This volume explores the relationship between new media and religion focusing on the WWW's
impact on the Russian Orthodox Church. Eastern Christianity has travelled a long way through
the centuries amassing the intellectual riches of many generations of theologians and shaping
the cultures as well as histories of many countries Russia included before the arrival of the
digital era. New media pose questions that when answered fundamentally change various aspects
of religious practice and thinking as well as challenge numerous traditional dogmata of
Orthodox theology. For example an Orthodox believer may now enter a virtual chapel light a
candle by drag-and-drop operations send an online prayer request or worship virtual icons and
relics. In recent years however Church leaders and public figures have become increasingly
skeptical about new media. The internet some of them argue breaches Russia's ?spiritual
sovereignty? and implants values and ideas alien to the Russian culture. This collection
addresses such questions as: How is the Orthodox ecclesiology influenced by its new digital
environment? What is the role of clerics in the Russian WWW? How is the specifically Orthodox
notion of sobornost' (catholicity) being transformed here? Can Orthodox activity in the
internet be counted as authentic religious practice? How does the virtual religious life
intersect with religious experience in the ?real? church?
