Spiritualising the Internet Uncovering Discourses and Narratives of Religious Internet Usage

In 2001 the first international conference on religion and the Internet was held at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Religious Encounters in Digital Networks brought together researchers from around the world to discuss their studies of religion online. In the concluding session the conference organisers made a call for “more serious research” and reflection into emerging expressions religiosity and rituals online. Since then several texts have been published that took root at this conference. This demonstrates the seriousness to which many scholars have taken this need for detailed investigation of religious engagement online. Still, however, much work remains at the level of documenting and defining the phenomenon of religion online. Little theoretical work exists that provides frameworks for explaining online religious activities in terms of larger social and cultural processes. A need exists for studies that not only define what happens when religion appears online, but also interpret why this is occurring and the implications for religious culture as a whole. This involves investigating questions such as what does a religious group’s conception of the Internet influence how they negotiate it’s use, and what do these perceptions link to trends in contemporary society and the role of religion in culture as a whole. This call also places importance on recognising distinct processes occurring within religious groups that influence their adoption and adaptation of the Internet to meet the group’s specific needs or desires. In light of this, this article seeks to investigate how Internet users conceive and speak of the Internet, in order to introduce it as suitable for religious use. This involves identifying the common discourses employed by religious users that conceptualize the Internet for acceptable use, and the narratives of use that emerge from these discourses. This process is defined as the ‘spiritualising of the Internet’, a framing process I have observed many groups of religious user undergo in order to explain why they engage in spiritual activities,