Surveying Our Understanding of Digital Religion

You are cordially invited to an engaging, upcoming panel entitled" Surveying Our Understanding of Digital Religion" at the upcoming American Academy of Religion  meeting in San Francisco.

This event will be held on Saturday, 19 Nov 2011 from 9:00 am-11:30 am, in the Telegraph Hill room at the Intercontinental Hotel. The panel is sponsored by the Media, Religion and Culture group.

This panel will together bring scholars to reflect on how digital and mobile technologies are changing the field of religious studies by altering and enhancing our understanding how people practice and interpret religion within contemporary culture. It will also feature the work of a forthcoming collection of essays, Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds (Routledge), which explore key issues and questions that arise from religious engagement online. Specifically, panel participants will address how online ritual practice challenge traditional notions of embodiment and spirituality, how the internet informs and challenges traditional notions of religious community/authority, how users construct religious identities in digital environments and how the digital realm is shaping our understanding of the very nature of religion.

Panelists Include:
Christopher Helland, Dalhousie University, talking about ritual online
Mia Lövheim,  University of Uppsala, taking about identity online
Heidi A Campbell, Texas A & M University, talking about community online
Gregory Grieve, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, talking about changing understandings of religion online
Stewart Hoover, University of Colorado-Boulder [Respondent]

Please come and join us! And feel free to pass on this information to anyone else you feel who might be interested.

CFP for Conference Workshop--RELIGION IN CYBERSPACE 2011

RELIGION IN CYBERSPACE 2011

Call for Papers

You are cordially invited to participate in the workshop 'Religion in Cyberspace 2011' which will take place at the 9th international conference Cyberspace 2011 held in Brno, Czech Republic, 25-26 November 2011.

Illustrative topics
- religious normative frameworks in cyberspace, networking diasporas,
- religious collaborative environments, on-line counseling, on-line
- fatwas and cyber muftis, new religious movements, religious discourses
- in cyberspace, methodology of online-religion research, rituals in cyberspace etc.

Note: Authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit their papers for peer review to Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology (MUJLT).

Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: 31 July 2011
Notice on acceptance deadline: 31 August 2011
Full papers deadline: 31 December 2011

Abstract formal requirements
Range: max. 1.500 characters incl. spaces
Submission: on-line at http://www.cyberspace.muni.cz/

Vit Sisler,Workshop Chair
Charles University in Prague
Faculty of Arts & Philosophy

CFP: Special Issue of CyberOrient

Call for Papers for Special Issue of CyberOrient: Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East

Today we witness an unprecedented proliferation of the internet and satellite television as well as growing interdependency of various media outlets in the Middle East and the Muslim world. This process includes media that morph into each other, messages that migrate across boundaries, and social networks that utilize multiple technologies. The unanticipated assemblages formed by these media contribute simultaneously to preserving traditional cultural norms and religious values while asserting cosmopolitan and global identity; appealing to a local audience while addressing transnational communities; and asserting conformity with existing political order while fueling resistance and public discontent. Therefore, this special issue of CyberOrient aims to transcend the media-centric logic and to analyze the impact of the internet and new media in the light of the interdependency and hybridization within broader social, cultural and linguistic context of the Middle East and the Muslim world.

Aims and Scope
The special issue of CyberOrient aims to bring together the state of the art research dealing with the growing influence of the internet and new media in the Middle East.

Key questions include:
- What opportunities for representation have the internet and new media created in the Middle East, and how has it influenced popular culture, language and norms?
- Does the proliferation of sites by individuals from various cultural backgrounds democratize political and religious behavior in the Middle East?
- What does the internet and the social networks it enables offer to groups who have not traditionally had access to an open public domain for expression, especially women and marginalized sects?
- Does the wide range of views posted on the internet foster tolerance and greater understanding on current issues of political and religious strife?
- What is the impact of the virtual Islamic community on the practices of Muslims worldwide?
- How does access to internet cafes and global connections influence cultural norms in Middle Eastern societies?
- What role do new media such as video games and video clips play in the identity construction of Middle Eastern and Muslim youth?

