The Bible on my Own Terms : A Study of Mediated Contacts with the Bible with Special Reference to Youth and the Internet

Does mediation via the Internet contribute to the use of the Bible as a cultural resource, and if so does this contribute to other ways of relating to the Bible as an authority? This is investigated in three steps. Firstly, quantitative survey data concerning Bible reading and other forms of contact with the Bible as well as attitudes to the Bible are scrutinized for variation over time and generational differences. Secondly, patterns of use on a Swedish Christian ecumenical web site on the Bible targeted at teenagers are explored. Thirdly interviews with young users of this web site are assessed in terms of detraditionalization. Earlier results emphasizing the privatizing effect of the mediation of religion are complemented by considering a cultural component against which the individual relates to religion in a manner which is both private and social. This study supports the findings of earlier studies on the Internet and religion, as to the significance of factors such as offline experiences of religion, attitude to pluralism, and technical features online. This study adds to those results by exposing how these features come into play in the use of a Christian website, and that such a site may also work as an arena for young people from diverse religious backgrounds. Thirdly, the role of the mediation of religion via the Internet for religious and social change is understood in a reciprocal manner: the Internet is a product of a time of insecurity, an agent contributing to this insecurity, as well as a cultural response to this insecurity. It is argued that the use of the studied website can be seen as detraditionalization, in terms of weakening of traditions and individualization of religion. The concept virtual plausibility structure is suggested for understanding the role of the Internet in between the individual and the social in late modernity