@article {213,
	title = {Technophilia and Nature Religion: the Growth of a Paradox},
	journal = {Religion },
	volume = {32},
	year = {2002},
	pages = {303-314},
	abstract = {This article explores the issues, theoretical paradoxes and potential problems that occur when the ideas and beliefs of Nature Religion adherents (specifically Wiccans) are juxtaposed with many believers{\textquoteright} utilisation and seeming dependence on the technological (read: non-natural), hyper-real communication medium of the Internet for communicating and developing their nature-based ideologies, for the enhancement of their experience of Wiccan practices through ritual, and for community creation and growth.
},
	keywords = {community, Paradox, religion, Ritual, Wicca},
	url = {http://www.mendeley.com/research/technophilia-nature-religion-growth-paradox-4/},
	author = {Arthur, Shawn}
}
@article {86,
	title = {Religious engagement with the internet within Israeli Orthodox groups},
	journal = {Israel Affairs},
	volume = {17},
	year = {2011},
	pages = {364-383},
	abstract = {This article provides an overview of research on religion and the Internet within the Israeli context, highlighting how Orthodox Jewish groups have appropriated and responded to the Internet. By surveying Orthodox use of the Internet, and giving special attention to the ultra Orthodox negotiations, a number of key challenges that the Internet poses to the Israeli religious sector are highlighted. Exploring these debates and negotiations demonstrates that while the Internet is readily utilized by many Orthodox groups, it is still viewed by some with suspicion. Fears expressed, primarily by ultra Orthodox groups, shows religious leaders often attempt to constrain Internet use to minimize its potential threat to religious social norms and the structure of authority. This article also highlights the need for research that addresses the concerns and strategies of different Orthodox groups in order to offer a broader understanding of Orthodox engagement with the Internet in Israel.},
	keywords = {Authority, community, internet, Israel, Judaism, Orthodox, religion, ultra Orthodox},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537121.2011.584664$\#$preview},
	author = {Heidi Campbell}
}
@article {85,
	title = {Creating digital enclaves: Negotiation of the internet amongst bounded religious communities},
	journal = {Media, Culture and Society},
	volume = {33},
	year = {2011},
	pages = {709-724},
	publisher = {Sage},
	chapter = {709},
	abstract = {This article examines the motivation behind bounded groups{\textquoteright} creation of digital enclaves online. Through in-depth interviews with 19 webmasters and staff of selected Israeli Orthodox websites three critical areas of negotiation are explored: (1) social control; (2) sources of authority; and (3) community boundaries. Examining these tensions illuminates a detailed process of self-evaluation which leads religious stakeholders and internet entrepreneurs to form these digital enclaves in order to negotiate the core beliefs and constraints of their offline communities online. These offer spaces of safety for members within the risk-laden tracts of the internet. Examining the tensions accompanying the emergence of these religious websites elucidates community affordances as well as the challenges to the authority that integration of new media poses to closed groups and societies. },
	keywords = {Authority, community, internet, Israel, Judaism},
	url = {http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/33/5/709.abstract},
	author = {Heidi Campbell and Oren Golan}
}
@book {95,
	title = {Exploring Religious Community Online: We are one in the Network},
	year = {2005},
	pages = {213},
	publisher = {Peter Lang Publishing},
	organization = {Peter Lang Publishing},
	type = {Monograph},
	address = {New York},
	abstract = {Exploring Religious Community Online is a first comprehensive study of the development and implications of online communities for religious groups. This book investigates religious community online by examining how Christian communities have adopted internet technologies, and looks at how these online practices pose new challenges to offline religious community and culture. },
	keywords = {Christianity, community, email, internet, religion, religious identity},
	isbn = {978-0820471051},
	issn = {978-0820471051},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=nkEHmdr-7ZUC\&pg=PA153\&lpg=PA153\&dq=exploring+religious+community+online+heidi+campbell\&source=bl\&ots=3cedZPB9S1\&sig=Aw3jXmsZmvnlHK7agc6uIzQUSoI\&hl=en\&ei=tNOZTprkGqbKsQLRwqW3BA\&sa=X\&oi=book_result\&ct=result\&resnum=4\&sqi=2\&v},
	author = {Heidi Campbell}
}
@article {44,
	title = {The Question of Christian Community Online: The Case of the Artist World Network},
	journal = {Studies in World Christianity},
	volume = {13},
	year = {2007},
	pages = {261-267},
	publisher = {Edinburgh University Press},
	address = {Edinburgh, Scotland},
