@article {2130,
	title = {Identity Politics in a Mediatized Religious Environment on Facebook: Yes to Wearing the Cross Whenever and Wherever I Choose},
	journal = {Journal of Religion in Europe},
	volume = {10},
	year = {2017},
	pages = {457 {\textendash} 486},
	abstract = {The Norwegian Facebook page Yes to Wearing the Cross Whenever and Wherever I Choose was initially created to protest the prohibition of the cross for NRK news anchors. Yet, many of the discussions and audience interactions transpired into heated religio-political debates with strong elements of anti-Muslim, xenophobic, anti-secular, and anti-atheist sentiments. This study aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the interplay between media and religion by providing new insights on the variety of ways in which media audiences may {\textquoteleft}add a series of dynamics to conflicts, namely, amplification, framing and performative agency, and co-structuring{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}perform conflict{\textquoteright}, as formulated by Hjarvard et al. It is argued that mediatized conflicts with inherent trigger themes, which tug at core religio-political identity issues, also tend to evoke emotional responses, which, in turn, inspire social media users to perform the conflict in ways that multiply the conflict(s).},
	keywords = {Facebook, mediatized, Politics, religious},
	url = {http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/18748929-01004001},
	author = {Abdel-Fadil, M}
}
@inbook {1301,
	title = {Grassroots Religion: Facebook and Offline Post-Denominational Judaism },
	booktitle = {Social Media Religion and Spirituality},
	year = {2013},
	publisher = { De Gruyter},
	organization = { De Gruyter},
	chapter = {8},
	address = {Berlin},
	keywords = {Facebook, Jews, Judaism, Online, self-generated, social media, social network, Youth},
	url = {http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/46335/1/SMRC_Umbruch_24_7_13.pdf$\#$page=147},
	author = {Nathan Abrams and Sally Baker and B. J. Brown}
}
@book {253,
	title = {Friending: Real relationships in a virtual world},
	year = {2011},
	publisher = {InterVarsity Press},
	organization = {InterVarsity Press},
	address = {Downer Gove, IL},
	abstract = {The notion of friendship is under broad review. A highly mobile and increasingly busy society--rootless, some might argue--means that most of our relationships can{\textquoteright}t depend solely on face-to-face contact to flourish. The increasing prominence of the virtual landscape--where the language of friendship has been co-opted to describe relationships ranging from intimate to meaningless--requires that we become fluent in ever-expanding relational technologies. It{\textquoteright}s never been easy to be a friend, but it seems to be getting tougher by the nanosecond.In Friending, Lynne Baab collects the insights, hopes and regrets of people from across the spectrum of age and life circumstance and syncs them with the wisdom of the Bible. Using Colossians 3 and 1 Corinthians 13 as touchpoints, Lynne shows us how we can celebrate and strengthen our relational ties while continuing to practice the timeless discipline of friending in our time.},
	keywords = {Facebook, Friending, relationships, Virtual},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=GMgoD2xrM5EC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false},
	author = {Baab, Lynn}
}
@article {989,
	title = {Mapping the Landscape of Digital Petitionary Prayer as Spiritual/Social Support in Mobile, Facebook, and E-mail},
	journal = {Journal of Media and Religion },
	volume = {12},
	year = {2013},
	pages = {1-15},
	abstract = {Traditional prayers can function to provide spiritual and social support for oneself and others. With social media, this support finds a new expression in digital prayers. We map the landscape of digital petitionary prayers for self and others across three different media. In survey one (n = 218), frequency of digital petitionary prayers, described by topic, relationship, place, and outcome, was highest for the mobile medium (phone and text messaging), midrange for Facebook (posting and e-mail), and lowest for traditional e-mail. A second survey (n = 116) revealed that different types and contexts for petitionary prayers are positively associated with love of self, others, and God. Suggestions for future research include investigating the quality and outcomes of petitionary prayers across private, face-to-face, and digital contexts.},
	keywords = {email, Facebook, mobile, Prayer Online},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15348423.2013.760385},
	author = {E. James Baeslera and Yi-Fan Chena}
}
@article {1186,
	title = {Digital Gravescapes: Digital Memorializing on Facebook},
	journal = {The Information Society: An International Journal},
	volume = {29},
	year = {2013},
	chapter = {184},
