religion@home? About religious internet use. A study on new forms of contemporary religiosity.

在过去的几十年里，宗教的当代发展一直是社会和文化科学中一个激烈争论的话题。然而，与其与日常生活的相关性相比，媒体在这一领域的研究中所起的作用较小。本研究通过调查宗教网络空间，并探讨其对宗教信仰和归属感的意义，来探索这一研究领域。基于历史和宗教社会学以及媒体研究领域的方法，它侧重于基督教在线论坛（德语），包括对各自用户的定性访谈以及定量调查数据。可以描述两个层次的发现。首先，阐述了宗教互联网使用的四种模式，其中两种将网络使用描述为传统宗教信仰的不同形式替代品，另外两种描述为补充当地成员的变化。然而，这四种模式都有一个共同的特点：使用互联网的主要原因不是在媒体的任何资产中，而是在与当地教区或教堂的问题和冲突中，因为这些“离线缺陷的叙述”是采访材料中的主题。因此，互联网的使用可以在第二个层面上理解为对宗教线下基础设施的任何缺点的战略反应。此外，该研究还表明，个人使用互联网并不是为了表达宗教转型或改变取向的需要，而是为了加强现有的传统宗教信仰，这些信仰“在用户的角度”已经暴露在几个威胁之中。这种在线个人宗教信仰的“再稳定”是由用户通过以下方式实现的：a)重新嵌入在线宗教社区，从而使他们的信仰集体合法化；b)通过在线讨论宗教相关话题获得宗教知识，并获得捍卫自己信仰的技能。通过这种方式，这些用户最终形成了一种相当自主的宗教身份，在很大程度上独立于当地的基础设施。研究结果可能并不局限于互联网上的宗教领域，但同样也讨论了关于当代宗教和宗教性、宗教社区转型和宗教身份自治的更广泛辩论。不论媒体的具体用途如何，显然，对使用者来说，离开传统的宗教结构似乎是不可避免的，但由此产生的归属和信仰的宗教选择性不被视为可能，而被视为威胁。在这里，网络空间成为一个重要的替代场所，并将对整个宗教景观产生持久的影响。

Contemporary developments of religion have been a hotly debated topic within the social and cultural sciences in the last decades. However, compared to their relevance for everyday life, media have played a minor role within research on this field. The present study explores this research area by investigating religious online spaces and asking for their significance for religious believing and belonging. Building on approaches from the field of history and sociology of religion as well as media studies, it focuses on Christian online boards (of German language), including qualitative interviews with the respective users as well as quantitative survey data.Two levels of findings can be described. First, four patterns of religious Internet use were elaborated, two of them describing online use as different forms of substitutes for traditional religious affiliation, the other two as variations of supplementing local membership. However, all four pattern share a common characteristic: the main reason for Internet use is not found within any assets of the medium, but in problems and conflicts with the local parish or church in general, as those "narrations of offline deficiencies" are a leitmotif within the interview material. Therefore, Internet use may be understood on a second level as a strategical reaction to any shortcomings of religious offline infrastructure. Moreover, the study was able to show that individual Internet use expresses not so much the need for religious transformation or changing orientations, but is taken up to strengthen existing, traditional religious beliefs which have been "in the users' perspective" exposed to several threats beforehand. This "re-stabilization" of individual religiosity online is realized by the users via a) re-embedding within a religious community online and thereby collectively legitimizing their beliefs, and b) gaining religious knowledge by discussing religionrelated topics online, as well as gaining skills to defend their beliefs. In this way, those users eventually develop a quite autonomous religious identity, largely independent of local infrastructures.Findings may not be limited to the field of religion in the Internet, but are likewise discussed with regard to broader debates on contemporary religion and religiosity, the transformation of religious communities and autonomy of religious identities. Irrespective of the specific media use, it becomes clear that leaving traditional religious structures seems inevitable for the users, yet the religious optionality of belonging and believing following from that is not regarded as possibility, but as threat. Here, web spaces become an important alternative venue, and will have lasting effects on the religious landscape as a whole.