Authority and liquid religion in cyber‐space: the new territories of religious communication

Abstract

This article considers three case studies of forms of authority within new cyber-territories. We first deal with the example of a traditional religion, Islam, by exploring new social issues that this religious system encounters in cyber-space. Second, we turn to a social movement that is by definition less traditional and less established, namely neo-paganism; and finally, we examine the new phenomenon of hyper-real religion (Possamai 2005b, 2012) to discover whether, even in free-floating religions where in principle everything is permitted and where the individual has full autonomy to decide on the specific constructions of his/her religion, forms of authority and social/religious distinctions are paradoxically present.