Hugh's thoughts on the term's work

Online Theology description

During the year as a class we have experienced many different forms of cyber theology. Some were humorous others were more serious. These sites include the http://ship-of-fools.com/ (this site is humorous and if a fun platform to access religion in a very unconventional context there are forums games and online shops to enhance the very unique experience.) And http://www.oxford.anglican.org/ (this site is about the oxford diocese which is quiet serious and allows a more conventional approach to religion.) As a class we all watched Dr herring participate in a second life service in which a the person conducting the service was from the noth of engerland and we were able to engage with there avatar dispight the distance we were from each other.

Online Theology reflection

Prior to our experiences with online theology I had little idea of the vast  amount of forms in which theology could be conduced and now after participating and experiencing a few of them I now feel I have a border knolige of the world in which we live. We have seen humor being used in the proses of worship and this seems to be a good way to allow more people to engage in the world of worship. During are studies we came across a web site called second life which allowed people to construct a online church and hold regular services as if it were a real church.

What Alice thinks

This term we have seen a lot of different ways of looking at theology through the internet. Some of these ways are the Diocese website (http://www.oxford.anglican.org/) where you can explore missions, help schools, explore living faith, go on links to other theological website. Other websites we went on are the Ship of Fools (http://ship-of-fools.com/) which brings a humurous aspect to theology. There were a lot of things on this website that you can look at including communtiy where you can discuss things with oither people, Mystery worshipper which is a mystery preacher, Gadgets for God which has a wide range of religous gadgets and more! The other website we went on was 2nd life which is a virtual world for adults where there are chapels and churches were real priests do services in the morning and evening.

Ben reviews the term

This term in theology we have been learning about how theologians can use the internet to study God. Firstly we blogged about everyday life and how religion effected it, then we went on to twitter we discussed can someone ever say anything of real value in 140 characters. We tried to describe a School Eucharist in the space that twitter allows someone to write. The third week we looked at the Oxford diocese, the diocese is a website that tells you all about Christianity in the county of oxford, it is really informative and can help you if you are trying to arrange your marriage and other things like that. On the forth week we looked at a website called a ship of fools, it sort makes fun out of religion, we discussed whether humour can be used in religion to help younger people to understand it and be interested in it. The following week we had a debate about it which was very interesting to hear what other people thought about it. 

Then we had a lesson with our other theology teacher she showed us a website called Second Life. It is a RPG,  its like its name describes, a second life. you can do all of the things you can do in life you can walk around, talk to people and most importantly you can go to a church service on it. We experience this first hand later on in the week; when we went to a church service on it. The last week we discussed how you can make Eucharist's more modern through the use of technology, we discussed how the first theologians to use the internet did it and how priest were using technology at the moment in their services. Then we had a go at presenting our own eucharists to the rest of our class using technology and the inter net to help us. 

Louisa's reflections

This term the whole of 3rd form, have been basing theology on the internet. We started with blogging onto 'our' weebly 3rd form page website, writing and explaining how we are researching theology on the internet. Every single person in the 3rd form joined in with this process, also typing 140 charters into a twitter feed, fed through the 3rd from twitter page. We wrote about our life's and how theology can be linked into one of our normal days, it showed us that it can be quite easy or difficult to find a way of theology being in our lives. All theology sets joined together and have been studying a social website called 'Second Life'. We were shown by a teacher who's Second life character had joined the church service. It was projected onto the screen in chapel, with everyone sitting and watching. One of the members of Second Life was communicating with the teacher through text and microphone. We listened to a different type of service based on real life through a computer for about 30 minutes.            

I enjoyed blogging and producing twitter feeds because it was a way of communicating about theology in a much different way that we normally do. I enjoyed it because it was different and we don't do very often so I think it made it more interesting. I didn't enjoy the Second Life Service because it didn't keep my attention and I found it hard to concentrate because the leaders voice wasn't very enthusiastic and sound quite dull to listen to. I was much different though for having a service on the internet and it was much different to a normal Friday evening service.

