ABSTRACT
The notion that modern technology and religion are incompatible, becausein sociologist of religion Bryan Wilson’s words-‘technology is itself the encapsulation of human rationality’ and because ‘the instrumentalism of rational thinking is powerfully embodied in machines’ (1976: 88), have long been a socialscientific mainstay. The implication of this notion that religion will inevitably suffer from encounters with technology has meanwhile been challenged by historical studies demonstrating that the two have in fact often developed in tandem (for example, Davis 1998, Noble 1997). Their potential for peaceful coexistence has become even more evident since the emergence and widespread religious use of the Internet since the 1990s.