	abstract = {The past decade has seen a steady growth of technologies and practices that can be described as religion online. In many respects Christian groups and users have led the way in using the web for spiritual practices. From church websites becoming a common form of congregational advertising and communication to the rise of cyber churches and online prayer meetings, numerous forms of Christian practice have been transposed online. The Christian community has also been at the forefront of debates over the potential impact of {\textquoteleft}doing religion{\textquoteright} online. Concerns voiced by theologians, pastors and Christian scholars have included the potential that technology might become a substitute for God, the Internet could draw people away for organised religion towards individualised spiritualities, and that the Internet might reshape notions of traditional ritual and community. In light of these questions a new area of research has developed which involves exploring how Christian religious practice is being transformed in the age of Internet technology. Within such studies, the question of Christian or religious community online continues to surface as a central area of concern. As more and more Christian Internet users become involved in various chat, email and blogging groups, they are increasingly seeing and referring to these online social networks as religious communities. For many believers their Christian community involves both online and offline friendships and affiliations, a concept still problematic and contentious to many religious leaders. Thus, the purpose of this article is to investigate what constitutes a Christian community online and the possibilities and challenges that exist when Christians who gather for religious purpose online begin to conceive of their group as a Christian community. This is done by exploring a particular Christian online bulletin board, the {\textquoteleft}Artist World Network{\textquoteright}, in order to understand how this group sees itself and functions as community. This investigation provides a way to address the question of what constitutes an online Christian community. It also opens up discussion on the possibilities and challenges online religious communities pose for offline Christian community.},
	keywords = {Christianity, community, internet, religion online},
	url = {http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/swc.2007.13.3.261?journalCode=swc},
	author = {Heidi Campbell and Patricia Caulderon}
}
@article {1191,
	title = {Religion and the Internet: A microcosm for studying Internet trends and implications},
	journal = {new media \& society},
	volume = {15},
	year = {2012},
	chapter = {680},
	abstract = {This article argues that paying close attention to key findings within the study of religion 
and the Internet, a subfield of Internet Studies, can enhance our understanding and 
discussion of the larger social and cultural shifts at work within networked society. 
Through a critical overview of research on religion online, five central research areas 
emerge related to social practices, online{\textendash}offline connections, community, identity, and 
authority online. It is also argued that observations about these themes not only point 
to specific trends within religious practice online, but also mirror concerns and findings 
within other areas of Internet Studies. Thus, studying religion on the Internet provides 
an important microcosm for investigating Internet Studies{\textquoteright} contribution in a wide range 
of contexts in our contemporary social world.},
	keywords = {Authority, community, Computer, Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, identity, internet, Mass media, network, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, offline, Online, online communication, Online community, religion, religion and internet, Religion and the Internet, religiosity, religious engagement, religious identity, Religious Internet Communication, Religious Internet Communities, Ritual, sociability unbound, Sociology of religion, users{\textquoteright} participation, virtual community, virtual public sphere, {\textquotedblleft}digital religion{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}Internet Studies{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}media and religion{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}media research{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}networked society{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}online identity{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religion online{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious congregations{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious media research{\textquotedblright}, {\textquotedblleft}religious practice online{\textquotedblright}},
	url = {http://nms.sagepub.com/content/15/5/680.abstract},
	author = {Heidi A Campbell}
}
@article {94,
	title = {Challenges created by online religious networks},
	journal = {Journal of Media and Religion},
	volume = {3},
	year = {2004},
	pages = {81-99},
	abstract = {This article considers the challenges that online religious communities raise for religious culture. A survey of cultural changes in media, community, and religion uncovers similar structural shifts, from hierarchical structures to more open, dynamic relationship patterns in society. Examining this shift helps explain why cyber-religion and online religious communities have become emergent phenomenon. Emphasis is placed on the argument that the Internet has thrived because it has surfaced in a cultural landscape that promotes fluid yet controlled relationships over tightly bound hierarchies. Religious online communities are expressions of these changes and challenge traditional religious definitions of community. Especially problematic is the image of community as a network of relations. This article also addresses common concerns and fears of religious critics related to online communities through an analysis of current literature on these issues, along with a synthesis of research studies relating to the social use and consequences of the Internet.},
	keywords = {community, internet, religion},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15328415jmr0302_1$\#$preview},
	author = {Heidi Campbell}
}
@article {279,
	title = {Cultivating online and offline pathways to enlightenment: Religious authority in wired Buddhist organizations},
	journal = {Information, Communication \& Society},