Lily writes:

This term we have studied Theology on the internet. We have visited websites with a theological base, for example the Diocese in Oxford (http://www.oxford.anglican.org/). On this website you can explore the different aspects of the Diocese online, and discover missions, their ideas on social justice, schools, extra information, news, living faith, links and how you can be more religious. We did a prep on this website to have further knowledge on the diocese and what it does. We visited a website called Ship of Fools (http://ship-of-fools.com/) which has a humorous aspect on Christianity. We did a prep on this and whether comedy in religion is right or wrong. We wrote some twitter feeds and had a look at Dr Herring using Second Life in a service online and studied how it works and how it can be used religiously. We wrote about what Second Life is and how it is theological.

I found studying theology on the internet an interesting way of looking at how it can be used in the 21st century. It showed the class that on the internet you can find a lot of information and varying websites to use for studying theology. Studying theology in this way shows there's a wide range of theology-based online "worlds" that can be acsessed by anyone. I enjoyed this more than simple writing in books because of the different things we did and it was a good way of studying in an interesting way.

Kate's thoughts

This term, we have been looking at theology sites, such as second life- second life is a virtual world, it was not made purely for religious reasons, but as it is so similar to real life it includes religion, but as it's on the computer it can be depicted in new diffrent ways. we also looked at the ship of fools, this website looks at diffrent religious veiws using humour, this then led to a class debate on weather humour is appropriate in theology, where both groups had strong oppinions, and valid points. We also looked at the website of the diocese of oxford. We also used blogs and twitter to our religious views. These websites have all found ways of using the internet for theology. We also came up with our service using the computer and the internet. We saw and used diffrent ways of presenting theoloogy and religion, through humour, as well as traditional and informative.

We looked at virtual theology, the aim was to analyse what we thought about all the things we saw. We sarted by writting blogs and twitted feeds, to voice our own views on the world around us throught the internet, I think this is an obvious , easy, practicle and already well used, and there is a space for theology to be voiced over blogs and twitter. We then caried on to see what other people had written about theology on the internet, on the ship of fools website, we saw how people wrote about their veiws on theology through humour, it wasnt only atheist views, but religious people, taking the mick out of their own religions. I liked looking at second life, it showed us that we can look at things diffrently, ande it works being on the internet being avalliable to everyone. We then also looked at second life, it is a virtual life, and like real life it depictes religion in new and diffrent ways, although I thought this could be a new and inventive way of looking at religion, I thought the service seemed quite restrained, and not using all the resourses avaliable on the internet.

Tobi's assessment of the term

So far this year we have looked at a variety of different internet theology! We have seen many humorous ones where we went onto a website called ship of fools which brings out the humor in religion. Many others were more serious like the service which we experienced an online serviced through second life! We also looked at the diocese of Oxford, http://www.oxford.anglican.org/.   The ship of fools, http://ship-of-fools.com/ , is a site which uses religion to enthrall into an amusing and joyful experience. It has many sections which include ‘Gadgets for God’ and ‘Mystery worshiper’. The online service was a virtual service done by the avatar of Dr Herring. She controlled the avatar on second life which she could type to the Chaplain. The Chaplain could speak to us. The Diocese of Oxford website was a formal informative site.

I enjoyed looking at the ship of fools as it was very funny and interesting. It is an acceptable way of approaching religion as it invites many more people who would not otherwise become a Christian. The online service was a new and interesting experience for me; I felt that technology would need to improve further before a service on the internet can feel like a proper service. The technology needs to be good enough so the service can run completely smoothly. The diocese of Oxford is excellent as it is very informative although it could be slightly more accessible to more people.  

Tom says:

This term in theology, we looked at implementing the internet into theology. The first thing we did, was to start a website. This website contained blogs which we had written. Some of them were reflective of our lives, and the choices we had made in the last week. We then began a twitter feed which we put a variety of things on, not just theological things. We also looked at the Diocese of Oxford website, which gave us help in understanding religion. Ship of Fools was an experimental website that tried to incorporate humour into theology. You were able to buy a variety of strange products ranging from "Pope Soap on a Rope", to "Jesus loves you flip flops". Finally, we looked at 2nd life, and how we can incorporate religion in to a video game. We experienced a church service live with a real priest.