Submission Details
Please, submit a manuscript no longer than 8000 words to the editors as an e-mail attachment to Daniel.M.Varisco@hofstra.edu and vsisler@gmail.com no later than 1 December 2010. Please format your submission as follows:

- Cover page with your name, affiliation, address, article titlwe
- Second page with article title, abstract (150-200 words) and three or four key words. Do not put your name on this page or on the pages of the following text.
- Article with references at the end, following the AAA format(http://www.aaanet.org/publications/guidelines.cfm).

Please note all papers will be subject to anonymous peer review following submission.

Important dates
1 December 2010: Deadline for manuscript submission
15 January 2010: Announcement of results of peer-review
1 March 2011: Publication of special issue

Inquiries and submission of manuscripts should be addressed to:

Daniel Martin Varisco, Daniel.M.Varisco@hofstra.edu
Vit Sisler, vsisler@gmail.com

About the Journal
CyberOrient  is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. The aim of the journal is to provide research and theoretical considerations on the representation of Islam and the Middle East, the very areas that used to be styled as an “Orient”, in cyberspace, as well as the impact of the internet and new media in Muslim and Middle Eastern contexts.

On Religious Apps in a Mobile world

CyberOrient is an Online Journal on the "Virtual Middle East" hosted by the website Digital Islam. It's latest issue features a piece by Gary Bunt on Surfing the App Souq: Islamic Applications for Mobile Devices, which is worth checking out. As his abstract states:

This article introduces issues associated with Islamic apps for mobile devices, and surveys some of the products that have emerged into the market. It considers the potential impact of mobile phone interfaces in relation to interpretations of Islam and the use of Islamic resources, given that mobile devices have widened potential audiences for online materials in various forms, especially in areas where other forms of digital access may be more problematic. The article also explores some of the religious and ethical concerns associated with mobile phone use.

There has been a lot of interest in the press on religion and mobile technologies and apps, such as the Vancouver Sun's piece last week on Faith and Smart Phones and Fox's coverage of Religious Apps. Rachel Wagner is doing some interesting work in this area and I for one look forward to her forthcoming book called Godwired that will look in detail at religious engagement/framing of technology in a digital, mobile world.

Postdoc in Religion and Media

There is an opening for an interesting post-doc position within digital humanities in 2010 hosted by the University of Umeå in Sweden under the theme is “Religion and media”. The Postdoc also has the opportunity to be associated with Jørgen Straarup and Stefan Gelfgren’sproject “Pinocchio goes to church: the Religious Life of Avatars”.

The Position runs for one year at approximately SEK 200 000 (tax free) and requires residency in Umeå, Sweden. HUMlab is an internationally recognized center for the humanities and information technology. Much of the work takes place in a 5,300 square feet studio space at the center of the university and in different kinds of digital and hybrid environments. HUMlab is based on a double affiliation model where much of the work is done in close collaboration with the humanities (or other) departments. HUMlab offers an open, friendly, creative and intellectually rich milieu for doing work in the humanities and information technology. Full details can be found at: http://blog.humlab.umu.se/?page_id=1806

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.

CFP for Special issue of Online – Heidelberg Internet Journal

Call for Papers : “Religions on the Internet - Aesthetics and the Dimensions of the Senses”
Special issue of Online – Heidelberg Internet Journal, due for publication in October 2010

We herewith invite scholars from Religious, Cultural, Social, Media Studies and other related disciplines to hand in proposals for possible articles which deal with questions of the aesthtics and sensual dimensions of religions and rituals on the Internet.

When we look on the various representations of religious groups and individuals on personal homepages, in weblogs, in virtual worlds or the like and when we follow their communications on religious topics online, the visual and auditive aspects of the medium seem to play a major role. Using pictures, videos, icons, as well as music and other sounds, the internet users can design a multisensual virtual environment which might implicate its own notion of ‘aesthetics’. This might be the case in e.g. a virtual Church environment which is embedded in an area with plashy waterfalls and bird sound instead of organ music or for religious groups in social networks who link to home-made Youtube videos, online games and other homepages. But we also must not forget the connection to these sensual dimensions that refer to and rely on the (offline) bodies of religious practitioners. Religions and rituals on the Internet might most probably provoke emotional or other physical reactions. Furthermore, in transfer processes between the offline and online realm there might be a redefinition of what seems to be an ‘appropriate’ design for religious settings.

As the aesthetic and sensual dimensions of religions and rituals on the internet are so far a mostly neglected area of research, we call upon theoretical and methodical reflection as well as on empiric studies referring to these topics. We are looking forward to receive the title and a short abstract (max. 250 words) of the planned article until 31st of March 2010.

