Page - 198 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

198 | Baldassare Scolari www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 195–199 convictions, forums are not used as a place for intimate concerns. thus, the vis- ibility of the exchange makes the subject-related religious exchange more dif- ficult. At the same time, however, knowledgeable exchange about religion ten- dentially detached from individual convictions and experiences is stimulated. fourth, Neumaier shows that the online forums not only can be described as a social network, but also fulfill characteristics of communities, inasmuch as she observes the presence of shared practices, values and a sense of togetherness/ belonging. finally, Neumaier again points out that the central and decisive rea- son, given by the users themselves, for turning to online forums is the lack of exchange possibilities in offline spaces, primarily in local religious communities and churches. finally, she emphasizes that the internet is a place for stabilizing restoration but does not lead to fundamental changes and transformations of religious convictions. One of the great merits of Anna Neumaier’s study is the finding that online forums should not be understood as separate spaces for religious communica- tion and/or exchange about religion, but forms an interdependent relationship with other, more “traditional”, social spaces. By means of a consistent and stringent interweaving of theory and empirical work, she elaborates catego- ries and questions which will surely be very fruitful for further investigation of religious interactions and communication in online forums and generally on the internet. Perhaps the only shortcoming of the study is that one rarely gets an insight into the concrete topics that are discussed and dealt with within the forums. Although study of the actual communication and language forms referring to specific problems, facts, emotions and events is not one of the de- clared goals of the investigation, its inclusion might have led to an expansion of the research horizon, allowing the question of the transformation of reli- gion to be reshaped. We might speculate that the transformation of religion does not take place mainly at the level of the beliefs and convictions expressed by users, but rather at the level of language, in semantic and rhetorical pat- terns. it could be extremely fruitful to examine how certain political, cultural, social and economic events or developments are reflected and represented in online forums. A further interesting question would be whether semantic and rhetorical patterns in online forums differ from those used in communication in other social spaces, and, if so, how and why. But perhaps one of the many merits of Neumaier’s study lies precisely in its having created space for such questions. Because the author convincingly demonstrates that use of online forums is equivalent to a “backward movement in the restoration of stable religiosity” (438), the question of the transformation of religion is shifted away from the domain of the subject and the subject’s attitude and toward the do- main of language and religious forms of representation.