SSRC & the New Landscape of the Religious Blogosphere

Recently the Social Science Research Council released a report on the new landscape of the religion blogosphere that mapped an analyzed the top 100 religion blogs to look at their influence on religious discourse and the academic study of religion. Especially interesting is section 3 which discusses the shape of religion blogosphere which seek to categorize the range of blogs and their approach to religion.

Last week the SSRC asked me and several other academics to respond to the report and the question: How are new media—from blogs and social networking sites to mobile technologies and other forms of digital connection—shaping and reshaping the practice of religion? After some thought, here was my response:

More than reshaping the practice of religion, I would argue that the uptake of new media by religious practioners and the resulting forms of religion online points to larger cultural shifts at work in the practice and perception of religion in society. New media tools support networked forms of community, encourage experimentation with religious identity construction and self-presentation and promote the drawing from multiple and divergent religious sources and encounters simultaneously. This encourages an open, fluid and individualized form of religious engagement ,which compliments what many scholars have noted as a move towards “lived religion” where media resources serve as tools to help redefine religious practice contemporary life (see Pew’s Religion Among Millennial’s report). Yet this religion online is clearly intimately connected to offline religious engagement, serving as a supplement and compliment to the ways many people engage religion offline. In a recent study I found that there are a variety of motivations for religious blogging: from a desire for a more integrated online-offline religious experience, a chance to engage in new levels religious discourse, wanting to make their private spirituality public or hoping to create new spiritual networks with like minds. Blogger’s motivation were also frequently linked to their religious or theological tradition, their beliefs about religious authority, and the offline roles or positions they held within a given faith community. Thus religious blogging seems to be embedded and connected to individual’s offline practices and convictions. (see Religious Authority and the Blogosphere) So I would argue paying careful attention to religious practice and belief online is important, because it provides a forum in which to study in a nuanced way the nature and practice of religion in the global information society.

To read other scholars reflections on the report and the question posed check out this link.

The new landscape of the religion blogosphere

The Social Science Research Council recently released an interesting report entitled The new landscape of the religion blogosphere. According to its synopsis:

This report surveys nearly 100 of the most influential blogs that contribute to an online discussion about religion in the public sphere and the academy. It places this religion blogosphere in the context of the blogosphere as a whole, maps out its contours, and presents the voices of some of the bloggers themselves. For those new to the world of blogs, there is an overview of what blogging is and represents (section 1). The already-initiated can proceed directly to the in-depth analyses of academic blogging (section 2), where religion blogs stand now, and where they may go in the future (sections 3 and 4).

Some of the key survey's respondents and noted bloggers have also been given space to respond online to the report's findings and comment specifically on how blogs and new media changing both academic and public discussions of religion. I encourage you to check this out!

New Publications on Religion Online

I wanted to introduce readers to 3 recent publication on religion online.

Daniel Arasa, Lorenzo Cantoni & Lucio A. Ruiz (Eds.), (2010). Religious Internet Communication. Facts, Trends and Experiences in the Catholic Church, Rome: EDUSC 2010.
Religious Internet Communication. Facts, Trends and Experiences in the Catholic Church offers readers and researchers a comprehensive overview of Catholic usages of Internet communication by providing a solid review of the creativity and motivations of Church innovators who have utilized different facets of network technologies to extend the Church’s work and solidify its internal communications. The book features fifteen cases encompassing various application areas, from Vatican online communication, to that of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, up to the websites of Opus Dei and Communion and Liberation offering a better understand the richness and complexity of online Church communication.


Heidi Campbell, (2010). Religious Authority and the Blogosphere. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(2),pp. 251-276.
It is often argued that the internet poses a threat to traditional forms of authority. Within studies of religion online claims have also been made that the internet is affecting religious authority online, but little substantive work has backed up these claims. This paper argues for an approach to authority within online studies which looks separately at authority: roles, structures, beliefs/ideologies and texts. This approach is applied to a thematic analysis of 100 religious blogs and demonstrates that religious bloggers use their blogs to frame authority in ways that may more often affirm than challenge traditional sources of authority.


Craig Detweiler (Ed.), (2010). Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games With God. Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press.
Detweiler brings together a group of experts to explore the spiritual and theological implications of video gaming and together they explore issues such the formation and implications of gaming communities, how gaming impacts childeren's moral fomration and how religion gets framed and contested in different gaming genres.

GodBlogCon 2007

The 3rd annual GodBlogCon is coming up in Nov 8-9, 2007, to be held in Las Vegas held in conjunction with the Blog World Expo. The conference got it's start in 2005 at Biola University in CA, and recieved media attention as the first-ever Christian blogging conference. Thsi year's confrence promises sessions on "New Media Ministry to the Myspace- Facebook Generation" and "Developing a Pod & Vidcast Ministry". I can't make the conference myself because of my teaching schedule but sounds like a great opportunity to explore the thinking and motivations behind using new media for Christian outreach.