Join panelists Thursday, March 28, for a discussion of “Faith on the Web: Transformations in Religious Experience.”
Digital communications via the Internet and social media have fundamentally transformed how people learn about and participate in religious practice. Religious institutions in the 21st century continue to struggle with the decentralizing effect the web has on traditional religious authority and on the modes of intellectual and theological exchanges among scholars, religious leaders, congregants and outside observers. Beyond internal dynamics, there also seems to be emerging a “Wikipedia” effect, or a “web consensus” dynamic, in which practitioners interpret and share their perspectives on faith and worship outside traditional institutions, structures and lines of authority. People create their own online spiritual communities that may well compete with, or even overtake, historical communities.
The exploratory panel discussion will center on the web and the future of religion and religious culture.
The panelists will be Peter Haas, Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies and chair of the Case Western Reserve University Department of Religious Studies; Darin Freeburg, doctoral candidate in the Center for the Study of Information and Religion at Kent State University’s College of Communication; and Doris Donnelly, professor of theology and director of the Cardinal Suenens Center at John Carroll University. The moderator will be Mark Eddy, research services librarian for religious studies at Kelvin Smith Library.
The discussion is March 28 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the Dampeer Room of the Kelvin Smith Library. Refreshments, cookies and fruit will be served.
For additional information, contact Mark Eddy at 216.368.5457 or mxe37@case.edu.
Parking information can be found here.