Religion and the Internet — New Challenges to Living the Faith

Abstract

The new media are not only a means of communication, but an »atmosphere« in which millions of people throughout the world »live« on a day–to–day basis. This is a space within which new means of communication are developed, and there occur new ways of linking and forming of new communities. Considering the fact that we live »in« and »with« the virtual world and that it strongly affects daily life, the authors reflect on how life in the virtual world affects the experience of faith. In the paper, special attention is devoted to the impact of internet communication on certain crucial determinants of faith: virtual symbolic context, new forms of communities, the question of authority, individualization and the sense of belonging.