Annals of the International Communication Association ISSN: 2380-8985 (Print) 2380-8977 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rica20 Religious communication and technology Heidi A. Campbell To cite this article: Heidi A. Campbell (2017): Religious communication and technology, Annals of the International Communication Association, DOI: 10.1080/23808985.2017.1374200 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2017.1374200 Published online: 11 Sep 2017. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rica20 Download by: [Texas A&M University Libraries] Date: 12 September 2017, At: 07:49 ANNALS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2017.1374200 Religious communication and technology Heidi A. Campbell Downloaded by [Texas A&M University Libraries] at 07:49 12 September 2017 Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY This article provides a review of contemporary research on religious communication and technologies through the lens of Digital Religion Studies, which explores how online and offline religious spheres become blended and blurred through digital culture. Summarizing the emergence and growth of studies of religion and the Internet, and offering an overview of scholarship demonstrating how religious actors negotiate their relationships and spiritual activities within their online– offline lives, enable us to look critically at the state of Digital Religion Studies. This article also highlights current trends and emerging themes within this area including increasing attention being paid to theoretical developments, approaching digital religion as lived religion, and the influence of postsecular and posthuman discourses within this scholarship. Received 30 May 2017 Revised 16 August 2017 Published online 10 November 2017 KEYWORDS Digital religion; digital culture; internet; religion; posthuman; postsecular; theory Studies of religious communication and technology have been grouped under a number of different titles over the last three decades, including the study of cyber-religion, virtual religion, and most recently, Digital Religion Studies. Early studies in the 1990s – often referred to as investigating ‘cyber-religion,’ a term used to capture how religion was potentially being re-wired through its interaction with the culture of computers – often focused on documenting the ways religious users were transporting their religious practices onto the Internet. An example is Schroeder, Heather, and Lee’s (1998) in-depth study of a prayer group using a virtual world to meet, and the ways they choose to adapt traditional prayer practices to the online environment. A central line of research questioning focused on the utopian and dystopian debates about the ways such integrations with computers and network technologies would impact traditional religious communities and cultures. Cyber-religion was also used by some to suggest that a new category of religion might be emerging, wherein experimentation with religious practice online would usher in a form of religion that was spiritually innovative and dynamic, yet highly integrated with and dependent on technology. This area of study is seen in O’Leary’s study of Neo-pagan and Christian religious practices (1996) emerging online and considers how Internet platforms facilitate experimentation with new and established religious rituals, from religious study to the celebrations of high holy days, in ways that could potentially reshape users’ religious sensibilities online. As this area of study advanced, some scholars in the early to mid-2000s began to reference studies of religion and the Internet in terms of ‘virtual religion,’ referring to how religious practices and beliefs were increasingly being adapted, especially to virtual reality technologies such as MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons), MOOs (MUD, object-oriented), and video gaming platforms. Virtual religion suggested the need to begin to consider what aspects of religion were able to remain ‘authentic’ in these virtual environments, or if the very nature of spirituality might be changed through technological mediation. Scholars such as myself (Campbell, 2004) and Hutchings (2007) documented trends in CONTACT Heidi A. Campbell heidic@tamu.edu Bolton Hall, College Station, TX 77843, USA © 2017 International Communication Association Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, MS 4234, 102 Downloaded by [Texas A&M University Libraries] at 07:49 12 September 2017 2 H. A. CAMPBELL the creation of various Christian communities’ online and Internet-based congregations, many of which had no offline counterpart. Hutchings carefully analyzed the extent to which using digital technology as a basis for community-building, worship services, and bible study might change members’ religious understandings of community and increase or cultivate their social isolation or integration in such groups. Others considered how transporting religious rituals online might challenge traditional communities within religions such as Sikhism (Jakobsh, 2006) and Buddhism (MacWilliams, 2006) through the creation of online temples and modified meditation practices. Within this approach scholars often sought to question or problematize accepted understandings of religion in light of the technologized forms emerging through use of the Internet for religious purposes. Lövheim’s