Annual Conference on Information and Religion: Call for Proposals, Fifth Annual International Conference on Information & Religion - New Technologies and Religious Communities.

Social media is being used commonly by different professionals for various purposes. Religious scholars are also using these tools in their daily life. This study will investigate the reasons to use social media by Muslim Scholars (Ulamā) in Pakistan; their perceptions about this media; and frequency of use. Using questionnaire survey, data will be collected from 100 Muslim scholars (Ulamā) attending training courses at Da’wah Academy and Sha’ria Academy, International Islamic University Islamabad. There is no related study available in Pakistani context. Findings of this survey will be help in understanding mindset of Pakistani religious scholars towards social media and to prepare guidelines for Pakistani Madrassas (Institutions of Islamic religious education).

Keywords: Social Media Use, Muslim Scholars, Social media technologies,

This presentation will describe the interactions between religious fundamentalisms, in this case in the form of polygamous Mormon culture, and information technology. We will also discuss the way that the various information transmission strategies used by advocates of plural marriage can lead to effective changes in laws and public policies by presenting the case of the prosecution of the Brown family, stars of Sister Wives, by the State of Utah.

The mystery tradition known as Orphism is often misunderstood, largely due to the lack of evidence in existence. Mystery traditions are initiatory in nature; to reveal the secret information to non-initiates was forbidden, in some instances punishable by death. This secretive nature of mystery traditions makes it very difficult for modern scholars to discern what actually occurred within the cult. The Orphic mystery tradition is unique among ancient Greco-Roman cults. Whereas mainstream Greco-Roman cults were sanctioned by the state, with rituals that followed a set format of sacrifice and feasting, the Orphic tradition was a secret initiatory tradition, with written rituals relying heavily on sacred texts. The Orphic tradition is also unique in that, rather than operating out of temples, it has no set center of worship. Rather, itinerant priests traveled from location to location with their holy books, seeking individual worshippers. Because they traveled to different locations, the tradition is eclectic, as the priests combined local traditions with their own. This makes studying Orphism quite difficult, as one must separate the local customs with the Orphic teachings.

This eclectic nature has caused many modern scholars to assert that Orphism was not a set tradition, focusing on the regional variants as proof. However, by studying the extant Orphic texts within each individual context, common themes emerge that indicate a more solid tradition, contradicting modern scholarly thought. The studying of the Orphic tradition via the extant religious texts presents a unique challenge to scholars; many of the extant texts are fairly recent discoveries, found not in monasteries and private collections, but buried within followers’ tombs or under the sands of Hellenistic Egypt. As such, there is very little documentation of the transmission of the ideas contained within. In addition, there is a great likelihood that many of the Orphic texts began as oral tradition, since they often contain formulaic phrases. Martin West indicates that when dealing with ancient texts, particularly fragments, it is necessary to include the context when attempting any sort of textual criticism of ancient texts; this context is vital to deciphering the regional variations from the core ideas as well as identifying the true meaning of the text itself. By studying the use of these formulaic phrases throughout the Orphic texts, combined with ideas that are decidedly Orphic in nature, a relationship between the texts emerges that indicates that there is a core set of ideas for the cult, despite the regional variations.

In the twentieth century, works on Orphism by Otto and Guthrie asserted a true, cohesive Orphic tradition. However, as more texts were discovered by archaeologists, other scholars refuted this idea, instead holding to the bricoleur theory as described by Graf. While the bricoleur theory has a number of merits, it focuses too sharply on differences rather than commonalities. I propose an alternative bricoleur theory, based on analysis of the texts. I believe the Orphic priests engaged in bricolage by combining local customs with their existing tradition; however, there was a core tradition circulating in the Greco-Roman world via the information in the priests’ holy books. This study analyzes the texts currently classified as ‘Orphic,’ in order to determine how the formulaic phrases and ideas contained within the texts might have been transmitted.

Abstract: Advances in technology allow for new modes of access to both secular and religious information. Historically, some religious groups seem to have been eager to acknowledge technological developments, while others have done so reluctantly. Nevertheless, the sustainability of a religious tradition depends on the ability of its practitioners to continually access information in an evolving world. Modern technology has occasioned such innovations as online religious communities and the wide availability of sacred texts and exegeses, to the extent that a person can practice a religion using entirely online tools—without ever setting foot in a physical place of worship. Through an analysis of the nature and historical development of Buddhism and Christianity, this study identifies the aspects inherent in each religious tradition that have influenced the information landscapes that surround each religion today. This study then explores the extent to which each religion can be practiced in an exclusively-online community. These findings suggest an opportunity for further investigation into the information behavior of Buddhist and Christian participants in online religious communities as a means to better understand the online religious experience.

Keywords: Christianity, Buddhism, information behavior, information history, Internet church

Information Seeking Behavior of Mosque Speechmakers (MSs) in the State of Kuwait

information behavior, information seeking behavior, Islamic studies researchers, information behavior model, Religion scholar, humanities scholar, Wislon' model, Ellis' model, critical incident technique, information needs, information use

Abstract

In our information-saturated world, it is appropriate to ask how religious communities use data that has been gathered by reputable research and/or poll-taking organizations. Perhaps a more pertinent question would be whether religious communities do, in fact, use such information – or whether they deliberately ignore the discoveries of information-gathering groups. Do religious groups who have adopted a “Moses/Christ/Muhammad Against Culture” approach to their surroundings (borrowing H. Richard Niebuhr’s classic paradigm) tend to go their own way despite the sociological and demographic information made available to them? Would the various “Moses/Christ/Muhammad Of Culture” groups use such research to contextualize and make themselves relevant within the modern world? And if such a distinction is valid, what would be the justification given by each end of the spectrum for its use—or neglect—of the collected data?

This essay will examine three of the more notable “think tanks” and information centers that deal with religious ideas and trends. These include the Barna Group, which anchors the conservative and Evangelical end of the spectrum; the Pew Research Center, which adopts a more centrist approach; and the John Templeton Foundation, which generally deals with matters of “spirituality” rather than “religion” per se. The authors will describe the background and basic philosophy of each group, delineate the kinds of research and reports that each produces, and the uses to which the findings of each are put by the religious communities that do not choose to ignore such data.