Book Excerpt

The Mists of Cyberhenge: Mapping the Modern Pagan Internet

Authors

  • Douglas E Cowan University of Missouri-- Kansas City

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v7i1.59

Keywords:

paganism, e-religion, web-based religion, cyberworlds

Abstract

Since its popular inception in the mid-1990s, the World Wide Web has been subject to a set of interrelated mythologies about its potential as a social technology. Virtual reality has been confused with online activity, the question of computer-mediated community has been debated, and researchers have begun to explore the Internet’s impact on religious belief and practice. This excerpt addresses some of these concerns in terms of the Internet more generally and modern Paganism on the Internet more specifically. While some Pagans regard the Net as the next leap in magickal evolution, others consider it little more than a global notice board for the privileged classes.

Author Biography

  • Douglas E Cowan, University of Missouri-- Kansas City

    Douglas E. Cowan is associate professor of religious studies and sociology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is the author of the Remnant Spirit: Conservative Reform in Mainline Protestantism and Bearing False Witness? An Introduction to the Christian Countercult. He is co-editor, with Lorne L. Dawson, of Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, also published by Routledge.

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Published

2007-03-08

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Cowan, D. E. (2007). Book Excerpt: The Mists of Cyberhenge: Mapping the Modern Pagan Internet. Pomegranate, 7(1), 59-97. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v7i1.59