzy
13. The Goddess Net, Wendy Griffin
14. The
House of Netjer: A New Religious Community Online, Marilyn C. Krogh and
Brooke Ashley Pillifant Part IV: Religious Quests and Contests in Cyberspace
15. Virtual Pilgrimage to Ireland's Croagh Patrick, Mark W. Macwilliams
16.
Searching for the Apocalypse in Cyberspace, Robert A. Campbell
17. Contested
Spaces: Movement, Countermovement, and E-Space Propaganda, Douglas E. Cowan
Lorne L. Dawson is Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo in Canada. His many publications include Comprehending Cults: The Sociology of NewReligious Movements and Cults and New ReligiousMovements: A Reader. Douglas E. Cowan is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Sociology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is the author of several books including the forthcoming Cyberhenge:ModernPaganism on the World Wide Web (Routledge, 2004).
