@article {2751,
	title = {Video games, terrorism, and ISIS{\textquoteright}s Jihad 3.0},
	journal = {Terrorism and Political Violence},
	year = {2018},
	abstract = {This study discusses different media strategies followed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In particular, the study attempts to understand the way ISIS{\textquoteright}s video game that is called {\textquotedblleft}Salil al-Sawarem{\textquotedblright} (The Clanging of the Swords) has been received by the online Arab public. The article argues that the goal behind making and releasing the video game was to gain publicity and attract attention to the group, and the general target was young people. The main technique used by ISIS is what I call {\textquotedblleft}troll, flame, and engage.{\textquotedblright} The results indicate that the majority of comments are against ISIS and its game, though most of the top ten videos are favorable towards the group. The sectarian dimension between Sunnis and Shiites is highly emphasized in the online exchanges, and YouTube remains an active social networking site that is used by ISIS followers and sympathizers to promote the group and recruit others.},
	url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2016.1207633},
	author = {Al-Rawi, Ahmed}
}
@article {1182,
	title = {Virtual togetherness: an everyday-life perspective},
	journal = {Media, Culture \& Society},
	volume = {25},
	year = {2003},
	chapter = {291},
	abstract = {The objective of this article is to explore some dimensions of the concept
of virtual community, which relates to empowering possibilities in the
appropriation of the Internet by domestic users. I contend that users{\textquoteright}
participation in what have been called {\textquoteleft}virtual communities{\textquoteright} (Rheingold,
1993) over the Internet constitutes a cultural trend of {\textquoteleft}immobile socialization{\textquoteright}, or in other words, socialization of private experience through the
invention of new forms of intersubjectivity and social organization online.},
	keywords = {Contemporary Religious Community, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, Online community, religion, Religion and the Internet, religious engagement, Sociology of religion, users{\textquoteright} participation},
	url = {http://learningspaces.org/irm/Bakardjieva_Togetherness.pdf},
	author = {Maria Bakardjieva}
}
@book {109,
	title = {Virtual Gods},
	year = {1997},
	publisher = {Harvest House.},
	organization = {Harvest House.},
	address = {Eugene, Oregon},
	abstract = {Millions of computer users have discovered that cyberspace allows them to leap over barriers of time, place, and social status to connect with people from all over the world. Long after this book was written it foresaw alienation in cyberspace. Now a Harvard dropout named Mark Zuckerberg has given the world Facebook, becoming a billionaire in his twenties. Facebook has shown how untold numbers crave social connection so desperately -- even people they have never met -- that they will divulge anything to drive their ratings up. 
There are other doorways in this rapidly expanding digital universe. Virtual reality and holograms are poised to explode. Digital special effects in movies such as James Cameron{\textquoteright}s groundbreaking film Avatar -- shown in 3D on IMAX with scenes of computer generated synthetic reality -- have shown where this technology can take us. Audiences are craving the next leap beyond Avatar.Virtual Gods is a book written before its time. It explores technological doorways still ahead that could open the way to a future only partially glimpsed by such writers as Aldous Huxley, who showed us so much in his prescient Brave New World. Ahead  are invasive aspects to this emerging technology--the ability to spy on subjects, inject microchips, etc -- that would have given George Orwell chills. It is worth a deeper look, which this book provides.},
	keywords = {Gods, Virtual},
	author = {Brooke, Tal}
}
@book {111,
	title = {Virtually Islamic: Computer-Mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments},
	year = {2000},
	publisher = {University of Wales Press},
	organization = {University of Wales Press},
	address = {Lampeter, Wales},
	author = {Gary Bunt}
}
@article {1245,
	title = {Virtual Ritual, Real Faith : the Revirtualization of Religious Ritual in Cyberspace},
	journal = {Online {\textendash} Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet},
	volume = {02.1},
	year = {2006},
	chapter = {73},
	abstract = {Cheryl Anne Casey deals with Practicing Faith in Cyberspace: Conceptions and Functions of Religious Rituals on the Internet. She examines the emerging phenomenon of online religious rituals and their functions for participants in order to illuminate the relationship between changing technologies of communication and our changing conceptions of religion. Her case study considers an online Episcopalian church service within the framework of ritual theory.