The virtual attempts at accessing religion were mainly flawed for me. The website worked pretty well, but it was hard to attract any attention to it as there are many more like it out there. Twitter was more widely seen, as it is more popular, but people were tweeting more about the weather than about theology. Ship of Fools was certainly very good with incorporating humour, but I'm not sure how seriously people will take Christianity when they see a website like this. The Diocese of Oxford was very helpful, but it's very serious attitude may put off anyone seeing it. 2nd Life was a decent attempt at trying to have an international church service, but it was very glitchy and didn't always work. The technology needs to develop more before the internet can be fully incorporated in religion.

What Ella thought

    This term, we have been investigating and studying Theology on the internet. I found it very boring, personally, however some have different views. I can see, for example, the point of view of an immobilised person - they might not have any other options. For example, it might be impossible for them to go to church outside - they might only be able to move around their own home. Theology on the internet therefore, would be a very good solution.


    There are various types of theology on the internet:
Real Life: as an example, we studied second life. This is a virtual reality where people can make online characters impersonating themselves, and use them as manikins. There is also a church on there - there are church services held by real life vicars, and everyone has to act how they would in real life. In my opinion, I think it's a stupid idea for people who have other options - they should be able to go out to church and worship properly. Some people feel they have no other option, however, and for them it is a relatively good idea.


Online Information Websites: For example, the Diocese of Oxford. This is an online collection of over 300 parishes around the Oxford region. It's a general study of Churches and Chapels in that area, telling the online community about them and how to get involved with them. In my opinion, this is a relatively good idea -it lets people know when things are on, and which events are good ones to go to.

Katya's thoughts about this term

This term we have been learning about interloping Theology and technology. We started by looking at the Diocese Of Oxford website and looking at how comdey koins religion and whether it is appropriate. 'Ship of Fools' is a large part of that. We also watched Joe Nelms thank the lord for some things of his own interest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBt2mYnTumQ
Boogity boogity boogity. Amen!

We also took photos of things that were related to religion. Then we uploaded segments explaining these to Twiiter,weebly and blogspot.

Then we had a lesson on icons and explaining how they relate to everyday lives. Did you know in Chile and other countries you might find a painted picture of an icon on the roadside?

Afterwards we had a online serive using Second Life.


This term has been rather interesting when it comes to Theology because we are trying new things and pushing boarders by using technology.
We have been researching the style of worship. By making our own services and experimenting we are playing with new points.

Max says:

At the beginning of term we thought about how to intergrate Theology with the internet. The first thing we did was to create a website, each of us wrote our own reflective paragraphs explaining our live and the choices that we have made in our lives. Next we made a twitter feed explaining our lives and how religion fits in. We then looked at other religious websites on the internet such as the Ship of Fools which tries to incorperate humour into religion, it also sells some hilareous gift ideas such as Russian Jesus Monopoly. Another website was the website for the Diocese of Oxford which gave news of the religious world as well as your local area. The last thing that we looked at was Second Life which is an online world where you can hold church services.

I found that virtual attempts to access religion are largely flawed because you can not fully interact, take twitter as an example, you go on there and there is just a list of short statements, I just wouldn't be interested in checking it regularly. The ship of fools is a good attempt because it incorperates humour which makes it more appealing, also it has short video clips, but it is still a one way street. The Diocese of Oxford is a more serious version of the Ship of Fools but is still quite isolating for the reader as they can not contribute. Second life is a good attempt but only really works if you have a microphone because it would take so long to have a conversation if you had to type it all. 

Emily reflects

This term we looked at different aspects of theology on the internet. We looked at the Oxford Diocese, which is a guidance to christiantity on the internet. It instructs Christians on how to live their life properly and tells us about the meaning of things from the Bible and explains parables. It also helps us understand why things happen in everyday life.


