ABSTRACT
This theoretical chapter investigates the relationship between religious individualisation, community, and authority. It draws on the three-level secularisation concept by Karel Dobbelaere and points out that it offers insufficient insight into religious community transformations. Concepts analysing the transformations of religious authority and community (the authors include Luckmann, Hervieu-Léger, Davie, Campbell, and Taylor) are analysed in the context of the processes of mediatisation and individualisation. It is concluded that religious authority and community can be either empowered or undermined as a result of individualisation processes and that the meaning of both has changed since religious communities had become communities of choice. The distance between religious institutions, communities, and the followers has shortened through digital media use. It is argued that since online the private merges with the public, just as the sacred merges with the secular, the final effect is a new quality of religious communication. The final section discusses the response of the Roman Catholic Church to the aforementioned changes reflected in official documents. It concludes that while the Church exhibits a predominantly open and welcoming attitude towards the Web, direct, personal communication is given primacy over online interactions, which is of consequence to the faithful worldwide.