Further important dates and deadlines are:
April 15th: Notification on the acceptance of your proposal by the editors
August 31st: Submission deadline for full article
September 15th: Deadline for comments, requests of revisions by the editors (if
necessary)
September 31st: Submission deadline for revised articles
November, 1st: Publication of the Online Journal

Please send your abstract to the following Email-addresses:
Simone.Heidbrink@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de
Nadja.Miczek@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de

CFP on book on Church and New Media

Call for Papers for Edited Book on CHURCH AND NEW MEDIA: PERSPECTIVES, PRACTICES AND FUTURES
Editors: Pauline Hope Cheong, Peter Fischer-Nielsen, Stefan Gelfgren and Charles Ess

Background and Rationale
This book brings together, for the first time in five years, a collection of key articles in the area of religion and the Internet, particularly as new media relates to church, mission and interfaith dialogue. In light of the increasing mediation of everyday life in many parts of the world, this book approaches online religion with a fresh perspective, to account for contemporary developments in media and spirituality, with implications for faith and other civic organizations.

Arguably, as institutionalized religions and movements rush to leverage the Web to improve their reach, religious communication on the Internet takes an increasingly significant role alongside more traditional venues for such discourse. It may be, however, that religious use associated with new media problematizes established faith rituals, and religious community building in both its conception and operationalization. Changes in the Church can also
be conceived as intertwined with a range of other forms of social and political developments, such that new media acts as an agent and practice to challenge and transform the influence and authority of the Church. Furthermore, as ³new² media is a moving target, there may be past concepts that are more able to explain the nature of church life (such as evangelical
mission and systematic theology) or new concepts that are being developed that are better able to address the diversity and complexity of contemporary social and religious life (such as the ideas of social networking, viral marketing and church branding).

This edited collection aims to address and inform such issues and debates by offering new empirical, theoretical, and theological insights into how religious life continues to transform and be transformed by these new communication technologies. Current contributors, together with the editors, include Knut Lundby, Heidi Campbell, Mark Johns and Jørgen Straarup.
We hereby invite proposals for additional chapters (particularly in the historical and theological sections as explained below) that will complement and expand upon these contributions.

Section 1: Theoretical Approaches
This section maps the range of theoretical perspectives on religion and new media. A number of different theories have proven useful for researchers and scholars ¬ but new media also challenge our theoretical frameworks and categories. How far do current theories ³work² in helping us research and understand the complex interactions between religious life and new media ¬and how far are new theoretical understandings needed? And: what might these new theoretical understandings ³look like² ¬ i.e., are new theoretical frameworks and categories available that have yet to be fully explored by scholars and researchers that can be argued to be potentially fruitful?

Section II: Historical Perspectives
This section discusses the presence and significance of historical
perspectives in church and new media research. Transformations in communication media are deeply interwoven with the history and theology of Christianity. In light of this history, how do churches respond to the continued expansion of contemporary communication media? For example, given the close correlations between distinctive forms and modalities of communication ¬ including the broad categories of orality, literacy, print, and the secondary orality/literacy of electronic media ¬ and conceptions of self, community, and institutional authority, what does this history suggest regarding the possible implications and challenges of contemporary shifts
towards new media?

Section III: Empirical Investigations
This section reports on the empirical research studies that investigate emerging media and social media practices related to the Church. Disciplines represented include but are not restricted to: sociology of religion, ethnography and online ethnography, linguistics, and the social sciences and humanities more broadly as represented within the field of computer-mediated communication. Contributions may focus on, but not restricted to, contemporary uses (successful and not so successful) of new media in the life of religious communities (local, national, international). Guiding questions for such research and studies include: Do the possibilities and affordances of new media lead to genuinely new and demonstrable impacts on the life of congregations? What factors appear to accompany whether or not a given community or institution embraces or resists specific media? What factors are at work in both successes and failures for faith believers and organizations to adopt and adapt to new media? How does religiously related new media use interact or affect the offline practices of established religious organizations?

Section IV: Theological Reflections
The last section of the book provides theological reflections on the Internet, to forward the development of a theology of the Internet which is a budding field of research. Although practical perspectives and guidelines for Internet use have been published, a more thorough theological analysis of new media is missing. The need for theological clarification is apparent
since web-enabled applications challenge churches with a number of difficult questions.