Keys to the analysis are the particular design chosen for the service (given the multifarious forms which rituals can take in cyberspace) and the relationship between choice of design and the tenets of the particular faith group. The objective of this study is to shed light on the relationship between conceptions of religion, religious experience, and changing media environments by examining online rituals and the meanings and functions these rituals hold for those who access them},
	keywords = {Contemporary Religious Community, cyberspace, Episcopalian church, internet, media environments, New Media and Society, new media engagement, New Technology and Society, online communication, religious experience, RELIGIOUS RITUAL},
	url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/religions/article/view/377/353},
	author = {Cheryl Anne Casey}
}
@article {1925,
	title = {The vitality of new media and religion: Communicative perspectives, practices, and authority in spiritual organization},
	journal = {New Media and Society},
	volume = {1},
	year = {2016},
	month = {2016},
	pages = {1-8},
	abstract = {It is significant that we are witnessing the growth of a distinct subfield focusing on new media and religion as the relationship between the two is not just important, it is vital. I discuss in this article how this vitality is both figurative and literal in multiple dimensions. Mediated communication brings forth and constitutes the (re)production of spiritual realities and collectivities, as well as co-enacts religious authority. In this way, new mediations serve as the lifeblood for religious organizing and activism. Further research in religious communication will illuminate a richer understanding of digital religion, especially as a globally distributed phenomenon.},
	keywords = {Authority, Communication, convergence, digital media, Globalization, religion, spiritual organizing},
	doi = {10.1177/1461444816649913},
	url = {http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/05/30/1461444816649913.abstract},
	author = {Cheong, Pauline H.}
}
@article {2719,
	title = {The vitality of new media and religion: Communicative perspectives, practices, and changing authority in spiritual organization},
	journal = {New Media \& Society},
	abstract = {We are witnessing the growth of a distinct sub-field focusing on new media and religion as the relationship between the two is not just important, it is vital. I discuss in this article how this vitality is both figurative and literal in multiple dimensions. Mediated communication brings forth and constitutes the (re)production of spiritual realities and collectivities, as well as co-enacts religious authority. In this way, new mediations grounded within older communication practices serve as the lifeblood for the evolving nature of religious authority and forms of spiritual organizing. Further research to identify diverse online and embodied religious communication practices will illuminate a richer understanding of digital religion, especially as a globally distributed phenomenon.},
	keywords = {Authority, Communication},
	url = {https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816649913},
	author = {Cheong, Pauline Hope}
}
@inbook {2159,
	title = {Virtual Buddhism: Online Communities, Sacred Places and Objects},
	booktitle = {The Changing World Religion Map},
	year = {2015},
	pages = {3869-3882},
	publisher = {Springer },
	organization = {Springer },
	address = {Dordrecht},
	abstract = {Until recently, there has been a dearth of research which focuses on Buddhism online. This chapter contributes to our understanding of the relationships between media, religion and culture and specifically explores the themes of authority, community, identity and ritual. Examining Buddhism on the internet helps us to identify the position of Buddhism in society, the possible implications both online and offline and how people engage and communicate in a place (cyberspace) not constrained by geographic boundaries. An interdisciplinary approach, drawing from material culture, anthropology and religious studies examines how Buddhists, primarily in the U.S. and U.K., use the internet in daily life. This includes how they express their belief, practice Buddhist rituals, develop communities and communicate with others. {\textquotedblleft}Virtual Buddhism{\textquotedblright} is illustrated by examples of virtual places, ritual and religious artefacts found in the online world of Second Life and how social media (Facebook and blogs) are used by Buddhists and non-Buddhists. This chapter provides an introduction to some Buddhist groups and individuals who use the internet and mobile technologies to engage with Buddhism. The discourse raises a number of questions, for example, why Buddhist communities are evolving online and the blurring of boundaries between offline and online environments which could challenge traditional concepts of Buddhist authority. Understanding how the internet is being used in the 21st century, is a huge undertaking. The examples presented provide insights into how some individuals are using mobile technologies, social media, and virtual worlds to establish Buddhism online, offline, and negotiate both spheres simultaneously.},
	keywords = {Buddhism, online communities, sacred place, Virtual},
	issn = {978-94-017-9375-9},
	url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_204$\#$citeas},
	author = {Connelly, L}
}
@inbook {673,
	title = {Virtual Buddhism: Buddhist Ritual in Second Life},
	booktitle = {Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds},
	year = {2012},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	organization = {Routledge},
	address = {2012},
	abstract = {Digital Religion offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and new media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of new media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From cell phones and video games to blogs and Second Life, the book:

    provides a detailed review of major topics
    includes a series of case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations
    considers the theoretical, ethical and theological issues raised.

