%0 Journal Article %J Church, Communication & Culture %D 2016 %T Accessing Changes in the Study of Religious Communities in Digital Religion Studies %A Campbell, H %A Virtullo, A %K Community online %K Digital Religion %K internet %K offline %K Online %K religious communities %X This article provides a focused review of researches undertaken within Digital religion studies in the last three decades, specifically highlighting how religious communities have been studied and approached within this area. It highlights the dominant theoretical and methodological approaches employed by scholars during what is being described as the four stages of research on religious communities emerging over this period of time. Thus, this article presents the findings of key studies emerging during these stages to illuminate how the study of religious communities online has evolved over time. It also offers insights into how this evolution specifically relates to the study of Catholic community online. Finally, a theoretical analysis is given, assessing current research on religious communities within Digital Religion studies, and approaches for future research are proposed. %B Church, Communication & Culture %V 1 %P 73-89 %G eng %U https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23753234.2016.1181301 %N 1 %0 Journal Article %J Media, Culture & Society %D 2015 %T Building the sacred community online: the dual use of the Internet by Chabad %A Golan, O %A Stadler, N %K Chabad %K community %K Digital Religion %K fundamentalism %K religion %K religious communities %X Religious communities have ongoing concerns about Internet use, as it intensifies the clash between tradition and modernity, a clash often found in traditionally inclined societies. Nevertheless, as websites become more useful and widely accessible, religious and communal stakeholders have continuously worked at building and promoting them. This study focuses on Chabad, a Jewish ultra-Orthodox movement, and follows webmasters of three key websites to uncover how they distribute religious knowledge over the Internet. Through an ethnographic approach that included interviews with over 30 webmasters, discussions with key informants, and observations of the websites themselves, the study uncovered webmaster’s strategies to foster solidarity within their community, on one hand, while also proselytizing their outlook on Judaism, on the other. Hence, the study sheds light on how a fundamentalist society has strengthened its association with new media, thus facilitating negotiation between modernity and religious piety. %B Media, Culture & Society %V 38 %P 71-88 %G eng %U http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443715615415 %N 1