	volume = {14},
	year = {2011},
	pages = {1160-1180},
	abstract = {In light of expanding epistemic resources online, the mediatization of religion poses questions about the possible changes, decline and reconstruction of clergy authority. Distinct from virtual Buddhism or cybersangha research which relies primarily on online observational data, this paper examines Buddhist clergy communication within the context of established religious organizations with an integrationist perspective on interpersonal communication and new and old media connections. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Buddhist leaders in Singapore, this paper illustrates ways in which priests are expanding their communicative competency, which we label {\textquotedblleft}strategic arbitration{\textquotedblright} to maintain their authority by restructuring multimodal representations and communicative influence. This study expands upon previous research by Cheong, Huang \& Poon (in press) and finds that constituting Buddhist religious epistemic authority in wired organizational contexts rests on coordinating online-offline communicative acts. Such concatenative coordination involves normalizing the aforementioned modality of authority through interpersonal acts that positively influences epistemic dependence. Communicative acts that privilege face-to-face mentoring and corporeal rituals are optimized in the presence of monks within perceived sacred spaces in temple grounds, thereby enabling clergy to perform ultimate arbitration. However, Buddhist leaders also increase bargaining power when heightened web presence and branding practices are enacted. The paper concludes with limitations and recommendations for future research in religious authority. },
	keywords = {Authority, community, internet, religion, theory of religion online},
	doi = {10.1080/1369118X.2011.579139},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Huang, Shirlena and Poon, Jessie}
}
@book {286,
	title = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures},
	year = {2012},
	publisher = {Peter Lang},
	organization = {Peter Lang},
	address = {New York},
	keywords = {Authority, avatars, community, history, identity, internet, online church, social media, theology, theory of religion online},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Fischer-Nielsen, Peter and Gelfgren, Stefan and Ess, Charles}
}
@inbook {284,
	title = {Religion 2.0? Relational and hybridizing pathways in religion, social media and culture},
	booktitle = {Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices, Futures},
	year = {2012},
	pages = {1-24},
	publisher = {Peter Lang},
	organization = {Peter Lang},
	chapter = {Religion 2.0? Relational and hybridizing pathways in religion, social media and culture.},
	address = {New York},
	keywords = {Authority, community, identity, internet, religion, social media},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Ess, Charles}
}
@inbook {376,
	title = {Mediated Intercultural Communication Matters: Understanding new media, change and dialectics},
	booktitle = {New Media and Intercultural Communication: Identity, Community and Politics},
	year = {2012},
	pages = {1-20},
	publisher = {Peter Lang},
	organization = {Peter Lang},
	address = {New York},
	keywords = {community, New Media, Politics},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17513057.2011.598047$\#$preview},
	author = {Cheong, P.H and Macfadyen L. and Martin, J.}
}
@article {283,
	title = {{\textquoteleft}WWW.Faith.Org{\textquoteright}: (Re)structuring communication and social capital building among religious organizations.},
	journal = {Information, Communication and Society},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2008},
	pages = {89-110},
	abstract = {This paper examines the relationships between Internet and social capital building within religious organizations, a relatively understudied foci. Building upon theoretical insights provided by new institutionalism and recent research on the Internet, social capital and religion, this article explores the ways in which religious organizations, have (re)structured their norms, values, and practices of religious community in light of the incorporation of the Internet into their congregational life. Drawing from interviews conducted with Christian and Buddhist religious leaders in Toronto, this article discusses three major relationships in which the effects of the Internet on social capital may be understood, that is, complementary, transformative, and perverse relationships. Religious organizations are traditionally associated with relatively high stocks of social capital, yet findings here suggest that their communicative norms, values, and practices are changing to varying extent. The results also indicate that the relationship between the Internet and social capital building is largely complementary; however the Internet is perceived by some to be a {\textquoteleft}mixed blessing{\textquoteright}, facilitating the potential transformation of organizational practices that affect community norms while leading to the dispersion of religious ties that could undermine community solidarity. Thus, contrary to earlier studies that have documented no evidence of innovations involving the reconfiguration of organizational practices and the adjustment of mission or services, findings here illustrate how some religious organizations have expanded the scope of their calling and restructured their communicative practices to spur administrative and operational effectiveness. Like other organizations, religious organizations are not insulated from technological changes including those associated with the Internet{\textquoteright}s. This study clarifies and identifies key ways in which the distinct spirituality, cultural values, and institutional practices and norms of religious organizations influence communication processes that constitute bridging and bonding forms of social capital in this dot.org. era of faith. },