Drawing together the work of experts from key disciplinary perspectives, Digital Religion is invaluable for students wanting to develop a deeper understanding of the field.},
	keywords = {App, Buddhism, religion, Second Life, technology, Virtual},
	issn = {9780415676106 },
	author = {Connelly, L},
	editor = {Campbell, H.}
}
@book {2679,
	title = {Voicing Diasporas: Ethnic Radio in Paris and Berlin Between Cultural Renewal and Retention},
	year = {2011},
	publisher = {Lexington Books},
	organization = {Lexington Books},
	abstract = {The events of 9/11 have cast a shadow of suspicion on Muslims in Western Europe and fostered a public discourse of arbitrary associations with violence and resistance to social and cultural integration. The antagonistic ascendancy of militant Islam globally and the anxiety this has engendered are animating day-to-day debates on the place and loyalty of Muslims in Western societies. Exploring the neglected reality of ethnic radio in Paris and Berlin, Voicing Diasporas: Ethnic Radio in Paris and Berlin Between Cultural Renewal and Retention examines how Muslim minorities of North African descent in France and Germany resist these glaring generalizations and challenge bounded narratives and laws of cultural citizenship in both countries. Through an analysis of Beur FM in Paris and Radio Multikulti in Berlin, this book also questions the reductionist view of diasporic media as expressions of longing, nostalgia, and cultural dislocation. This ground-breaking study is as essential read for not only scholars and higher educational students in various fields, but for those interested in this ever-changing, topical issue.},
	url = {https://www.amazon.com/Voicing-Diasporas-Retention-Francophone-Postcolonial-ebook/dp/B005HIK942},
	author = {Echchaibi, Nabil}
}
@article {2823,
	title = {The veil and its materiality: Muslim women{\textquoteright}s digital narratives about the burkini ban},
	journal = {Journal of Contemporary Religion},
	year = {2019},
	abstract = {In the summer of 2016, around 30 French cities banned the burkini{\textemdash}swimwear used by Muslim women that covers the entire body and head{\textemdash}from public beaches. French authorities supported the ban by claiming that the burkini was unhygienic, a uniform of Islamic extremism, and a symbol of women{\textquoteright}s oppression. Muslim head-coverings, including the burkini, are religious objects whose materiality points to complex semantic meanings often mediated in Internet discourses. Through a qualitative analysis of visual and textual narratives against the burkini ban circulated by Muslim women, this article looks at the way digital media practices help counteract stereotypes and gain control of visual representations. Muslim women focus on two main topics: 1) they challenge the idea of Muslims being {\textquoteleft}aggressors{\textquoteright} by describing the burkini as a comfortable swimsuit not connected with terrorism; 2) they refuse to be considered {\textquoteleft}victims{\textquoteright} by showing that the burkini holds different meanings that do not necessarily entail women{\textquoteright}s submission. Muslim women{\textquoteright}s digital narratives positively associate the materiality of the burkini with safety and freedom and focus on secular values rather than religious meanings.},
	url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537903.2019.1658936?journalCode=cjcr20},
	author = {Evolvi, Giulia}
}
@article {2099,
	title = {The Virtual Construction of the sacred{\textendash}Representation and Fantasy in the Architecture of Second Life Churches},
	journal = {Nordic Journal of Religion and Society},
	volume = {27},
	year = {2014},
	pages = {59{\textendash}73},
	abstract = {This study aims to construct a typology of the visual style of Christian spaces in the online virtual world of Second Life (SL). Virtual worlds offer diverse new possibilities for architectural style, unrestricted by gravity, weather or scarcity of materials. These new regions also operate largely beyond the control and indeed awareness of established religious authorities, so they can also offer users new opportunities to reconsider the social structure of their communities. This research project aims to survey religious responses to these new potential freedoms. Research to date on religion in SL has focused on small samples of spaces or activity, but we found 114 Christian spaces. An overwhelming number of the locations we visited featured a Christian church building. 81 of 114 included a church building that reproduced a recognizable offline architectural style, and only 9 included a church with an entirely different style. Only 15 Christian locations had buildings that cannot be characterised as churches. 
