RELIGION ON CATHOLIC INTERNET FORUMS IN POLAND. A MEMORY MEDIATED

The following article aims to show that on Catholic Internet forums in Poland, religion—in this
case Roman Catholicism—serves as a mediated chain of memory fulfilling two main functions
simultaneously: an integrating function and a differentiating function. The analysis will be based
on Hervieu-Léger’s concept of religion as a chain of memory (2000, 2006) and Davie’s modified
concept of religion as memory that mutates (2000, 2006).A thread from 2011 on one of the most
popular Catholic forums in Poland—forum.wiara.pl—will be used as a case study. It will be
shown that through voicing various notions of the meaning of religion, faith, the institutional
Church, and the connection between science and religion, users both distinguish themselves
from and integrate themselves with other users, as well as with their representation of ‘average’
Catholics in Poland.