 We also looked at 2nd life which is a social sight on the internet where adults can control what avatars are doing, like in real life exept it is played on a computer. In 2nd life there is also quite a strong theological element, for example there are various places of worship for different religions, and you can hold services with a number of people in the places of worship where everyone can join in.


 We looked at blogs and twitter and created some ourselves about looking at things from a theological point of view and describing why we thought of things like that. By using blogs and twitter we can express what we feel about things which can help others understand them.

Katy's review of the term

This term we have done a lot on theology on the intanet, and the pros and cons of it. We tried blogging, and then came the trickier task  writing a tweet to explain the schools ucarist in only 160 charecters. We also discusted weather or not you could get the message across in only 160 charecters. I came to the conclusion that it was entirly posable to get an important message across in a tweet, because it was short, sharp, and you could only fit in the really important points in the tweet, for this reason it worked, because the reader was kept intrested and didnt get bored. In the third lesson we looked and reasearched about the oxford diasice, we all choose a subject from the diasice and wrote a report on it. We also looked at a video on youtube of a paster in texas who was preaching and thank God for the Car rally that was about to take place. One of or final lessons was on second life a vertual game based very much on real life. On second life we sat through a live service.

I think blogging and tweeting to do with theology works very well, because its a easy way to get a message across and anyone can see it no matter where there from, so i think its a good step forward for theologins. I also thought that diasice is a very good idea, anyone can look at it and find a way to get information on problems or new diffacultys in life. As for second life and the youtube preching video i dont think they work at all and i dont think theologins should venture down that path. I really didnt enjoy are online second life service as it was only talking and it missed out some of the key elements that i feel should be in a service, like the breaking of the bread and wine or the peace. I also felt like it was a slightly disrespectful way of worship, as the worshiper could sit in their own home and didnt really have to be concentrating on the service, i felt it wasnt the right way to worship.

Tavia's comments

This term during Theology we have looked at various means of religion that aren't the normal service. This has included websites such as the Ship of Fools and the Diocese of Oxford, we have also created our own website in which we have contributed blogs and many of us have written twitter posts. We have also looked at Second Life which is and online virtual world and how service can be experienced in this. We studied all of these to see how religion can be expressed in other ways which are widely available and easy to access. It was to show us how religion is not just and 45min service once a week in which you are pretending to be listening to and it can actually be something more. All the things we studied were something different and expressed relgion in a different way. Ship of Fools was a website which focused less on the meaning of religion and more of taking the mick out of it. The Diocese of Oxford website is almost the opposite of this and focuses on the meaning of religion and how it can help us. It opens up access to help and care as well as accesibility to church services for those who struggle to make the weekly service. It is also very useful for finding out information about weddings and other events. The blogs allowed us to contribute our own views on Theology via the internet and the twitter posts showed us how to say a lot in only a few words. Second life was very different from all the others as it wasjust like real life except it was all pretend. We also experienced an online service through Second Life.

Although Ship of Fools could be seen as offensive I don't believe it is as it adds humour into religion and allows it to not get boring it is also a good way to introduce religion as a fun and enjoyable experience  rather than a long slog and as long as it does not become offensive I think it is a suitable way to expand on religion.  The Diocese of Oxford is also a good way of expanding religion beyond the church as it is both helpful and useful. Blogs and twitter posts are also good for informing people about religion but somehow I don't think it can be expanded beyond that becaouse of the limits. However, personally I do not feel that Second Life is a good way to expand on religion as I believe it is not a proper way to contribute and is a lazy way. There is no personal contribution to the service and and you don't have to believe in it to participate.

Aaron says:

In our theology lessons this term we have been learning about virtual theology. We have been shown many forms of religion on the internet. First we blogged about how religion affected our everyday lives. Secondly we used twitter to describe a school Eucharist. We had to try and do this in 140 characters. Thirdly we did the oxford diocese. This is basically a church magazine as a website instead. It was about marriage and stuff. In fourthly we did the ship of fools. This was about making you look at religion at a more less serious way. They had stuff that made religion more funny and we discussed about if it was useful to learn this way. In fifthly we did about second life. This was a virtual world where people could be in a made up world where you could go to church and talk to other people.

