"We have surveyed the history of the study of new media and religion, identified heuristic perspectives helpful in organizing current scholarship, and appraised methodologies employed in the study. The study of new media and religion has evolved from extreme utopian/dystopian discourses to a better understanding of the observable effects of new media, to incorporating into its scholarship diverse disciplines—hence the “protestantization” of the field. Perspectives on religion and the Internet vary within religious traditions, as the diversity of thought within Christian uses demonstrates. Current heuristic perspectives in the study include the Internet as an information dissemination medium, the relationship between online and offline religion, the potential influence of online religion on offline religion, the distinction between online-religion and religion-online, and observations of the Internet medium itself. Researchers emply both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in the study of new media and religion, with each methods having its advantages." (Conclusion, page 16)