},
	keywords = {Church, Sacred, Second Life Churches, Virtual},
	url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279318282_The_virtual_construction_of_the_sacred_-_Representation_and_fantasy_in_the_architecture_of_second_life_churches},
	author = {Gelfgren, S and Hutchings, T}
}
@article {298,
	title = {Virtually Embodying The Field: Silent Online Buddhist Meditation, Immersion, and The Cardean Ethnographic Method},
	year = {2010},
	publisher = {Online - Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet },
	abstract = {This article sketches the Cardean Ethnographic research method that emerged from two years of study in Second Life{\textquoteright}s Zen Buddhist cloud communities. Second Life is a 3D graphic virtual world housed in cyberspace that can be accessed via the Internet from any networked computer on the globe. Cloud communitiesare groups that are temporary, flexible, elastic and inexpensive in the social capital required to join or to leave. In our research, we found ourselves facing a two-sided methodological problem. We had to theorize the virtual and its relation to the actual, while simultaneously creating practices for an effective ethnographic method. Our solution, named after the Roman Goddess of the hinge, Cardea, was a method that uses the model of a hinge to theorize the virtual as desubtantialized and the worlds opened up by cyberspace as nondualistic. This understanding of the virtual worldscalled for a classic ethnographic methodbased on participant observation and thick description.},
	keywords = {Buddhism, Ethnography, Immersion, Meditation},
	url = {http://www.online.uni-hd.de/},
	author = {Grieve, Gregory}
}
@inbook {146,
	title = {Virtual as Contextual: A Net news theology},
	booktitle = {Religion and Cyberspace},
	year = {2004},
	pages = {149-165},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	organization = {Routledge},
	address = {London},
	abstract = {In the twenty-first century, religious life is increasingly moving from churches, mosques and temples onto the Internet. Today, anyone can go online and seek a new form of religious expression without ever encountering a physical place of worship, or an ordained teacher or priest. The digital age offers virtual worship, cyber-prayers and talk-boards for all of the major world faiths, as well as for pagan organisations and new religious movements. It also abounds with misinformation, religious bigotry and information terrorism. Scholars of religion need to understand the emerging forum that the web offers to religion, and the kinds of religious and social interaction that it enables. 