	abstract = {I conduct a textual analysis of a digital memorial to understand the ways in which the digital sphere has disrupted or altered material and aesthetic displays of death and the associated genre of discourses surrounding death. I first use Morris{\textquoteright}s history of traditional gravescapes to situate digital memorials within their broader historical context. I then draw on the functional genre of eulogies, in particular Jamieson and Campbell{\textquoteright}s systematic description of eulogies, as a textual analytic to understand Facebook{\textquoteright}s unique memorializing discourse. My analysis suggests that the affordances of the Internet allow for a peculiar dynamic wherein the bereaved engage in communication with the deceased instead of with each other and yet strengthen the communal experience, as their personal communications are visible to the entire community. While the digital memorials lack the permanence of traditional gravescapes, the ongoing conversation they foster sublimates death into the process of communication.},
	keywords = {Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, Death, digital media, digital memorials, discourse, eulogy, Facebook, gravescapes, memorializing, memorializing discourse, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, Online community, religion, Religion and the Internet, religious engagement, rhetoric, social media, Sociology of religion, virtual community, virtual public sphere, {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright}},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01972243.2013.777309$\#$.UikZdDasim7},
	author = {Scott Church}
}
@article {1993,
	title = {Facebooking Religion and the Technologization of the Religious Discourse: A Case Study of a Botswana-based Prophetic Church},
	journal = {Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2016},
	month = {12/2016},
	pages = {26},
	type = {Research},
	chapter = {66},
	abstract = {Technologization of discourse is generally conceptualized as a process of influencing people{\textquoteright}s way of thinking through the use of certain linguistic strategies. In this process, power is exercised through the use of linguistic strategies that shape the construction of identity as well as socio-religious vision. This study analyzes the ways in which certain linguistic strategies and religious discourses used in Facebook posts, reviews and comments on a religion-based Facebook page create and shape the narratives of religious authority, religious identity and religious community. Using the Facebook page of a popular prophetic Christian church in Botswana, Gospel of God{\textquoteright}s Grace (3G Ministries), as a case study, this study examines the following questions: in what ways can an active religion-based Facebook page reconfigure and provide a platform for religious practice? To what extent does the use of various linguistic strategies inform and shape religious discourses found in various Facebook postings and comments? And how does a religious Facebook page provide a venue for the discursive interpretation of religious authority, the negotiation of religious identity and the development of socio-religious vision?},
	keywords = {Facebook, identity construction, religious authority, technologization},
	doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.17885/heiup.rel.2016.0.23628	},
	author = {Faimau, Gabriel},
	editor = {Behrens, Camden}
}
@article {1992,
	title = {Religious testimonial narratives and social construction of identity: Insights from prophetic ministries in Botswana },
	journal = {Cogent Social Sciences},
	volume = {3},
	year = {2017},
	month = {07/2017},
	pages = {15},
	type = {Research},
	chapter = {1},
	abstract = {Giving a testimony forms a central part of the religious practices among Pentecostal churches including prophetic ministries. Testimony links the understanding of one{\textquoteright}s religious experience and the configuration of the divine intervention. Utilizing data collected through ethnographic observation among prophetic ministries in Botswana and digital ethnography of the testimonial narratives circulated online through various new media outlets of these ministries, this paper examines the ways in which religious identity is constructed and understood through the testimonial performance in various religious services. Informed by the premise that narrative is closely related to identity, the paper pays particular attention to the extent to which religious testimonies influence the dynamic relationship between
individual, communal and institutional religious identity. The following questions are central to the analysis: In what ways does a religious testimony inform us about the construction and negotiation of religious identity? To what extent does a religious testimony influence the dynamic relationship between individual, communal and institutional religious identity? While suggesting that religious identity constructions and negotiations are embedded within the sharing of religious testimonies, I also argue that the sharing of a religious testimony has an agentive function of extending the social relationship between an individual believer, other believers and the religious community within which the testimony is shared.},