In general, virtual religion is a place for people to access from home. They do not have to go out of their house as all they need is a computer. Also it is for those who cannot be bothered to go out and talk to others about religion themselves, or experience it in real life. But it also opens a wide range for religion to be accessed wherever you are. It can help those who have serious problems and cannot move, and this can be a real benefit for them.

Holly's thoughts

My reflection on our work was, that itr was a worth while experience, and now something else i know and have learnt about. However i personally do not like theology on the internet as it is something that i personally feel needs to be very really. For example the online chruch service on Second Life i did not like a tall, as it wasnt there and really and there was someone doing all the things infront of you and its more interesting and normal to have it in real life. Over all i do not like theology on the internet as that is not the way i believe it should be.

Emma on Virtual Theology

This term we've been looking at virtual theology, which is a way of presenting theology via the internet on websites such as second life. We have been looking at different ways of conveying religion such as through humour, via a website called ship of fools. We also made our own service via the internet using YouTube clips and in some cases games. One of the reasons that we did all of this was to see how theology could progress in the future, when we could be having services from our own homes. We also got chances to convey our own opinions, such as in debates and writing. For example, we did one debate on whether humour was a good way of expressing religion, where there were strong opinions on both sides and we never really reached a conclusion. Not surprising seeing as theologians are still arguing about it today.

The main point of this project was to see whether virtual theology would be the way forward, and after watching a virtual service on second life, I believe that it isn't. It was so realistic, but the problem was, that at the end of the day, it wasn't real. It might as well have been done in real life. And although getting people from all over the world to meet for one service may sound like a good idea, your never really going to meet them, you haven't really got a life for yourself. Surely it would be better to go to a church and meet people who you will see regularly because you live near them. That would be making a life for yourself, and it's what we have done for thousands of years. Throwing complete strangers into a church together isn't only plain unrealistic, it takes away individuality and the element of community in a group of people that all live near each other and share the same beliefs. The only way forward in religion is the one that has been going on for thousands of years, encouraging people to join the community of a shared belief.

Rosa's reflections:

This term third form have been learning about theology on the internet. We have been on the Oxford diocese a website which tells everyone about all the different things the church is doing such as sending missionaries to places or even just about fair-trade stalls at churches. It even gives out information to people about wedding or confirmations and other events. We posted tweets about comparing theology to our everyday lives as well as a website which everyone in third form blogged about theology as well. We looked at a website called "Ship of Fools", which made jokes about the church, we debated in class whether the humor was wrong. We came to as conclusion that it was all right to make jokes as long as if they were actually funny rather than just offensive or rude. We  also learnt about second life, a website which was a virtual world in which a character can be or do anything they want. They can attend any church of any religion they want from Muslim temple to a Christian morning church service. As well as that they could even fly around  a supermarket as a vampire and no one would even bat an eye lid!


I think that the web is a good place for people to explore the internet as long as people can respect each others opinions and if they go to church in Second life, they shouldn`t be afraid to go to church in real life with friends and family. The diocese is a good place for the church to tell people about the good work that they're doing and give out information which would normaly be ignored in  leaflets at the back of a local church. I think that funerals are a bit stupid to be put on the internet and that if people should care enough to read it on their computer they should care enough to go in real lofe. All though I like the idea of memorial services which everyone can contribute prayers and memories to. Ship of fools, is good as long as people dont make fun of the church or take it too seriously.

Patrick's view

Over the course of this term, we have been looking at theology over the World Wide Web. We have viewed Twitter, looked at a parody website called Ship of Fools and seen how Christians can poke fun at each other, seeing how absurd their ways of worship can be, examined the Oxford diocese website that tells us about events happening in a collection of parishes of Oxford, placed several blog entries on the school’s homepage and seen a virtual reality called Second Life.

