Ritual

Abstract

As internet technology has developed, people’s level of engagement with the online environment has increased significantly. These changes on individual, societal, and cultural levels have influenced religious information-seeking behavior, online religious activities, and even religious rituals. Rituals themselves are woven into the cultural meaning-making system and play a significant role on a number of different social, personal, and institutional levels. Online rituals can be viewed not as a separate, extraordinary type of (religious) activity, but rather as religious engagement within a particular environment. Focusing specifically on ritual practice, this chapter will explore some of the key issues of the multifaceted approaches towards rituals in a highly mediatized world offering a summary and an abridged overview of the last 25 years of research, presenting a synthesis of the common methods, theories, and approaches used for studying rituals on the internet.

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