	keywords = {community, internet, social capital, theory of religion online},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Poon, Jessie}
}
@article {282,
	title = {The Internet Highway and Religious Communities: Mapping and Contesting Spaces in Religion-Online},
	journal = {The Information Society},
	volume = {25},
	year = {2009},
	pages = {291-302},
	abstract = {We examine {\textquoteleft}religion-online{\textquoteright}, an underrepresented area of research in new media, communication, and geography, with a multi-level study of the online representation and (re)-presentation of Protestant Christian organizations in Singapore, which has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world and also believers affiliated with all the major world religions. We first critically discuss and empirically examine how online technologies are employed for religious community building in novel and diverse ways. Then we investigate the role religious leaders play through their mental representations of the spatial practices and scales through which their religious communities are imagined and practiced online. We show how churches use the multimodality of the Internet to assemble multiple forms of visible data and maps to extend geographic sensibilities of sacred space and create new social practices of communication.},
	keywords = {Authority, community, geography, internet, theory of religion online},
	doi = {10.1080/01972240903212466},
	url = {http://www.paulinehopecheong.com},
	author = {Pauline Hope Cheong and Huang, Shirlena and Poon, Jessie and Casas, Irene}
}
@article {2155,
	title = {Building the sacred community online: the dual use of the Internet by Chabad},
	journal = {Media, Culture \& Society },
	volume = {38},
	year = {2015},
	pages = {71-88},
	abstract = {Religious communities have ongoing concerns about Internet use, as it intensifies the clash between tradition and modernity, a clash often found in traditionally inclined societies. Nevertheless, as websites become more useful and widely accessible, religious and communal stakeholders have continuously worked at building and promoting them. This study focuses on Chabad, a Jewish ultra-Orthodox movement, and follows webmasters of three key websites to uncover how they distribute religious knowledge over the Internet. Through an ethnographic approach that included interviews with over 30 webmasters, discussions with key informants, and observations of the websites themselves, the study uncovered webmaster{\textquoteright}s strategies to foster solidarity within their community, on one hand, while also proselytizing their outlook on Judaism, on the other. Hence, the study sheds light on how a fundamentalist society has strengthened its association with new media, thus facilitating negotiation between modernity and religious piety.},
	keywords = {Chabad, community, Digital Religion, fundamentalism, religion, religious communities},
	url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443715615415},
	author = {Golan, O and Stadler, N}
}
@article {302,
	title = {Imagining a Virtual Religious Community: Neo-pagans on The Internet},
	journal = {Chicago Anthropology Exchange },
	volume = {7},
	year = {1995},
	edition = {98-132},
	keywords = {community, internet, neo-pagan, religion, Virtual},
	author = {Grieve, Gregory}
}
@article {73,
	title = {Religion and technology: refiguring place, space, identity and community},
	journal = {Area},
	volume = {33},
	year = {2001},
	month = {July 2001},
	pages = {404-413},
	abstract = {This paper reviews the literature on the religion{\textendash}technology nexus, drawing up a research agenda and offering preliminary empirical insights. First, I stress the need to explore the new politics of space as a consequence of technological development, emphasizing questions about the role of religion in effecting a form of religious (neo)imperialism, and uneven access to techno-religious spaces. Second, I highlight the need to examine the politics of identity and community, since cyberspace is not an isotropic surface. Third, I underscore the need to engage with questions about the poetics of religious community as social relations become mediated by technology. Finally, I focus on questions about the poetics of place, particularly the technological mediation of rituals.},
	keywords = {community, cyberspace, place, religion, space, technology},
	url = {http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118968381/abstract?CRETRY=1\&SRETRY=0},
	author = {Lily Kong}
}
@article {328,
	title = {Virtual Religion in Context},
	journal = {Religion},
	volume = {32},
	year = {2002},
	pages = {343-354},
	abstract = {This article explores the notion of {\textquoteright}virtual religion{\textquoteright} in various ways. In part, it is a response to a number of ideas found in the articles by Philip P. Arnold, Shawn Arthur, Christopher Helland, Anastasia Karaflogka and Mark MacWilliams which appear in this issue of Religion, but it also discusses religion in online contexts in relation to various important themes such as the character of cyberspace both present and future, the multimedia Web and its alleged postmodern orientations, virtual identity, the dynamics of virtual community, and the controversies concerning the positive and negative ramifications of online life and experience, as discussed by technomystics, technophobes and others who hold more moderate views. The article ends by raising some questions about the future character of religion and spirituality in cyberspace},