Religion and Cyberspace explores how religious individuals and groups are responding to the opportunities and challenges that cyberspace brings. It asks how religious experience is generated and enacted online, and how faith is shaped by factors such as limitless choice, lack of religious authority, and the conflict between recognised and non-recognised forms of worship. Combining case studies with the latest theory, its twelve chapters examine topics including the history of online worship, virtuality versus reality in cyberspace, religious conflict in digital contexts, and the construction of religious identity online. Focusing on key themes in this groundbreaking area, it is an ideal introduction to the fascinating questions that religion on the Internet presents.},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=KxSmkuySB28C\&pg=PA149\&lpg=PA149\&dq=Virtual+as+Contextual:+A+Net+news+theology\&source=bl\&ots=0g7sSxYxpG\&sig=ANypZIjc-zolOvIM4wsPrACf9rc\&hl=en\&ei=F3WwTumLMoWesQKQ28HMAQ\&sa=X\&oi=book_result\&ct=result\&resnum=3\&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAg$\#$},
	author = {Herring, Debbie}
}
@book {228,
	title = {Virtual Morality: Christian Ethics in the Computer Age },
	year = {1998},
	publisher = {Apollos},
	organization = {Apollos},
	address = {Leicester},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Virtual_Morality.html?id=-FgrOAAACAAJ},
	author = {Houston, Graham}
}
@article {332,
	title = {Virtually Sacred: The Performance of Asynchronous Cyber-RItuals in Online Spaces},
	journal = {Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication},
	volume = {12},
	year = {2007},
	abstract = {This article explores how the design of sacred spaces and ritual performance are transformed in the move from offline to online contexts. A semiotic analysis of two websites{\textemdash}a Christian Virtual Church and a Hindu Virtual Temple{\textemdash}suggests the potential for demarcating distinct online sacred spaces, in a Durkheimian sense, in which devotees can engage in ritual activity. The article focuses on the performance of cyberpuja in the Virtual Temple and the posting of prayers in the Virtual Church. Interviews with the Web designers and an analysis of the sites suggest that the virtual is primarily conceived in terms of a simulation of the "real." Consequently these sites are envisaged in terms of conventional notions of sacred space and ritual performance, rather than as something radically new.},
	keywords = {cyberspace, Performance, Ritual, Sacred},
	url = {http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/jacobs.html},
	author = {Jacobs, S}
}
@article {412,
	title = {Vaishnava cyber-puja: Problems of purity and novel ritual solutions},
	journal = {Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet },
	volume = {4},
	year = {2010},
	abstract = {In this article, I examine Vaishnava Hindu views on cyber-puj{\={a}} to Vishnu (the ritual worship of Vishnu online). Based on ethnographic interviews with Vaishnava devotees in the New Jersey tri-state area, I argue that although these devotees have nothing against the online worship of Vishnu in theory (they believe that Vishnu is ontologically present in cyberspace and available there for worship), they nonetheless have reservations about performing such worship in practice. These reservations, I argue, stem from concerns about violations of two types of purity: spatial purity (the purity of the sacred cyber-altar space in which Vishnu resides) and mental purity (the purity of the mental state of the devotee who is performing the cyber-puj{\={a}}). However, although devotees have concerns over the violations of purity that stem from cyber-puj{\={a}}, many have come up with novel, medium specific, ritual practices that can help overcome or at least mitigate these purity violations. I discuss these ritual practices{\textemdash}which include actions such as lighting incense in front of the computer, clearing one{\textquoteright}s private data (browsing history, etc.,) and moving the computer to a separate part of the desk{\textemdash}and the ways that they enhance both the computer as a space for worshipping Vishnu and devotees{\textquoteright} mental purity while doing so. Finally, I conclude the article with a discussion of the importance that Vaishnavas place on purity of intention, and show that for many devotees, pure devotional intention is all one needs in order to overcome any seemingly problematic aspect of cyber-puj{\={a}}.},
	url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2010/11304/pdf/10.pdf},
	author = {Karapanagiotis, N.}
}
@inbook {1220,
	title = {A Voice of Their Own. Young Muslim Women, Blogs and Religion },
	booktitle = {Mediatization and Religion: Nordic Perspectives},
	year = {2012},
	publisher = {Nordicom, G{\"o}teborgs universitet, G{\"o}teborg},
	organization = {Nordicom, G{\"o}teborgs universitet, G{\"o}teborg},
	chapter = {7},
	keywords = {blogs, Internet Mediatization of Religion, Islam, Media studies, mediatization of religion, Muslim Women and media, New Media and Society, new media research, Nordic perspective, religion and culture},
	issn = {978-91-86523-44-2},
	url = {http://www.nordicom.gu.se/?portal=mr\&main=info_publ2.php\&ex=357},
	author = {L{\"o}vheim, M}
