"Social media as a new phenomenon has become a tool used by many televangelists and pastors all over the world. It is against this background that this research sought to explore the Facebook activities of some Ghanaian Pentecostal pastors from a missional perspective. The article deals with the con
...
cept of social media, Facebook and its potential for mission purposes, the Facebook phenomenon among Ghanaians and how Ghanaian Pentecostal Pastors are using Facebook for missional purposes, as well as some of concerns on the negative uses of social media. The study revealed that Ghanaian pastors are followed by people from different religious and societal backgrounds. It has also offered the pastors and their congregations the opportunity to form relationships with a wide and diverse range of people without being bound by geographical space." (Abstract)
more
"This article provides a focused review of researches undertaken within Digital religion studies in the last three decades, specifically highlighting how religious communities have been studied and approached within this area. It highlights the dominant theoretical and methodological approaches empl
...
oyed by scholars during what is being described as the four stages of research on religious communities emerging over this period of time. Thus, this article presents the findings of key studies emerging during these stages to illuminate how the study of religious communities online has evolved over time. It also offers insights into how this evolution specifically relates to the study of Catholic community online. Finally, a theoretical analysis is given, assessing current research on religious communities within Digital Religion studies, and approaches for future research are proposed." (Abstract)
more
"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 continuo
...
usly 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'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." (Abstract)
more
"In their article on 'Building the Sacred Community Online', Oren Golan and Nurit Stadler zoom in on the latest attempts of Chabad, the extrovert Jewish Hasidic group, to harness the newest digital technologies to propagate and popularize its staunchly traditionalist reading of Jewish heritage. Also
...
known as 'Lubavitch', Chabad is the Hebrew acronym of 'Wisdom, Intellect, Knowledge', three of the more elevated kabalistic spheres (cf. Proverbs 3, 19-20). To many, Chabad's embrace of communication technologies looks like an example of enlisting the devil to do God's work, though it does not look like that to them. This paradox, and Golan and Stadler's account of its newest coming, touches on some of the most fundamental issues of Jewish communications, as well as the much broader problem of religion and communications. The general religion and communication nexus may be divided into two major themes. One is the issue of religious communications, or media theology - namely, the problem of interaction of God and humans. But it also consists of the issue of communicating religion, namely, the handling and disseminating of what the religious believe to be a divine message in this world. As we shall see, both these issues are particularly relevant to Chabad. But the more immediate context for understanding Chabad and its use of media is the universe of Jewish communications. Here too there is a duality: 'Jewish' connotes both Jews and Judaism - a social entity and a religion - and here too, both aspects are relevant to understanding Chabad's media practices today. In order to link Stadler and Golan's study to these broader themes, we will work diachronically. We survey the beginnings and historical development of Chabad communications and beyond them the beginnings of Hasidic communications." (Abstract)
more
"Die digitale Revolution hat unser Denken dramatisch verändert. Wir betreten mit dieser Technik einen neuen Lebensraum, in dem herkömmliche Regeln nicht gelten und die Gesellschaften lernen müssen, neue Normen auszuhandeln. Der Umgang mit Texten und anderen traditionellen Autoritäten verändert
...
sich, und damit auch ethische Fragestellungen aus christlicher Perspektive. Zum Beispiel: Wer ist mein Nächster? Es wird ein langer Weg, bis die herkömmliche Wissenschaft von Gott diesen neuen Lebensraum nach theologischen Kriterien einordnen und deuten kann. Dieses Buch möchte einen Anfang machen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
more
"In this second edition, Gould provides an easy-to-understand, step-by-step guide to digital ministry for those who wish to embrace new technologies to build community and deepen faith. In this expanded edition, Gould delivers new content with humor, helpful tips, and counsel anchored in practical e
...
xperience. She focuses on key topics for effective church communication, including: building and ministering to online communities; privacy and self-disclosure in the digital age; integrating communications across digital platforms; managing and monitoring social media; faith storytelling with visual social media; hashtag development and live-tweeting." (Publisher description)
more
"Der Beitrag analysiert die Kommunikation der römisch-katholischen (Erz-)Bistümer und der evangelisch-lutherischen Landeskirchen in Deutschland im Social Web. Empirische Untersuchungen der „Facebook“-, „Twitter“- und „Youtube“-Aktivitäten der beiden Großkirchen verdeutlichen, dass di
...
e Bistümer den Katholikentag 2014 positiv für ihre Social-Web-Auftritte nutzen konnten. Dennoch war keine konsistente Kommunikationsstrategie zur Verknüpfung von Regel- und Veranstaltungskommunikation ersichtlich. Insgesamt werden partizipative Plattformen noch sehr zurückhaltend genutzt, wie wohl es einzelne Leuchttürme gibt, die in einen aktiven Dialog mit Mitgliedern und anderen Bezugsgruppen treten. Die katholischen Institutionen scheinen den Landeskirchen bereits einige Schritte voraus zu sein – was aber auch als Zeichen der unterschiedlichen Ekklesiologie gedeutet werden kann. Zukünftige Social-Web-Studien könnten sich daher gezielt auf die Ebene der Kirchenkreise und Dekanate sowie der lokalen Ortsgemeinden konzentrieren." (Abstract)
more
"In summer 2012, the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden appeared on Twitter. There was only one problem – it was not the Archbishop himself who was tweeting, but an anonymous person. A discussion then ensued on Twitter and in the blogosphere between those in favor of the Archbishop and his departm
...