In my opinion, theologians can gain a lot of information about their religion and how to share it with others and if they so wished to give or attend services on Second Life but cannot gain anything from Ship of Fools and cannot say anything worth saying in the 140 characters offered on Twitter for messaging others. I have enjoyed looking at the many ways to perceive religion over the internet and have a different outlook on using virtual realities, for instance, using them for religious purposes.

Emily says:

This term, we have bean studying theology on the internet, and how it can connect you to other people that  you wouldn't be able to talk to with out the internet. We started by writing blogs that we posted onto our website. We wrote about what interested us and what was happening around us, we each uploaded a couple of blogs each. We then went on the Oxford Dioces website, this taught about being a Christian and sold Christian things. Recently we have bean looking at second life and even had a second life service.


 I have found what we have bean doing on the internet very interesting, but I think that it is not the same as the traditional way of meeting up with people, as teenagers we use the internet and our mobiles for nearly everything we do and I think that church services and worshiping should be kept traditional before socials and worshiping become to similar., and we lose the reall porpose of worshiping.

Abigail's reflection on the term's work

This term we have studied theology on the internet, looking at how people like to spread the word as technology has become the easiest way of communication these days.
In the first week we had a look at blogging and attempted to write a blog to reflect our week in the eyes of a religious person that we posted on a website. Also we looked at twitter and how to reflect what you want to say in 140 characters, it had to be short and straight to the point which was a tricky task but much diffrent to writing the blog which made you learn how to not 'waffle' when you are writing. In the third lesson we looked at the Oxford diocese which was looking into a real church community and how it works and we chose a subject from the website to write about. In the later lessons we then looked at second life, an online sim community and had an online chapel service.


Some bits of this project i enjoyed and some i disliked,
I enjoyed writing the twitter posts because you could make it short and snappy to get the message across which made you really think and when you had got it, it sounded really good. I really disliked the second life church service, as you could barely hear what the women was saying, and it wasnt really gripping and it didnt make anyone listen.
In the future, I think this theology on the internet will become the only way to communicate, and you will be having a lot more services online, in my opinion even weddings which i personally disagree with but I see it happening.
i think this is the way forward as everybody can see what you are doing  and it is a way for people to get good information.

Holly says:

This term we have looked at theology on the internet. We looked at 2nd life which is a social place for adults, to communicate with each other over the internet. We looked at a church service on this which wasn't a normal one and was just packed with gospel and bible readings. We also looked at the Oxford Diocese which is a broad guidance on how to be a Christain, and the wrongs and rights in life,also were to help people who need it or how to help people in need. We also created a twitter blog on theology. We also did weebly which was a whole year third form blog on theology. 
Holly 

Clare says:

this term we learnt about theology on the internet! we looked at 2nd life, a computer game similar to club penguin but for the adults. we also had a church service on there for half an hour, it wasnt a normal service though! it was jam packed full of gospel readings and stories from the bible and saying prayers. no hymns or anything! rather boring therefore for a bunch of schoolkids. however some people attend the service morning and evening everyday!  my reflexion is that the online service was rather boring and wouldnt be very useful to someone who wants to experience a christian service but cant come to the country to see it properly, thne service was nothibng like a normal one!

we also looked at a religeous website called ship of fools, it is a normal site with a shop, blogs, competitions and a homepage but the whole website is made to make fun of theology and make jokes about it!  the ship of fools website is good if it gets people more involved in theolgy however it isnt good if it gets offensive to christians.


as a school we also looked at twitter posts to do with theology and also made our own webstie with blogs writing about spiritual reasonings about our daily lives at schoool such as the weather for example!  the blogs on twitter and on our webpage are a good way of showing the world what the younger generation think of theology and how we relate it to our own lives though who would read them i dont know!


we researched the oxford dyesis too and found out all the things you can do in life in churches all around the area such as weddings and easter services and choirs and fuhnerals all conterolled by the same company!  the oxford dyesis is great for people wanting to find informnation about a service they would like to have because it provides lots of info and it definatly comes from the right people its not bad at all.





and thats everything! :)