@article {1307,
	title = {Religious Online Developments in a Secular Context},
	journal = {Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology},
	volume = {6},
	year = {2012},
	chapter = {49},
	abstract = {Religious groups have conceived the internet as both a promising way of increasing 
interest in religious issues and a threat to the core religious values. This article 
deals with religious developments on the internet based on theoretical perspectives 
on secularization. Four relevant themes are listed, namely secularization as loss of 
religious institutional power and authority, secularization as adaption, secularization as decrease in individual religious engagement, These themes are investigated through an empirical analysis of results from two large surveys with 1,015 Danes and 1,040 Danish pastors and secularization as changed conditions for religious communication. The article concludes that the internet does not seem to have dramatically changed people{\textquoteright}s religious orientation. As in offline contexts, religious institutions are under pressure on the internet. Though the internet has been viewed 
as a new direct channel to people, evidence suggests that people are difficult to 
reach and that other players than the religious institutions dominate the transmission of religious messages. Secularization does take place online, but the development is counteracted by deliberate attempts to use the internet in religious activities, for instance by pastors who engage in critical negotiation of the possibilities online.},
	keywords = {adaption, Authority, cyber church., dialogue, discussion groups, individualization, internet, media sites, Negotiation, religion, search engines, secularization, Social Networking},
	url = {https://mujlt.law.muni.cz/storage/1373984017_sb_03-fischer-nielsen.pdf},
	author = {P. Fischer-Nielsen}
}
@book {2165,
	title = {Online Catholic Communities: Community, Authority, and Religious Individualization},
	series = {Routledge Studies in Religion and Digital Culture},
	year = {2018},
	pages = {142},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	organization = {Routledge},
	edition = {1st},
	address = {New York, London},
	abstract = {The Catholic Church has been moving into a new phase, one where its congregation can choose to meet and practice elements of their own version of their faith on online forums. This new form of congregating allows for an individualised faith to manifest itself outside of the usual church authority structures. Online Catholic Communities provides insight into how religious and non-religious internet forum users interact and form groups during interactions; it also discusses the transformation of religious authority and its emanations in these digital contexts.

Using the top three online forums used by Polish Catholics as a case study, this project explores the formation of these online communities. It then looks at the alternative authority structures that emerge online and how these lead to an individualised form of religious engagement that can develop independently of mainstream doctrine. Through highlighting how religious discourse in Poland is appropriated and creatively modified by users in fulfilling their own spiritual needs, this work reveals the constant interplay between online and offline religious contexts.

This monograph includes cutting edge research on online expressions of religious community, authority and individualisation and as such will be of keen interest to scholars of religious studies and the sociology of religion, as well as communication studies.},
	keywords = {Catholic Church, digital environments, individualization, religious authority},
	issn = {9781138059757},
	url = {https://www.routledge.com/Online-Catholic-Communities-Community-authority-and-religious-individualization/Kolodziejska/p/book/9781138059757},
	author = {Marta Kolodziejska}
}