	keywords = {Facebook, identity, prophetic ministries, testimony},
	doi = {doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2017.1356620},
	author = {Faimau, G.}
}
@unpublished {609,
	title = {Waving a "Hi": Religion Among Facebook Users},
	year = {2008},
	publisher = {Association of Internet Researchers 9.0},
	address = {Copenhagen},
	keywords = {Facebook, religion, social media, user},
	author = {Johns, M.D.}
}
@mastersthesis {1305,
	title = {Virtual Spirituality: The Negotiation and (Re)-Presentation of Psychic-Spiritual Identity on the Internet},
	year = {2012},
	school = {University of York},
	type = {PhD thesis},
	abstract = {This research is an examination of how people engaged in psychic and spiritual interests use the internet to participate as a group through social media. Exploring how individuals take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the internet to pursue their interest in psychic spirituality reveals different ways of participating and interacting online. The ways in which individuals present their psychic-spiritual selves online, how they negotiate their online identities and make sense of their culture, is also examined. 
 
 Using an eclectic methodological approach, this research used a combination of ethnographic methods and autoethnography to explore online psychic-spiritual culture. Documentary analysis of website text and images, together with participant observation, both covert and overt, were used to examine websites. Facebook interaction and psychic readings in online discussion board forums based on psychic-spiritual interests were analysed using discourse analysis. Autoethnographic self-reflections were also collected and analysed in order to capture an intrapsychic perspective of psychic reading culture.
 
 It was found that psychic practitioners use their websites to communicate the message that they are credible psychic readers whilst Facebook was found to be a site in which, through a delicate interplay of activity and performance, identity is constructed through interaction between the psychic reader and their Facebook friends. Psychic-spiritual discussion board forums meanwhile are sites of situated learning in which learner psychic readers learn to become appropriate members of the psychic-spiritual milieu. Also, although the sociological analytic mind does not easily accommodate the nature of psychic reading, the study did manage to obtain an intrapsychic perspective on psychic readings. Thus, members of the psychic-spiritual milieu have taken full advantage of the internet to pursue their interest in psychic reading culture.
},
	keywords = {communities of practice, Facebook, online forums, psychic practices, psychic spirituality, virtual spirituality},
	url = {http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3794/},
	author = {Ryan, Tamlyn}
}
@article {1308,
	title = {Extrapolating Psychological Insights from Facebook Profiles: A Study of Religion and Relationship Status},
	journal = {CyberPsychology \& Behavior},
	volume = {12},
	year = {2009},
	chapter = {347},
	abstract = {Online social network users may leave creative, subtle cues on their public profiles to communicate their motivations and interests to other network participants. This paper explores whether psychological predictions can be made about the motivations of social network users by identifying and analyzing these cues. Focusing on the domain of relationship seeking, we predicted that people using social networks for dating would reveal that they have a single relationship status as a method of eliciting contact from potential romantic others. Based on results from a pilot study (n = 20) supporting this hypothesis, we predicted that people attempting to attract users of the same religious background would report a religious affiliation along with a single relationship status. Using observational data from 150 Facebook profiles, results from a multivariate logistic regression suggest that people providing a religious affiliation were more likely to list themselves as single (a proxy for their interest in using the network to find romantic partners) than people who do not provide religious information. We discuss the implications for extracting psychological information from Facebook profiles. To our knowledge, this is the first study to suggest that information from publicly available online social networking profiles can be used to predict people{\textquoteright}s motivations for using social networks.},
	keywords = {dating, Facebook, online profiles, participants, relationship, religion, religious information, social network},
	url = {http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2008.0165},
	author = {Sean Young and Debo Dutta and Gopal Dommety}
}
