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In the twenty-first century, religious belief is undergoing change, driven in part by new communication technologies. Such technologies have often given rise to notable changes in religion, some of the most revolutionary of them being apocalyptic in character. What, then, is the nature of the changes in religious belief created or enabled by the Internet?

In this collection, the first of its kind, nine scholars consider whether the empowerment offered by Internet communication generally encourages the exchange of ideas or whether, rather, it allows individuals to seal themselves off into ideological ghettos of the like-minded. These nine essays explore those possibilities by documenting and analyzing the diversity of apocalyptic belief online.



Andrew Fergus Wilson looks at those using the Internet to explore the syncretism that lies at the heart of the “cultic milieu.” William A. Stahl examines the online discourse about climate change to find the apocalyptic structures undergirding it. Dennis Beesley examines end-times discourse on the video-sharing website YouTube. J. L. Schatz explores how the apocalyptic imaginings of science fiction set the trajectory of our shared future. Amarnath Amarasingam documents how the Internet is encouraging the belief that President Barack Obama is the antichrist. Salvador Jimenez Murguia analyzes an Internet-based service offered to those wishing to communicate with their loved ones who might be “left behind” after the anticipated “rapture.” David Drissel documents how social networking facilitates connections among Muslims who share a belief in a nearing apocalypse. James Schirmer examines an apocalyptic computer game individuals use to explore personal ethics. Robert Glenn Howard documents the first Internet-based new religious movement—reflected in the beliefs of the suicidal 1997 Heaven’s Gate group, extant in their archived websites.

Robert Glenn Howard is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Director of Digital Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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