Virtual Communion

Katherine G. Schmidt is assistant professor of theology and religious studies at Molloy College.

Virtual Communion: Theology of the Internet and the Catholic Sacramental Imagination provides a theological account of the internet from a Catholic perspective. It engages digital culture by providing a context for media and mediation within the Catholic tradition, specifically focusing on the ecclesiology and sacramentality of the church. Katherine G. Schmidt argues that the Catholic imagination is inherently consonant with the idea of the "virtual," understood as the creative space between presence and absence, bringing the fields of media studies, internet studies, sociology, history, and theology together in order to give a theological account of the social realities of American Catholicism in light of digital culture. Overall, Schmidt argues that the social possibilities of the internet afford the church great opportunity for building a social context that allows the living out of Eucharistic logic learned in properly liturgical moments.

Chapter One: Theological Concerns Chapter Two: Ecclesial Perspectives on Media and CommunicationsChapter Three: Incarnation, Virtuality, and the ChurchChapter Four: Virtuality and SacramentalityChapter Five: The Social Dynamics of Life Online Chapter Six: The Suburbanization of American Catholic LifeChapter Seven: Standards of Communion