Jeff Sharlet of The Revealer posts a discussion at BloggerCon on religion and blogger.

"So what do religion blogs mean to traditional media, religious and secular?"

For me, correction. Media (especially Newsday) is so anti-religion and especially anti-Christian that I will turn to St. Blog's to get the correct information on current news. The errors I see daily add up to an incredibly ignorant understanding of the Church and Christianity in general. St. Blog's will often have people who are behind the scenes or who can give 1st hand info on what is going on in the Church.

"Are they bringing belief more visibly into the public sphere?"

For St. Blog's, no, I think it is an "in-house" thing that does not necessarily appeal to a wider audience, although the best few blogs might.

"Do they threaten traditional religious hierachies?"

Ha!, no, but they treaten the lunkheads who have infested the hierachies for the past 30 years, since they expose their doings to the light. I don't think Fr. Paul Shanley could have gotten away with what he did if blogs were around in the 80's.

"Do they tend toward the politicization of religious beleif?"(sic)

I hope not, but this might be a chicken or the egg thing. Do they politicize religious belief, or are they manifestations of politics within religion?

"How do belief blogs relate to the real world -- as lay ministry, as rebellion, as outsider critique?"

Again, as far as St. Blog's goes, I think the blogs are mostly outsider critique, in the sense that most orthodox Catholics are outside of the parish/diocese power structure. We blog about the way we would like to see dioceses and parishes run because we are not the ones running them. Very few blogs would be lay ministry, although there are some apologetic blogs. Overall, most of us could do a better job of making blogging more of a ministry.

"Are they a force for change within religious institutions? Journalistic institutions?"

I could hope!

Alicia of Fructis Ventris will be at BloggerCon and it looks like it should be interesting.