The Divine Eye on the Internet
The Divine Eye on the Internet
Visions and Virtual Realities in the Shadow of Disneyland
The sixth chapter includes a number of newer Caodai followers, many of them women. In “The Divine Eye on the Internet,” I examine the influence of new technology on the creation of deterritorialized sacred communities, whose “holy land” may no longer be anchored to a specific landscape. Rival Caodai overseas groups now debate the importance of ties to their homeland on the Internet, and shoot television shows to proselytize on a global scale. This allows religious communities in Vietnam and the diaspora to define each other—sometimes by reaction and exclusion—and also allows an originally “Vietnamese” set of religious images to interact extensively with many other forms of iconography that float around in cyberspace. The Internet has attracted many non-Vietnamese Americans, including several converts who have been ordained as ministers, worked as translators of Caodai scripture, and helped to broaden the appeal of a once very “Vietnamese” vision of global unity.
Keywords: Internet connections, cyberspace spirituality, American converts to Caodaism, female spirit mediums
Hawaii Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