	keywords = {community, Context, religion, Spirituality, Virtual},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1006/reli.2002.0410},
	author = {Maxwell, P}
}
@book {658,
	title = {The Virtual Community},
	year = {1993},
	publisher = {Harper Perennial},
	organization = {Harper Perennial},
	address = {New York},
	abstract = {"When you think of a title for a book, you are forced to think of something short and evocative, like, well, {\textquoteright}The Virtual Community,{\textquoteright} even though a more accurate title might be: {\textquoteright}People who use computers to communicate, form friendships that sometimes form the basis of communities, but you have to be careful to not mistake the tool for the task and think that just writing words on a screen is the same thing as real community.{\textquoteright}" - HLR },
	keywords = {community, Computer, culture, internet, media, Virtual},
	issn = {0262681218},
	url = {http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html},
	author = {Rheingold, H.}
}
@article {393,
	title = {Listening Communities? Some Remarks on the Construction of Religious Authority in Islamic Podcasts},
	journal = {Die Welt des Islams},
	volume = {48},
	year = {2008},
	pages = {457-509},
	abstract = {n the context of the vivid activity of Muslim individuals and groups on the Internet and the recent technological developments in the field of computer mediated communication, podcasts offering a wide range of religious information and/or advice to Muslim (and non-Muslim) listeners play an increasingly important role. Being an integral part of the Web 2.0{\textquoteright}s online landscape and presenting, at the same time, many characteristics of more {\textquotedblleft}traditional{\textquotedblright} audio media such as cassette recordings, podcasts cannot only be located at the intersection between virtual space and {\textquotedblleft}real world{\textquotedblright}, but represent, as a medium, also a direct continuation of older forms of Muslim media usage for da{\textquoteright}wa-purposes and propagandistic aims. This article attempts to analyze in how far the use of podcasts (and to a smaller extent of videocasts) by Muslim groups and individuals contributes to the emergence of a Muslim online {\textquotedblleft}counter public{\textquotedblright} sometimes challenging, sometimes reinforcing existing authority structures. Special attention is paid to the question which means and features specific to this new medium Muslim podcasters use to legitimize their religious authority, and to the question in how far established symbol systems commonly relied upon in the Muslim community are used as instruments for the construction of religious online authority and the redistribution of Definitionsmacht. Furthermore, it discusses to what extent questions of {\textquotedblleft}right belief{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}correct religious practice{\textquotedblright} play a role in these processes. For this purpose, style and content of four selected podcasts (Zaytuna Institute Knowledge Resource Podcast, MeccaOne Media Podcast, Ahmadiyya Podcast, Alt.muslim Review) are analyzed in order to illustrate different ways in which this new medium is used by Muslim groups today. It is shown that podcasts{\textemdash}as part of the overall media spectrum{\textemdash}are used by Muslim groups for internal and external da{\textquoteright}wa-purposes, as well as for the reinforcement of existing power and authority structures (e.g. by projecting the presence of the group{\textquoteright}s leader both into time and into space) and as a means to cope with institutional and communal crisis. They might also become an important instrument not for the (re-)construction, but for the deconstruction of religious authority.},
	keywords = {community, Islam, Podcast},
	url = {http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/dwi/2008/00000048/F0020003/art00007?token=00561dd544be1455875dd67232d45232b4624736a4d3b2046287a743568293c6c567e504f58762f460c793},
	author = {Scholz, J. and Selge, T. and Stille, M. and Zimmerman, J.}
}
@article {827,
	title = {Networks, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Approaches to the Study of the Community Question },
	journal = {Urban Affairs Review},
	volume = {14},
	year = {1979},
	chapter = {363},
	abstract = {We propose a network analytic approach to the community question in order to separate the study of communities from the study of neighborhoods. Three arguments about the community question-that "community" has been "lost," "saved," or "liberated"-are reviewed for their development, network depictions, imagery, policy implications, and current status. The lost argument contends that communal ties have become attenuated in industrial bureaucratic societies; the saved argument contends that neighborhood communities remain as important sources of sociability, support and mediation with formal institutions; the liberated argument maintains that while communal ties still flourish, they have dispersed beyond the neighborhood and are no longer clustered in solidary communities. Our review finds that both the saved and liberated arguments proposed viable network patterns under appropriate conditions, for social systems as well as individuals. },
	keywords = {community, media, Neighborhoods, networks, social network},
	url = {http://www.google.com/url?sa=t\&rct=j\&q=\&esrc=s\&source=web\&cd=1\&ved=0CDIQFjAA\&url=http\%3A\%2F\%2Fcourseweb.lis.illinois.edu\%2F~katewill\%2Ffall2009-lis590col\%2Fwellman\%2520leighton\%25201979\%2520networks\%2520neighborhoods.pdf\&ei=0_0CUfHWFqb22AW68YG4Bw\&usg=AFQj},
	author = {Wellman, B. and Leighton, B}
}
