The Virtual Church

Cliff Grammich on the internet and churches:

Peter asks below about research “on the impact of technology on the existence, boundaries, an internal structure of religious organizations.” This is, to my knowledge, a nascent field, but there are some resources on this, listed below, of greater and lesser relevance to Peter’s question.

Here is a summary of work by Scott Thumma on “congregations and the web,” including some speculations on the repercussions for a “wired” church. Thumma discusses this at more length here, and here discusses the essentials of good church websites.

Here, Ken Bedell writes about Internet congregations. Here is earlier work by Bedell on religion and the Internet.

Here is Pew work on “wired churches.”

Here is a longer Hartford Seminary listing of articles on religion and the Internet.

See my previous post on Transaction Costs and the Church.