Submission Details
Please submit a 500-700 word abstract (including important and initial references) to the editors as an email attachment to no later than April 15, 2010. Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by May 31, 2010, and will then be invited to submit a full paper to the editors. Final manuscripts should be no more than 6,500 words, including notes and references, prepared in APA style.

Important Dates:
April 15, 2010 Deadline for abstract submission
May 31, 2010 Announcement of results and full paper invitations
August 31, 2010 Submission of full papers

Inquiries should be addressed to:
Pauline Hope Cheong
Associate Professor of Communication
Hugh Downs School of Human Communication
P.O. Box 871205, Stauffer Hall 462 Tempe, AZ 85287-1205
Arizona State University
Pauline.cheong@asu.edu

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.

in the social media spirit

Today the Chicago Tribune reflects on religion online "in the social media spirit" and how religious institutions are trying to extend the mission and message through blogs and websites. Using new media to encourage affiliation and build membership is not new, yet it is still interesting to reflect on how using the internet is being framed as a key social resource for groups vying for people time and mental attention in an information society.

Summer School on Digital Religion. Research in Virtual 3D Environments

University of Bremen is hosting an interesting Summer School on “Digital Religion. Research in Virtual 3D Environments". The school will be held in Bremen (Germany) from July 30 to August 9th. The course is mainly addressed to graduate and postgraduate students, but undergraduates with experience in the field are also
very welcome to apply!

As a cooperation of the University of Bremen and the Jacobs-University (Bremen) the Summer course will broach the issue of the relevance of new environments like "Second Life" or "World of Warcraft" for nowadays culture and social life with special focus on rituals and religions.

Instructed by more than 10 international teachers, the participants of the Summer School will engage into the interdisciplinary study of practical methods and theoretical approaches for the scientific handling of ritual and media. The media will not only be subject to methodological, theoretical and practical research and discussion but will also serve as platform for academic exchange and teaching. After this Summer School participants will be able to design and perform research projects on religion in and within Virtual Worlds.

Ultra-orthodox rabbbis call for a boycott of community Web sites

Israeli Ultra-orthodox rabbis this week called for a boycott of community focused Web sites. This is part of an ongoing debate since 1999 when the Belz community called for a ban of the internet for religious Jews. Concern about whether or not the internet is a permissible technology for this typically closed community have been raised on a regular basis over the past decade. A fresh wave of heated debates emerged in December 2009 resulting in the resignation of several key ultra-Orthodox web masters from well known sites such as Bharedi Haredim. Current concerns seem to be about these websites making private community discussion more public and the increased ability for community member to share their opinions in ways that are perceived as being slanderous or gossiping especially to religious leaders. For more details see: Rabbis Say Web Sites Not Kosher.

Go forth and blog

Since the 1990s the Catholic church have been ready adopters of the Internet and new technologies to get their message out. This week the pope openly advocated that priests embrace blogging "to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources". His message upheld the longstanding Catholic social communication tradition which sees media as "gifts from God" to be use to benefit the ministries of the Church. For more details check out the story at Pope: Go Forth and Blog.

Confession and Absolution Online

A friend of mine blogged today about finding absolution on the internet where he writes about services such as ThePublicApology.com , Perfectapology.com that offer people space for public confession of their wrongs and an absolution via the internet public. There are dozens of these sites out there (confessions.net, experienceproject.com, etc) and ThePublicApology.com even runs a weekly contest where readers can vote for the best apology of the week.

This is just another example of how the internet is becoming a mediator in our private and personal lives which has interesting religious implications. There has been debate for over a decade on whether or not confession in the Catholic tradition can or should be heard online via email, chat or even text messaging. Although the Catholic church does not endorse such practices, they still exist which raises the question in a culture that allows us to do most of our daily tasks online as well as facilitate religious rituals such as prayer and worship why not confession?

Church of England Blesses Technology in Search for Relevance

Today the Times Online covered a news story on the blessing of the laptops and Church 2.0, check out Blessed be the mobile phone users and those called the children of iPod.

Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God

Publishers's Weekly has just come out with a positive review of Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God a book soon to be released on religion and video games edited by Craig Detweiler. I was especially please to see that my chapter on Islamogaming earned a special mention. See what they have to say here:

Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God Edited by Craig Detweiler. Westminster John Knox, $19.95 paper (241p) ISBN 978-0-664-23277-1

Rather than write off as childish one of the most influential popular culture phenomena ever, Detweiler (Into the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the Top Films of the 21st Century) assembles a savvy group of experts to explore the spiritual and theological implications of video gaming. Those not familiar with the contemporary scene will be amazed to discover how far video games have evolved since the days of Pac Man and Space Invaders. Video games, as a number of these scholars point out, have integrated a narrative aspect that is fascinating and complex—the characters have literally become three-dimensional. Some of the other important issues raised include the power of gaming to build virtual communities, the ways games can help children develop virtues, and the myriad ways religion is portrayed. Especially compelling is an examination of how Muslims are characterized in games. These essayists are fans who lovingly approach and reproach video games, and they earnestly hope that all who pick up a joystick will reflect on the spiritual possibilities. (Feb.)

Google and Islam: censorship or technological glitch?

Online reports this week accused Google of religious favoritism, or problems with their search coding resulting with Islam being treated differently than other religion in search requests. Stories such as "Islam Is': Google Glitch, or Religious Favoritism?" and Fox's What's Islam? Don't Ask Google highlighted the fact that typing in the phrase "Islam is" to the search engine caused the auto-response frame to disappear. These reports and assertions raised many questions and accusations of censorship, such as Wired's piece on
Epicenter The Business of Tech Is Google Censoring Islam Suggestions? Google's response attempted to clarify it's search policy and describe it simply as a software problem. However the fact this made national news suggests that technological problems have significant social impacts in a digital age.

New Article: Searching for salvation Online

Bernard J. Jansen, Andrea Tapia,and Amanda Spink have an interesting forthcoming article entitled: Searching for salvation: An analysis of US religious searching on the World Wide Web.

This seems to be a very interesting and important study as it show and continued growth in religious online practice and points to the fact that religion online affirms traditional religious affiliations rather than spiritual seeking

Their full abstract is as follows:

The goals of this research were to answer three questions. How predominant is religious searching online? How do people interact with Web search engines when searching for religious information? How effective are these interactions in locating relevant information? Specifically, referring to a US demographic, we analyzed five data sets from Web search engine, collected between 1997 and 2005, of over a million queries each in order to investigate religious searching on the Web. Results point to four key findings. First, there is no evidence of a decrease in religious Web-searching behaviors. Religious interest is a persistent topic of Web searching. Second, those seeking religious information on the Web are becoming slightly more interactive in their searching. Third, there is no evidence for a move away from mainstream religions toward non-mainstream religions since the majority of the search terms are associated with established religions. Fourth, our work does not support the hypothesis that traditional religious affiliation is associated with lower adoption of or sophistication with technology. These factors point to the Web as a potentially usefully communication medium for a variety of religious organizations.

For a view of the in-press proof check here.

One more chance to Hear Heidi in Kiwi-land

If you are in New Zealand you have one more chance to hear and meet me in the flesh at a public lecture entitled" Networked Religion: Towards a Theology of New Media" at the end of November.

The lecture to be given by yours truly (Heidi Campbell) as the Wednesday 25 November 7pm at Vaughan Park Anglican Retreat Centre. This will be a culmination of my musings and research as one of Vaughan Park's Distinguished Academic Visitors for 2009. While at Vaughan Park I have been working working on a book project about how new media technologies raise important theological and ethical issues and how different forms ofreligious authority are being re-shaped and influenced by Internet use, especially within the Anglican tradition. Here is the talk's description:

In the past two decades significant changes have occurred affecting relationships with technology. Subtle shifts have occurred in the way religion is practiced and perceived in the Western World. This presentation looks at:

• how these changes are reflected in the practice of religion online
• what they have to tell us about the future of religious culture
• what a theology of new media might look like in order to address these issues.

An indication of attendance is appreciated: phone 09 473 2600, email reception@vaughanpark.org.nz

Internet believers: Pastors open online churches

This is definitely not new news...the growth of online churches, but it is in the AP headlines today. Check the story Internet believers: Pastors open online churches which profiles established and recent online versions of church such as Life-tv, Flamingo Road Church, and Central Christian Church.