ABSTRACT
The extent to which a group of people who meet and interact online can be considered a community has been a subject of great debate over the past three decades. The Internet’s ability to facilitate and mediate social relations has shifted many people’s notions of friendship, relationship, and community in an age of networked, digital technologies. This chapter deals with the question of how community is defined in relation to the online context and how the Internet alters many people’s practice of community within a new media landscape. This requires several key questions to be addressed, including: How is community defined, enacted, and networked online? What challenges do new media pose to traditional religious communities? What is the connection between online and offline community?
