Techno Theology

Here’s a religion question you don’t hear every day: “What’s your spiritual type?”

It’s one of the curveball quizzes on Beliefnet.com, a Web site for the soul. Every major religion of the world and some that used to be called “other” has a home page in this jumble of news, essays and snippets from sacred texts in a pulsing, click-here package that seems custom-made for the Quest Generation.

“We’re trying to strike a balance between humor and fun, while at the same time dealing with some of the most profound and sacred subjects,” said Steven Waldman, who founded the site with Bob Nylen. (Waldman was an editor at U.S. News & World Report; Nylen was associate publisher of Texas Monthly.)

The site, https://www.beliefnet.com, launched in December, and early research shows that many users like to sample the world’s religions. “They want the wisdom of Dalai Lama one day, advice about a morally sound children’s video the next and tips on Jewish cooking another day,” said Waldman. Files on Christianity, Buddhism and Wicca (a nature-based religion) are what users open most.

At this stage, the site reads like religion lite, with a mail-order catalog attached. (Wanna buy a copy of “The Accidental Buddhist”?) But the team that produces it offers reason to hope for more. Waldman started out as a Newsweek correspondent. The site’s staff include past reporters for Religion News Service and the Dallas Morning News. Monthly columnists feature such top scholars as Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.

One recent column, “Praying at the Burger King,” got a lot of response. “One reader wrote back, ‘Surely you don’t feel spiritual in the Burger King?’ ” Mouw recalled. “I answered that I think it’s important to acknowledge that God is there. Even Burger King is part of God’s world.”

Can a professor of ethics with a national reputation live on shakes and fries? “It’s early,” Mouw explained about Beliefnet’s nutritional content. “Maybe we’re still finding our way.”

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Regular visitors to the site include religious leaders from a range of faiths, but the curious browsers Waldman mentioned are less predictable. Andrew Manzardo, an agnostic anthropologist from Baltimore, first signed on a few weeks ago to read a column by a friend. “I think the whole thing is a lot of fun,” he said. “But it’s mostly religious trivia.”

Manzardo opened the Orthodox Judaism file but soon found himself browsing Bahai. “It’s a lot bigger than it looks,” he said of the site’s surfing possibilities. “Stories link to other sources, and pretty soon you find yourself where you didn’t expect to be. I like looking at things I know nothing about.”

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Snippets from sacred texts and quotes by the major prophets of the world’s wisdom traditions dot the religion coverage and suggest some heft. Somebody’s been thoughtful enough to edit out the distressing stuff that can wreck a seeker’s day. There’s not much from Job or Jeremiah here.

Culture columns dip into pagan philosophy, witches’ magic and veggie trends, for example. One recent Hindu file offered an item about Vasthu, a variation on the Chinese art of feng shui, the art of arranging your physical world to enhance your life. An Islam page opened onto a congregation of Latino Muslims in New York City--Spanish and Arabic spoken here.

Lead stories change several times each week. One recent cover about the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz took a glance back at “The Theology of ‘Peanuts.’ ”

There’s the possibility of spiritual mountains yet to scale with Beliefnet.com, but so far we’re still in the foothills.