}
@inbook {414,
	title = {Virtually boundless? Youth negotiating tradition in cyberspace},
	booktitle = {Everyday Religion. Observing Modern Religious Lives},
	year = {2007},
	pages = {83-100},
	publisher = {Oxford University},
	organization = {Oxford University},
	address = {Oxford, NY},
	abstract = {Social scientists sometimes seem not to know what to do with religion. In the first century of sociology{\textquoteright}s history as a discipline, the reigning concern was explaining the emergence of the modern world, and that brought with it an expectation that religion would simply fade from the scene as societies became diverse, complex, and enlightened. As the century approached its end, however, a variety of global phenomena remained dramatically unexplained by these theories. Among the leading contenders for explanatory power to emerge at this time were rational choice theories of religious behavior. Researchers who have spent time in the field observing religious groups and interviewing practitioners, however, have questioned the sufficiency of these market models. Studies abound that describe thriving religious phenomena that fit neither the old secularization paradigm nor the equations predicting vitality only among organizational entrepreneurs with strict orthodoxies. In this collection of previously unpublished essays, scholars who have been immersed in field research in a wide variety of settings draw on those observations from the field to begin to develop more helpful ways to study religion in modern lives. The authors examine how religion functions on the ground in a pluralistic society, how it is experienced by individuals, and how it is expressed in social institutions. Taken as a whole, these essays point to a new approach to the study of religion, one that emphasizes individual experience and social context over strict categorization and data collection.},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=KC5CuLD4mhwC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false},
	author = {L{\"o}vheim, M.}
}
@inbook {333,
	title = {Virtual Pilgrimage to Ireland{\textquoteright}s Croagh Patrick},
	booktitle = {Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet},
	year = {2004},
	pages = {223-238},
	publisher = {Routledge},
	organization = {Routledge},
	address = {New York},
	abstract = {After sex, religion is one of the most popular and pervasive topics of interest online, with over three million Americans turning to the internet each day for religious information and spiritual guidance. Tens of thousands of elaborate websites are dedicated to every manner of expression. Religion Online provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to this burgeoning new religious reality, from cyberpilgrimages to neo-pagan chatroom communities. A substantial introduction by the editors presenting the main themes and issues is followed by sixteen chapters addressing core issues of concern such as youth, religion and the internet, new religious movements and recruitment, propaganda and the countercult, and religious tradition and innovation. The volume also includes the Pew Internet and American Life Project Executive Summary, the most comprehensive and widely cited study on how Americans pursue religion online, and Steven O{\textquoteright}Leary{\textquoteright}s field-defining Cyberspace as Sacred Space.},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=xy0PJrrWXH4C\&pg=PA205\&dq=Virtual+Pilgrimage+to+Ireland+Croagh+Patrick\&hl=en\&sa=X\&ei=nwgiT6-fKqXW2AXYzNTfDg\&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAA$\#$v=onepage\&q=Virtual\%20Pilgrimage\%20to\%20Ireland\%20Croagh\%20Patrick\&f=false},
	author = {MacWilliams, M}
}
@article {515,
	title = {Virtual Religion in Context},
	journal = {Religion},
	volume = {32},
	year = {2002},
	pages = {343-354},
	abstract = {This article explores the notion of {\textquoteleft}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 = {Context, religion, Virtual},
	url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1006/reli.2002.0410$\#$preview},
	author = {Maxwell, P}
}
@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 {238,
	title = {The Virtual Pagan: Exploring Wicca and Paganism through the Internet},
	year = {2002},
	publisher = {Weiser Books},
	organization = {Weiser Books},
	address = {Boston},
	abstract = {Here is a practical manual on craft and technology for anyone interested in joining an on-line coven.},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books?id=-A3P2UcESsYC\&printsec=frontcover$\#$v=onepage\&q\&f=false},
	author = {McSherry, Lynn}
}
@mastersthesis {64,
	title = {Virtual Space, Real Religion: Using the Internet for Adult Faith Formation},
	year = {2007},
	month = {April 2007},
	school = {Seton Hall University},
	address = {South Orange, New Jersey},
