A GUIDE TO RELIGIOUS STUDIES RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET
by John L Gresham MLS PhD
Articles/Papers / Conferences / Documents / Books & Reviews / Courses / Websites
- Walking the Cyberspace Labyrinth "brief reflection on the spiritual dynamics of surfing" by Scott Thumma
- Religion in Cyberpace: Building on the Past by Sr. Ritamary Bradley provides a good introductory reflection on how past religious practices (conversion, community, learning) are carrying over into the environment of cyberspace.
- Prophetic Communities Online? Threat and Promise for the Church in Cyberspace by Dr. Charles Ess, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Drury College, argues that Internet/World Wide Web technologies "are equally capable of furthering and destroying the prophetic impulse."
- Cybertheology includes links to essays: Hypertext-hypergod?; http://www.heavenlycity.org/god? and other essays by Debbie (Gaunt) Herring.
- Christian Mission in the Third Millennium and the Information Superhighway: Challenges for Evangelization by George Plathottam SDB from SEDOS
- Articles by John Phelan from Religion-Online
- Prof. Dr. Robert Fowler reflects on the impact of the electronic information age on Scripture in two articles:
- Brian Reid (Anglicans Online) On Going to Church An Anglican Christian writes about his real-time f2f worship experience as a reminder of what's missing in online worship: I go to church every Sunday to help nurture my feeling of being part of the Body of Christ, to reinforce the sense that I belong to an unbroken chain of the faithful, to the communion of saints. Here on my computer I can read it and write it, and maybe even say it, but when I go to my parish church I believe it.
- The Internet as A Metaphor for God by Charles Henderson Cross Currents 50.1-2 (2000)
- Computer Sends Cloistered Carmelite Worldwide "Sister Mary thinks the Internet might become a ministry for the future. She sees her work as a way to overcome the many negative uses attributed to the modern medium"
- Wired Women: Lost (or Found?) in Cyberspace by Meredith Underwood Journal of Religion and Society 1 (1999) Analysis of women's experience of gender, embodiment and religion in cyberspace.
- Special Issues & Collections:
- Spirituality Online Special issue of CMC Magazine (March 1997) with articles on techgnosis, cyber faith communities, Teilhard's noosphere and more.
- Religion Online/ Techno-Spirituality Special issue of Cybersociology webzine (1999) with articles on cyborgs, cyberspace as sacred space and comparisons between technological and spiritual development.
- Articles on Religion and the Web @ Hartford Center for Religion Research
- Schroeder, Ralph; Heather, Noel and Lee, Raymond. 1999. 'The Sacred and theVirtual: Religion in Multi-User Virtual Reality', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 4(2)
- Wired Churches, Wired Temples: Taking Congregations and Missions into Cyberspace Pew Foundation Survey on use of the Internet. by religious congregations.
- More Articles? Do you know of other online articles about the interactions between religion/religious studies and such topics as virtual reality, online communication, hypertext, computer culture, the information age, information ethics, etc.? Please email me and I'll consider the article for inclusion in this list.
Visit these conference sites to find numerous papers related to cyber-religion
- Theology and Pedagogy in Cyberspace April 2004 conference in Evanston Illinois.
- 2001 Theology and Pedagogy in Cyberspace conference (includes some online presentations)
- European Christian Internet Conferences Annual conferences since 1996. Many of the papers are available in the ECIC Archives.
- Cyber-Religion Articles from the 2001 CESNUR Conference: The Spiritual Supermarket: Religious Pluralism in the 21st Century:
- Cyberspace and Religious Life: Conceptualizing the Concerns and Consequences by Lorne Dawson
- From Parchment to Pixels: Christian Counter-Cult on the Internet by Douglas Cowan
- Revenge of the Machines: on modernity, new technology and animism by Stef Aupers
- Technoshamanism, cyber-sorcery and schizophrenia by David Green.
Church Statements & Other Documents
- Catholic
- The Church and Internet Pontifical Council for Social Communication (2002).
- Ethics in Internet Pontifical Council for Social Communication (2002).
- Internet: A New Forum for Communicating the Gospel Pope John Paul II. World Communications Day Message (2002). See also The Christian Message in A Computer Culture (1990) and Other World Communications Day Messages delivered by John Paul II.
- Your Family and Cyberspace A Statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops
- The Church in Cyberspace Archdiocese of Cincinnati Office of Communications
- Ethics in Communications (2000) Pontifical Council for Social Communications
- Others? Do you know of official denominational or religious institution sponsored statements or documents regarding religious, spiritual, or ethical implications of the Internet? Email me the url to add to this list. Thanks!
Books (online books & excerpts or websites for print books)
- The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet by Margaret Wertheim (Excerpt from Chapter 7)
- Give Me That Online Religion By Brenda Brasher. A collection of links related to each chapter of this book.
Book Reviews
- Give Me That Online Religion by Brenda Brasher Reviewed by John Gresham.
- Christians in a .com world by Gene Edward Veith and Christopher Stamper Reviewed by John Gresham.
- Habits of the high-tech heart: living virtuously in the information age by Quentin J.Schultze Reviewed by John Gresham
- Religion and Cyberspace Brenda Brasher, Mount Union College
Websites
- Cyber theology and Cyber Religion Links Pages
- CyberTheology Theology in, of and for cyberspace. Resources for theological reflection on cyber culture including annotated list of books, links to articles and websites compiled by Debbie Herring.
- Cyber Theology by Eva Borowik-Dabrowska. Articles, bibliography, links from Catholic cybertheologian in Poland.
- Links compiled by Gene Thursby
- Virtual Religions Links to online religions or pseudo-religions
- Virtual Rituals Online prayer, meditation and more
- Virtual Theorists cyber-sociologists and cyber-philosophers
- Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies
- Society Religion and Technology Project: Internet Issues Page
- Cyber-Churches
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Updated 10/18/06