The soul of cyberspace

the long version

The Soul of Cyberspace, in a pioneering journey through religion's newest, strangest, and most exhilarating frontier, reveals the new technological face of religion and explores the fascinating challenges posed by our colonization of cyberspace. Taking readers on a tour of electronic faith - to websites established by Baptists and Buddhists, Mormons and Muslims, to virtual congregations and Internet chaplaincies, cybermissionaries and virtual monasteries - Zaleski introduces us to the trailblazing believers and the cautious faithful of cyberspace. He explores the profound questions raised by cyberspace: Will cyberchurches make ministers obsolete? Will the communities of church, temple, and mosque vanish? Can religious rituals take place on PC screens, and can sacred space be found in the midst of cyberspace's distractions and noise? Can we locate divinity - even electronic "deities" - in the folds of cyberspace? In conversations with the new metaphysicians and critics of cyberspace - John Perry Barlow, Jaron Lanier, Mark Pesce, and others - Zaleski reveals how technology is changing our visions of spirituality, worship, and the sacred.