Open AccessWho’s Got the Power? Religious Authority and the Internet
Author(s) -
Campbell Heidi
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of computer‐mediated communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.15
H-Index - 119
ISSN - 1083-6101
DOI - 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00362.x
Subject(s) - the internet , power (physics) , relation (database) , ideology , hierarchy , sociology , context (archaeology) , identity (music) , identification (biology) , traditional authority , order (exchange) , epistemology , political science , law , politics , aesthetics , computer science , history , world wide web , anthropology , business , philosophy , physics , botany , archaeology , finance , quantum mechanics , database , biology
While many themes have been explored in relation to religion online—ritual, identity construction, community—what happens to religious authority and power relationships within online environments is an area in need of more detailed investigation. In order to move discussions of authority from the broad or vague to the specific, this article argues for a more refined identification of the attributes of authority at play in the online context. This involves distinguishing between different layers of authority in terms of hierarchy, structure, ideology, and text. The article also explores how different religious traditions approach questions of authority in relation to the Internet. Through a qualitative analysis of three sets of interviews with Christians, Jews, and Muslims about the Internet, we see how authority is discussed and contextualized differently in each religious tradition in terms of these four layers of authority.