Religious authority online: catholic case study in Poland

Abstract

Drawing on a popular Catholic online forum in Poland, this study examines the interaction between top-down (traditional institutional) and bottom-up (informal expert) forms of religious authority. In adapting Campbell's concept of online religious authority, this study shows how both forms of authority emerge in varying contexts and serve distinct yet mutually supplementary functions. Top-down authority occurs in relation to the general topic and background of discussions and appears mostly through references to religious doctrine. Informal experts, in turn, emerge through groups of the most active users and gain status through the recognition of fellow patrons due to their expertise, experience and interpretation skills. The aim of the latter is less to undermine or replace traditional religious authority, than to intervene in those areas where the institutional representation of the Church may fail or disappoint the expectations of fellow believers.