God Blogging, Spiritual Blogging, Religious Blogging
There is an interesting discussion over at The Revealer called Do You Believe in Blog? about "God blogging" and religious blogging, and they also linked to this site. The Revealer "is a publication of the New York University Department of Journalism and New York University's Center for Religion and Media, one of ten 'Centers of Excellence' financed by The Pew Charitable Trusts as part of an effort to stimulate innovative research and teaching in the interdisciplinary study of religion."
My research has been primarily to do with "Christian" bloggers and how they interact with each other and with those who would be considered "non-Christian." I am not sure I understand the intricacies of what exactly "God blogging," "god blogging," "religious blogging," "spiritual blogging" all are.
I dialoged with Tim Bednar of e-church (who has been doing research on blogging as well as seen here) via email a couple of times about my study, and this is what he had to say:
My research showed that so-called Christian blogs did not want to be labeled as such. I called them spiritual blogs for that reason. I found that spiritual bloggers to be highly engaged with the secular world.
I found that most spiritual bloggers reach out by blogging, not by preaching a certain message or even presenting the gospel. They sort of say here I am, I'm a Christian, here is my blog--see for yourself if Christianity is worth believing in. Few good spiritual bloggers have a pointed evangelistic mission.
I know that I personally would not call myself a "spiritual blogger" or say that I have a "spiritual blog." I think that would be another interesting research subject though... finding out what those I surveyed would call themselves. By participating in my surveys, they each identified themselves as a "Christian blogger," but if given the choice, what term would they chose?
I concur with Tim's second paragraph, what I found in my research backs up what he stated. The bloggers who participated in my surveys, for the most part, didn't set out to preach or present the gospel. Rather, instead, they were more incarnational in their approach, writing about their lives, how Christ makes a difference, and speaking about things that are important to them (often matters incorporating their faith).
Some more survey results:
Do you intentionally include Christian topics in your blogging?
* 15 % (17/115) of respondents said no.
* 85% (98/115) of respondents said they do intentionally include Christian topics in their blogging, however, the large majority of them stated that it just comes through naturally, it is not something they think about. They intentionally include Christian topics because Christ is whom their life is centered around.
* Three respondents said sharing Christ intentionally is the purpose of their blog.
* Only one respondent said no, they do not include any Christian topics in their blogging as that is not the intent (a linguistics/teaching blog).
Do you try to intentionally "reach out" (minister) through your blog?
* 43% of respondents stated they did not.
* 28.5% stated that they do not try to intentionally minister through their blog, it just happens that what they write ministers to others.
* 28.5% said they intentionally reach out through their blog.
It seemed from the comments given to this question that most respondents did not have trouble with being naturally expressive about their faith. Some comments that would reflect this are "I include Christian topics in my blogging because my life is centered around Christ, so that just comes through," and "Absolutely (I include Christian topics)...it's who I am and is a natural flow of my thinking," and "Yes (I include Christian topics) because it is part of my life - it IS my life."
There is an interesting discussion over at The Revealer called Do You Believe in Blog? about "God blogging" and religious blogging, and they also linked to this site. The Revealer "is a publication of the New York University Department of Journalism and New York University's Center for Religion and Media, one of ten 'Centers of Excellence' financed by The Pew Charitable Trusts as part of an effort to stimulate innovative research and teaching in the interdisciplinary study of religion."
My research has been primarily to do with "Christian" bloggers and how they interact with each other and with those who would be considered "non-Christian." I am not sure I understand the intricacies of what exactly "God blogging," "god blogging," "religious blogging," "spiritual blogging" all are.
I dialoged with Tim Bednar of e-church (who has been doing research on blogging as well as seen here) via email a couple of times about my study, and this is what he had to say:
My research showed that so-called Christian blogs did not want to be labeled as such. I called them spiritual blogs for that reason. I found that spiritual bloggers to be highly engaged with the secular world.
I found that most spiritual bloggers reach out by blogging, not by preaching a certain message or even presenting the gospel. They sort of say here I am, I'm a Christian, here is my blog--see for yourself if Christianity is worth believing in. Few good spiritual bloggers have a pointed evangelistic mission.
I know that I personally would not call myself a "spiritual blogger" or say that I have a "spiritual blog." I think that would be another interesting research subject though... finding out what those I surveyed would call themselves. By participating in my surveys, they each identified themselves as a "Christian blogger," but if given the choice, what term would they chose?
I concur with Tim's second paragraph, what I found in my research backs up what he stated. The bloggers who participated in my surveys, for the most part, didn't set out to preach or present the gospel. Rather, instead, they were more incarnational in their approach, writing about their lives, how Christ makes a difference, and speaking about things that are important to them (often matters incorporating their faith).
Some more survey results:
Do you intentionally include Christian topics in your blogging?
* 15 % (17/115) of respondents said no.
* 85% (98/115) of respondents said they do intentionally include Christian topics in their blogging, however, the large majority of them stated that it just comes through naturally, it is not something they think about. They intentionally include Christian topics because Christ is whom their life is centered around.
* Three respondents said sharing Christ intentionally is the purpose of their blog.
* Only one respondent said no, they do not include any Christian topics in their blogging as that is not the intent (a linguistics/teaching blog).
Do you try to intentionally "reach out" (minister) through your blog?
* 43% of respondents stated they did not.
* 28.5% stated that they do not try to intentionally minister through their blog, it just happens that what they write ministers to others.
* 28.5% said they intentionally reach out through their blog.
It seemed from the comments given to this question that most respondents did not have trouble with being naturally expressive about their faith. Some comments that would reflect this are "I include Christian topics in my blogging because my life is centered around Christ, so that just comes through," and "Absolutely (I include Christian topics)...it's who I am and is a natural flow of my thinking," and "Yes (I include Christian topics) because it is part of my life - it IS my life."
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