Digital religion social media and culture : perspectives practices and futures This anthology collects some of the most current research and reflection on the complex interactions between religion and computer mediated communications (CMC). The contributions cohere around the central question: how will core religious understanding of identity community and authority shape and be (re)shaped by the communicative possibilities of Web. 2.0 The authors address these questions in three distinct ways: through contemporary empirical research on how diverse traditions across the globe seek to take up the technologies and affordances of contemporary CDC; through investigations that place these contemporary developments in larger historical and theological contexts; and through careful reflection on the theoretical dimensions of research on religion and CMC. From cover p. [4]