	abstract = {At the Church of St. Clare, we have embraced information technology across many ministries, and have several years of experience in using web pages and email. In 2003 we began a major effort to plan and implement a culture of Adult Faith Formation, which has opened up new challenges and fresh ideas. Chapter 1 describes the parish and some of the questions related to technology use as we look at the possibilities that the Web 2.0 provides us as parish ministers. Before making technology decisions, we have to understand how adults grow in faith. Chapter 2 summarizes some recent work in that area. Chapter 3 addresses the culture of communications technology in the United States, drawing on surveys and personal experience to understand how Americans use the Internet, both in general and specifically for activities related to faith and spirituality. The Church is not unaware of these technologies; Chapter 4 brings together some Church documents and theological reflection on the opportunities and dangers of modern methods of communication. Given the volatile nature of information technology, it is more important to understand guidelines and objectives than to choose specific technologies. Chapter 5 offers a set of principles that can be used to evaluate proposed technology uses and to spark creative thinking around areas where we might discover shortfalls. In Chapter 6 I attempt to test these principles by applying them to some web sites, both our own and others that appear to be recognized as {\textquotedblleft}best in class{\textquotedblright} examples.},
	url = {http://terrimiyamoto.com/documents/Virtual.pdf},
	author = {Terri Miyamoto}
}
@article {2992,
	title = {Vatican warning on danger of {\textquotedblleft}online confession.{\textquotedblright}},
	journal = {The Sunday Times Online},
	year = {2003},
	url = {https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/vatican-warning-on-danger-of-online-confession-3pz0r22h67r},
	author = {Owen, R.}
}
@article {163,
	title = {Virtual Religion. An Approach to a Religious and Ritual Topography of Second Life},
	journal = {Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet},
	year = {2008},
	abstract = {Kerstin Radde-Antweiler gives an overview or a cross section about the religious and ritualistic settings within {\textquotedblleft}Second Life{\textquotedblright} and explores the question why studies in and around Virtual Worlds represent an important issue in the Study of Religions. In her article about {\textquotedblleft}Virtual Religion. An Approach to a Religious and Ritual Topography of Second Life{\textquotedblright} she introduces the theoretical concept of an {\textquotedblleft}actor-related religious historiography{\textquotedblright} which tries to take into account the religiousness of the individual actor.
},
	keywords = {Actor, religion, Second Life},
	url = {http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2008/8294/pdf/Radde.pdf},
	author = {Radde-Antweiler, Kerstin}
}
@inbook {403,
	title = {Virtual worlds: culture and imagination},
	booktitle = {Cybersociety},
	year = {1995},
	pages = {164-183},
	publisher = {Sage},
	organization = {Sage},
	address = {Thousand Oaks, CA},
	abstract = {The culture of computer and network- mediated communication is growing both in size and sophistication. Cyberspace is the new frontier where new worlds, meanings and values are developed. CyberSociety focuses on the construction, maintenance and mediation of community in electronic networks and computer-mediated communication. Leading scholars representing the range of disciplines involved in the study of cyberculture lay out the definitions, boundaries and approaches to the field, as they focus on the social relations that computer-mediated communication engenders.},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/CyberSociety.html?id=jPlSAAAAMAAJ},
	author = {Reid, E}
}
@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 {241,
	title = {Virtual Warfare: The Internet as the New Site for Global Religious Conflict},
	journal = {Asian Journal of Social Science},
	volume = {32},
	year = {2004},
	pages = {198-215},
	abstract = {This paper explores the ways in which a resurgent Hindu fundamentalism (Hindutva) is redefining Hinduism and Hindu identities in a transnational, global context. The global project of Hindutva makes use of new global communication channels, including the Internet, and is apparently espoused by influential sections of the transnational Hindu middle class, especially in the United States. This paper examines a selected sample of Internet sites devoted to the spread of religious and fundamentalist beliefs and ideas particularly relevant to India and transnational Hinduism, and explores the ways in which the Internet is changing the shape of communities and the ways in which they represent one another. The paper puts forth the argument that in the context of globalization, the Net has become an important space for the creation of transnational religious identities. The Net is shaping religion, specifically Hinduism, in distinct ways and is the newest expression of religion{\textquoteright}s changing face. The battle for souls is being fought on Internet sites. The questions of this paper relate to the modes of representation of "other religions" as revealed particularly by Hindu sites, the ways in which Internet sites garner audiences, and the strategies they adopt to link themselves with both global audiences and local groups. A sociological analysis will reveal the shape of these discourses and link their popularity with the social and political context of globalization, a liberalized economy, and the organization of religious practice in post 1990s India.
