%0 Book Section %B Cyberculture Now: Social and Communication Behaviour on the Web %D 2013 %T Malaysian Christians Online: Online/Offline Interactions and Integration %A Meng Yoe Tan %K everyday %K helland %K malaysia %K offline %K Online %K religion %X There has been a vibrant discussion in recent years since Christopher Helland’s novel definitions and differentiation of online-religion/religion-online came to the fore of cyber-religious research. Much of the discussion since then has dealt primarily with certain features of particular religious websites, such as its level of user interactivity. My chapter is an attempt to side-step what a ‘religious’ website is or is not, and to locate specific Christian individuals in Malaysia and their online habits within the larger context of what they consider to be their Christian life - be it online/offline. In short, this chapter explores the ways in which online Christianity, in its varied forms, as practiced by its users, play a part in engaging an individual’s faith. Drawing two case studies from my ethnographic fieldwork, this paper constructs and establishes the multiple contexts and environments that shape some Malaysian Christians’ online expressions of their faith, as well as how their current practice of blogging contributes back to their personal spirituality, contexts, and environments. Rather than dwelling on whether a website allows for physical or practical interactivity, this chapter explores the possibility that the Internet is yet another incorporated extension to the already diverse repertoire of Christian expression of spirituality. %B Cyberculture Now: Social and Communication Behaviour on the Web %I Inter-Disciplinary Press %C Oxfordshire %P 115-125 %G eng %1 Anna Maj %& 9 %0 Book Section %B Thinking Through Malaysia: Culture and Identity in the 21st Century %D 2012 %T Negotiating the Liberties and Boundaries of Malaysian Online Christian Expression: Case Studies %A Meng Yoe Tan %K Blog %K boundaries %K liberties %K malaysia %K Online %K religion %X How do Malaysian Christians express their personal Christianity online? Compared to other communication technologies, the Internet allows more non-institutional individual expression to come to the fore. This is mainly due to the nature of the Internet which allows greater flexibility in authorship of expression and content. Using case studies from my interviews with Christian bloggers in Malaysia who actively post Christian content online, we can see how the Internet has provided these bloggers with new tools to express their unique personal spirituality – but at the same time, how they recreate and maintain existing offline social boundaries in the context of their personal Christianity in this ‘liberating’ platform. These case studies also provide some insight into the many ways individuals interact with cyberspace – that individuals do, in fact, do new things on the Internet, do old things in new ways, and very importantly, do old things in old ways. %B Thinking Through Malaysia: Culture and Identity in the 21st Century %I Strategic Information and Research Development Center (SIRD) %C Puchong %G eng %1 Julian Hopkins Julian C.H. Lee %0 Book Section %B Post-Privacy Culture: Gaining Social Power in Cyber-Democracy %D 2013 %T Malaysian Christians Online: Online/Offline Networks of Everyday Religion %A Meng Yoe Tan %K Actor %K Christian %K malaysian %K network %K Online %K theory %X Religion has already found its footing in cyberspace. Countless websites promoting particular religious organisations and ideals are easily found within a click or two online. Blogs are now an outlet for religious and spiritual discussion for different groups and individuals. Due to the relatively unfiltered nature of the Internet, it is more possible for new types of religious expressions to surface for public consumption, even if some of these expressions might not conform to conventional notions of spiritual expression. All of these new forms of online religion then, serve as a gateway to study different models and contexts of religious expression. A website, however, is in many ways only the expressed product. What about the dynamics behind these expressions? Because the online and the offline are inseparable entities, both simultaneously interact with and influence the individual’s identity and expression. This means that in order to further develop an understanding of ‘online religion’, the ‘offline’ must also be described extensively. Using two case studies of Malaysian Christian bloggers, this chapter demonstrates how with the use of Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) methods, it is possible to seamlessly describe everyday cyber-activity and everyday Christianity in relation to one another, thus providing a snapshot of how the larger context and framework in which Christianity in today’s day and age can be better understood. %B Post-Privacy Culture: Gaining Social Power in Cyber-Democracy %I Inter-Disciplinary Press %C United Kingdom %P 177-202 %G eng %U https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/digital-humanities/post-privacy-culture-gaining-social-power-in-cyber-democracy %1 Maj, Anna %& 8