Browsing by Author "Alberts, Thomas"

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    Virtually real : problems of authenticity in religion on the internet
    (2003) Alberts, Thomas; Chidester, David
    This study explores the vexed problem of authenticity in religion. In making that exploration, the study uses for its data the multitude of diverse and disparate religious formations found in the relatively disordered and anarchic spaces created with Internet technologies, formations that I have tentatively called virtual religions. The theoretical framework applied here is developed from the unique and original critical theory of Walter Benjamin. This study is therefore located at a number of important intersections: between religion and popular culture, between religion and politics, between religion and philosophy, and between religion and art. The argument is comprised of three major parts, corresponding to Chapters Two, Three and Four respectively. The first part approaches authenticity from the perspective of empiricism, with its scientific methods of verification and falsification. The keyword here is forensics because it implies both the scientific paradigm and police detection. This second implication is an important addition to the first because it draws attention to power in the vexed problem of religious authenticity.