},
	keywords = {Communication, Globalization, Hindu, religion},
	url = {http://www.kamat.com/database/?CitationID=11007},
	author = {Robinson, Rowena}
}
@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}
}
@inbook {265,
	title = {Video Games, Video Clips, and Islam: New Media and the Communication of Values},
	booktitle = {Muslim Societies in the Age of Mass Consumption},
	year = {2009},
	publisher = {Cambridge Scholars Publishing},
	organization = {Cambridge Scholars Publishing},
	address = {Newcastle},
	abstract = {In the course of the 20th century, hardly a region in the world has escaped the triumph of global consumerism. Muslim societies are no exception. Globalized brands are pervasive, and the landscapes of consumption are changing at a breathtaking pace. Yet Muslim consumers are not passive victims of the homogenizing forces of globalization. They actively appropriate and adapt the new commodities and spaces of consumption to their own needs and integrate them into their culture. Simultaneously, this culture is reshaped and reinvented to comply with the mechanisms of conspicuous consumption. It is these processes that this volume seeks to address from an interdisciplinary perspective. The papers in this anthology present innovative approaches to a wide range of issues that have, so far, barely received scholarly attention. The topics range from the changing spaces of consumption to Islamic branding, from the marketing of religious music to the consumption patterns of Muslim minority groups. This anthology uses consumption as a prism through which to view, and better understand, the enormous transformations that Muslim societies Middle Eastern, South-East Asian, as well as diasporic ones have undergone in the past few decades.},
	url = {http://books.google.com/books/about/Muslim_societies_in_the_age_of_mass_cons.html?id=2XIOQgAACAAJ},
	author = {Sisler, Vit}
}
@book {2746,
	title = {Video Games and Religion},
	year = {2015},
	publisher = {Oxford University Press},
	organization = {Oxford University Press},
	abstract = {This article identifies key features of the comparison between video games and religion, focusing on contemporary video games based on specific ancient apocalypses including {\textquotedblleft}The Book of the Watchers{\textquotedblright} in the Enoch corpus and the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Many contemporary video games function as rituals of order-making, creating spaces of play in which violence is a performative mode of metaphysical sorting, allowing for new negotiations between {\textquotedblleft}good{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}evil.{\textquotedblright} Through a consideration of popular gaming elements (fragging, fiero, firepower, and fun), this article proposes that the strong relationship between video games and apocalyptic literature invites a closer examination of how eschatological tensions infuse contemporary times, too often inviting an overly simplistic apocalyptic response to contemporary global challenges.},
	url = {https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935420-e-8},
	author = {Wagner, Rachel}
}
@article {3023,
	title = {Vatican rules out online confessions},
	year = {2001},
	publisher = {PC World Online},
	url = {https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/44601/vatican_rule_online_confessions/},
	author = {Wilian, P.}
}
@book {246,
	title = {Virtual Morality: Morals, Ethics and New Media},
	year = {2003},
	publisher = {Peter Lang Publishing},
	organization = {Peter Lang Publishing},
	address = {London},
	abstract = {New technologies continue to shape communication and how we think about and relate to the world around us. What is rarely examined is how these new media relate to morals and ethics in society and culture. In a series of twelve essays, written from a variety of viewpoints including philosophy, communication, media and art, and situating its arguments around the three poles of technology, community, and religion, this collection examines the relationship between morals and ethics and new media, ranging from the ways in which new communication technologies are employed to their effects on the messages communicated and those who use them.},
	url = {http://www.nextag.com/Virtual-Morality-Morals-Ethics-1229926092/specs-html},
	author = {Wolf, Mark}
}
