COMPUTER NETWORKING, THEOLOGY, AND MEDIA ECOLOGY
Keywords:
Theology of Communication, God, Networking, Media EcologyAbstract
In the first decade of the 21st century, a loose Christian community
formed in the United States around the websites and blogs of several
Evangelicals dedicated to a further understanding of the “End Times,”
particularly as described in the Book of Revelation. The group created a
kind of “virtual ekklesia” or church.1 The individual members for the
most part had never met offline but found encouragement, support, and
teaching in their fellowship, one independent of any congregation or
denomination. Made insular by their central belief in the End Times,
they nevertheless celebrated their version of Christianity in frequent
communication. More than this, the teachings of the most frequent
writers created a theological body of texts central to the group’s identity.
References
R.G. Howard, Digital Jesus: The Making of a New Christian Fundamentalist Community on the Internet, New York and London: New York University Press, 2011.
C. Helland, “Online Religion/Religion Online and Virtual Communitas,” in J.K. Hadden and D.E. Cowan, ed., Religion on the Internet: Research Prospects and Promises, Amsterdam, NY: JAI, 2000, 205-233.
A. J. Liebling, The New Yorker, 36 (May 14, 1960) 105 [reprinted A.J. Liebling, The Press, New York: Ballantine Books (1960) 30-31].
R. Ling, The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society, Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2004, 23-27.
E. Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
