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Abstract
This article explores patterns of belonging that may develop around religious activities in the interface of online and offline settings. This article is a theoretical contribution aiming to develop fruitful concepts for use at the present stage of research on religion and the Internet. With reference to Lorne Dawson's note on ‘Religion and the quest for virtual community’ from 2004, this article discusses conceptual consequences following recent changes in the Internet as well as changes in offline and online religion and religiosity. It is argued that online patterns should be considered in relation to offline structures. Religion is understood through processes of mediation and patterns of belonging rather than as defined ‘communities’. A sense of belonging is upheld in the intertwined processes of interaction and identification. Patterns of religious belonging gathered from offline contexts as well as from online practices are better suited to trace religion and religiosity in the new media environment than either an existing religious offline community or an expected ‘virtual’ counterpart. The author suggests a typology where patterns of religious belonging could be traced either as ‘participatory’ or ‘vicarious’, online or offline, respectively. The Internet – in the open exchange between the online and the offline – offers new ways for religion to happen. The Internet, as available with the affordances of social media, is not antithetical to being religious. Rather, forms of religion and religiosity are shaped through the interplay of mediation and belonging at the offline/online interface.
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