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Synopsis
Named one of the ten best books in religion in 2001 by the Christian Science Monitor
"One can find a no better guide to cyberspace's impact on the complex passions and strivings of premodern, modern, antimodern, and postmodern humanity than this brilliant, empathic, and unfailingly honest inquiry. Few writers on religion can combine critical acuity and great-hearted compassion the way Brenda E. Brasher does."--Richard Landes, director, Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University
As the Internet and the World Wide Web break down barriers of time and space, religion enjoys an ever-increasing accessibility on a global scale. Inevitably, people online have sought out encounters with the otherworldly, launching religion into cyberspace. In this compelling book, Brenda E. Brasher explores the meaning of electronic faith and the future of traditional religion.
Operating online allows long-established religious communities to reach hearts and minds as never before. Yet more startling is the ease by which anyone with Internet access can create new circles of faith.
Bringing religion online also narrows the gap between pop culture and the sacred. Electronic shrines and kitschy personal Web "altars" idolize living celebrities, just as they honor the memory of religious martyrs. Looking ahead, Brasher envisions a world in which cyber-concepts and -technologies challenge conventional notions about the human condition, while still attempting to realize age-old religious ideals such as transcendence and eternal life.
As the Internet continues its rapid absorption of culture, Give Me That Online Religion offers pause for thought about spirituality in the cyber-age. Religion's move tothe online world does not mean technology's triumph over faith. Rather, Brasher argues, it assures religion's place in the wired universe, meeting the spiritual demands of Internet generations to come.
Dr. Brenda E. Brasher is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at King's College, University of Aberdeen. She frequently serves as a religious consultant to the media, and for more than a decade has documented and analyzed Internet and Web activities of traditional and alternative religious groups.
Publishers Weekly
How is cyberspace transforming American religion? Brasher, an independent religion scholar, believes that the Web's new transcendence spells nothing short of a bona fide Reformation for religious traditions. Just as the printing press made possible the Lutheran Reformation, the explosion of cyberspace "brings with it a tidal wave of new spirituality that may sweep us all up in its path." Brasher is a bit vague about the details of this sea change, believing that specific prognostications about the future of online religion are unwise since the technology itself changes so rapidly. She offers a few tantalizing tidbits based on a sampling of the more than one million faith-related Web sites that now exist. How about a Cyber-Seder? Or "repentance" Web pages where confessing Christians list their sins and then, with the click of a mouse, see them erased? Brasher expresses an informed ambivalence about the future of online religion, noting some of its positive points (e.g., the ability to enjoy the sacred anytime and from anywhere, and the increased potential for religious diversity) while elucidating its potential dark side. She asks whether disembodied cyberspace is genuinely capable of promoting religious community. Complementing the thoughtful text is a dramatic, Web-inspired layout that features graphics, curved pull-out quotes and hip background designs. While Brasher's book is sometimes tentative, it bravely tackles a momentous new topic, and will be consulted by the many scholars who follow her cookie trail. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.