Expanding our Knowledge About Online Religion and Religion Online

1. Expanding our Knowledge About Online Religion and Religion Online Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D.Multimedia Program Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts Bradley University Peoria, IL NMC, Princeton, June, 2008 “Professor Beliveau” “the Professor” performs in SL.

2. Some of the assumptions in this presentation are based on material contained within a recently published book review Lamoureux. “Online Religious Practice Through the Looking Glass: Spirituality and the NetWeb.” Journal of Communication and Religion, Vol. 30 (2) Nov. 2007: 340-375. Review of: • Practicing religion in the age of the media. Steward M. Hoover and Lynn Schofield Clark, Eds. NY: Columbia University Press. 2002; • Religion online: Finding faith on the internet. Lorne L. Dawson and Douglas E. Cowan, Eds. NY: Routledge, 2004; • Cyberhenge: Modern pagans on the Internet. Douglas E. Cowen. NY: Routlege, 2005; • Exploring religious community online: We are one in the network. Heidi Campbell. NY: Peter Lang [Digital formation series, Steve Jones, ed., 24], 2005.

3. Some basic assumptions for studies of Online Religion and Religion Online • Reading about mediated religious and spiritual practices = consciousness raising and increased self-awareness. • Net-webbed religion raises contested commonplaces. • One’s orientation about OR & RO responds to answers to:

4. Some basic questions for studies of Online Religion and Religion Online • Networked/mediated society= Utopia or Dystopia? • Organized/traditional/institutional religions and churches v. Personalized systems of religious/spiritual work. • Should media and technologies with potentials for good and evil be used for religion? • Do the newest media and technologies carry additional risks due to lack of control over, their future directions and outcomes? • Can mediated spaces, including online, be made sacred for religion?

5. Some basic questions for studies of Online Religion and Religion Online • Is the democratization of information a help or a hindrance to religious and spiritual life? • One true church or multiple equally valid religions? • Does post-post-modernism moderate postmodernism’s attack on religion? • Are online communities real, helpful, and religious? • Or does the online environment rule out community and religion?

6. Some orientations from the review/books • Online Religion v. Religion Online (Helland (2000) • Religion Online: the provision of information and/or services related to religion. • Some online information and services support offline religions; some oppose and/or undermine them. • Online Religion: invitations for Internet visitors to participate in religion. • Some online rituals don’t “qualify” to traditional churches and are a poor and almost sacrilegious substitute for real rituals. • In other ways, online religious participation may be even more personally holy than is face-to-face presence at rituals.

7. Some orientations from the review/books • Online participation--Religion v. Spirituality • In early online work, information exchange ruled. • So for traditional churches, early religion online mostly supported and were at the behest of their offline work. • With regard to spirituality, however, where organized structures may not always be readily available, online religion played a much more important role for participants as their personal and private behavior may be positively influenced by additional opportunities for soul practice and the provision of otherwise scarce information.

8. Some orientations from the review/books • Medium is the message: The net as sacred space? • Religious potential of the net as the highest technological achievement of humans in their efforts toward global interconnectivity. • For Postman and others, some spaces cannot be sanctified and not all communication can be translated across mediums.

9. Authority relations • Communication revolutions problematize authority relations. • The internet provides data that implies) the use of that data is valid. • Further, it is difficult to credential • Some material appears to be very strongly credentialed • At other times, the material may purport to be authoritative, and is not, • or may make no such claimbut may be taken as authoritative by the reader in any case. Some orientations from the review/books

10. Authority relations • And of course, much information opposes traditional religion • Regardless of the validity of the information or of the users’ ability to ascertain its authoritativeness, its ubiquitous availability leaves such questions open and serves as fundamentally destabilizing to authority relations. When authority cannot control the amount and content of available information, the tight bonds of hierarchy have been loosened. Some orientations from the review/books

11. Good or bad for traditional off-line religions? • Religious activists, be they attached to traditional church organizations or independent seekers of the soul, are deeply involved in netted religion. • At what point does the democratization of religion detract from both institutional structures and/or the quality of individual religious function? Some orientations from the review/books

12. Many limitations: Just started this past term • No Islamic sites • No time, yet, looking for/on the dark side • No time, yet, with parody sites • May or may not spend time with actual interaction (IRB issues). At this point, catalogue and categorization. • Sabbatical project,fall 2008. Early observations in SL

13. Graphic representation of contemplative space replaces information provision as the primary mode of communication and representation. • All sizes, shapes, eras (often mixed) • O’Leary’s use of Ong’s notion of “performative/constitutive” communication is key here. There is more going on than mere building/display.Some of that which isdone may have, in itself, a praise/prayer function. Early observations in SL

14. Information provision is ready-to-hand, but of course, it’s status as primary material is open to debate. • Representations of religious objects and gestures (and the availability of them to lay people/participants) may we exceed RL as the sacred can be made available/transparent to all. • Vestments and other holy clothing. • Certain gestures such as sign of the cross, kneeling postures, meditation postures, etc. • This feature may also leadto practices that some question, in essence, providing ‚ “just anyone” everything one needs to hang out a shingle to create a church. Early observations in SL

15. Credentialing is a REAL issue (and perhaps, problem). • Identity issues abound • Hierarchy issues abound • Motivational issues abound Early observations in SL

16. Ritual is still under-fed. However, in some traditions it is both possible AND accomplished. • Christian services resembling some Protestant, non-sacramental, worship services. • Jewish candle services • Hajj training simulations • Special rituals, for example prayers of the dead • Study groups in all • “weddings” (to which we will shortly return Early observations in SL

17. Ritual is still under-fed, but this is an area in which I expected/expect to see the largest difference between religion in virtual worlds and religion on the “flat web.” • On “could/can” do virtually any/every religious/symbolic ritual (no pun intended) Early observations in SL

18. Thorough mixing with secular factors (especially commerce). • One has to hearken back to credentialing issues • What are the providers really in it for? • In how many instances are they merely using the medium in order to gather an audience for their other commercial ventures? • Some of the adjunct commercial endeavors do not mix well with the religious representations (again, back to credentialing and motives). Early observations in SL

19. One finds a number of activities that in traditional religions have strongly religious aspects, which, in both the modern and virtual worlds, might be taking on more secular flavor. • For example, in SL, partnering and weddings abound but the definitions of eachterm are evolving as they relate to to the actualactivities at hand. Early observations in SL

20. COMMUNITY is key . . . yet, like in other SL aspects, there are loads of issues about the sort of community one is dealing with. Participants live in these graphic places, but of course, aren’t often there. • No huge surprise as we don’t live in our RL churches either, but, • Many of these “spaces” include virtual property and living spaces • WAY more to be done & lots to work with Early observations in SL <ell@bradley.edu> http://slane.bradley.edu/com/faculty/lamoureux/website2/index.html

21. Expanding our Knowledge About Online Religion and Religion Online Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D.Multimedia Program Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts Bradley University Peoria, IL NMC, Princeton, June, 2008 “Professor Beliveau” “the Professor” performs in SL.