ent and mainly social media proponents. The present article describes and analyzes the social media debate, and how authority and hierarchies are negotiated in and through social media. The analysis is based on Heidi Campbell’s “Religious-Social Shaping of Technology” model, and emphasizes the need to take into account not only the faith and tradition of the religious actor, but also the societal context in which the negotiating process takes place. In this case, the concepts of “mediatization” and “secularization” are used to understand the broader context of the process." (Abstract)
more
"A presente dissertação examina os efeitos da invenção da internet na teologia e sociedade, definindo o que é ciberteologia a fim de descobrir qual sua contribuição para melhor compreender e inter-relacionar a cultura, a fé e o ser humano contemporâneo. Delimita-se o tema em cibergraça, en
...
tendida como a comunhão entre as pessoas nos tempos da rede. Primeiro, apreende-se o ciberespaço como um lugar profundamente antropológico onde se pode refletir teologicamente. O estudo também busca verificar como a rede afeta ou potencializa a relação de comunhão entre as pessoas, em especial com a juventude, público predominante no ciberespaço. Além disso, analisa o valor eclesiológico da internet na missão de evangelizar todos os povos, construindo a relação entre evangelização e comunhão na era digital. O trabalho utiliza basicamente os métodos de pesquisa exploratória, bibliográfica e documental. A dissertação se fundamenta principalmente nas obras e artigos de Antonio Spadaro, autor do livro e do campo teológico “Ciberteologia”, pano de fundo deste estudo. Para fundamentar a análise sociológica e cibercultural do primeiro capítulo, faz-se uso de autores como Manuel Castells, Pierre Lévy e André Lemos. Na teologia trinitária destaca-se a contribuição de Gisbert Greshake e John Zizioulas. Também o trabalho se inspira no pensamento científico-teológico de Teilhard de Chardin seja diretamente ou indiretamente através de autores como Jennifer Cobb, com sua obra “Cybergrace." (Resumo)
more
"The paper focuses on the social media use in religious communication by Kerala Christians who largely migrated after India's independence to Ahmedabat, Gujarat, India. Further, the paper attempts to analyze the way digital and social media are accessed and utilized by the migrant Kerala Christians
...
in Ahmedabat for religious as well as non-religious purposes. The paper is basedon a survey of social media and a pilot study was carried out by interns of a business school in Ahmedabat which was followed by a large survey of three religious groups namely Hindu, Muslim and Christian during February-April 2015. The present paper is based on a survey of 211 Christian respondents in the total sample of 711." (Page 67)
more
"Este artigo é o relato de um exercício realizado para o desenvolvimento de categorias de análise do uso de mídias por coletivos e movimentos sociais no Brasil. Parte-se do pressuposto que os conceitos teóricos do campo da comunicação popular, alternativa e comunitária, construídos principa
...
lmente entre as décadas de 1960 e 1990, vêm sendo desafiados por práticas novas ou adaptadas, influenciadas, entre outros elementos, pela introdução de recursos digitais. A pergunta que se faz é como esse fenômeno interfere no desenvolvimento de práticas midiáticas levadas a cabo por esses coletivos, especialmente no que se refere ao potencial de participação das comunidades a elas associadas. O exercício tomou como base os relatos de experiências apresentados durante o 8º Mutirão Brasileiro de Comunicação (MBC), realizado em Natal (RN), no final de outubro de 2013. Além de testar o modelo de análise, os resultados apresentam um quadro de tendências sobre o uso de mídias, sobretudo por coletivos católicos no Brasil. A primeira seção do artigo explica a fundamentação das categorias de análise. A segunda, descreve a amostra utilizada. Na seção final, discutem-se os resultados obtidos, incluindo as tendências observadas nos casos analisados e os limites da proposta metodológica." (Resumo)
more
"The emergence of Islam and Muslim public spheres in cyberspace has progressed along with the development of Information and Communication Technologies. Just like believers of other faiths, Muslim individuals are enthusiastic in sharing their faith, beliefs, and values at the click of a mouse. Based
...
on an online survey conducted on 525 respondents, this study seeks further understanding on the factors that influence engagement in online religious activities among Muslims. Through the application of the Theory of Planned Behavior, results from the study revealed five important predictors of online religious engagement, namely attitude–Internet perception, the subjective norms of the Muslim community, the Internet self-efficacy, level of religiosity among Muslims, and offline media usage for religious purposes." (Abstract)
more
"These guidelines are offered as a synthesis of best practices. They include material compiled from church entities, for-profit corporations, and non-profit organizations [...] In this document, “church personnel” is defined as anyone—priest, deacon, religious, bishop, lay employee, or volunte
...
er—who provides ministry or service or is employed by an entity associated with the Catholic Church." (Introduction)
more