work on Christian and Wiccan Swedish young people’s use of the discussion forums (2005) as space of religious self-expression, where youth could experiment with different ways of presenting their religious identity and beliefs in online conversation, offered vital insights into the motivations of religious individuals’ use of digital technologies. It also showed how the Internet offered unique possibilities for freedom of expression not available to most young people in their offline religious communities. These opportunities changed their views of what religion is and what it means to be spiritual in contemporary society. In the past decade, studies of religious communication and technologies are more frequently discussed under the umbrella of Digital Religion Studies. Digital religion is defined as the technological and cultural space evoked in talking about how online and offline religious spheres become blended or integrated (Campbell, 2013). It is also used to refer to how digital media force religious groups and practitioners to alter their notions of religious tradition, authority, and authenticity, since digital culture can be seen as remaking that which is considered religious (Hoover & Echchaibli, 2012). In contrast to previous framings, digital religion sees online religious practices and beliefs as integrated into offline religious communication and communities and vice versa, rather than online and offline religion being seen as separate or competing entities. The embeddedness of the Internet into the everyday life of many religious practitioners means that digital culture and technologies often bridge, connect, and/or extend online religious practices and spaces into offline religious contexts. For example, research conducted by Cheong, Huang, and Poon (2011) explores the paradox of religious authority online. The researchers reflect on how traditional religious authorities (especially religious leaders and structures) may be undermined by the rise of new religious spokespersons online, allowing the faithful to seek wisdom from alternative, and often unsanctioned, religious teachers found on blogs and personal websites. Yet the Internet simultaneously empowers pastors and priests by offering them the ability to reassert their influence through social media – e.g. by constantly reaffirming their teachings and religious expertise by issuing daily affirmations to their membership via Twitter or Facebook. Digital Religion Studies focus BOTH on carefully investigating how digital religion is imprinted with traits of online culture (such as its traits of interactivity, convergence, etc.) AND traditional religion (such as patterns of belief and rituals tied to historically grounded communities), and the implications of this interplay. Current studies of digital religion increasingly pay particular attention to how religious actors and groups negotiate their relationships and spiritual activities between the multiple spheres of their online and offline lives. Such work is highlighted in a recent special issue of New Media & Society (2016/7) which focuses on the theme ‘Considering Critical Methods and Theoretical Lenses in Digital Religion Studies’. The issue assesses the current state of the field, drawing attention to the key theoretical approaches and emerging and foundational methods utilized by scholars investigating interrelationships between religion and new media technologies. It spotlights current scholarly concerns that often focus on how individual agency interacts with various religious institutions and structures in a digital age. For example, Neriya-Ben Shahar (2017) considers how members of bounded religious communities, namely Amish and Jewish Orthodox women, negotiate and justify their use of computers and cell phones in the face of social and religious restrictions on their home and work lives. Such research also calls scholars to carefully consider which multi-layered, digitally driven communicative practices religious individuals and groups embrace, shaping not only Downloaded by [Texas A&M University Libraries] at 07:49 12 September 2017 ANNALS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION 3 personal practices but increasingly popular notions of the spiritual and religiosity (i.e. Sumiala & Korpiola, 2017). This is seen in work studying individualized religious use of mobile phones and how people seek to integrate digital devices into their daily spiritual patterns (i.e. Bellar, 2017). In the last five years, a clear set of theoretical approaches has emerged, seeking to explain the increased integration of the Internet within many individuals’ daily religious lives and the impact this has on traditional, or offline, religious communities and structures. Here we see scholars employing theory primarily to explain the phenomena occurring in one of these contexts, either: (1) the interplay between religion and the digital, or (2) how notions of the religious may be changing in a digital age. Digital religion has primarily theorized about how religion and the digital intersect by focusing on how religious communities respond to digital technologies, and/or how digital cultures are shaping religious individuals’ behaviors and practices. Here scholars have drawn on work emerging from Media, Religion, and Culture Studies, a growing interdisciplinary area that looks at how traditional religious groups and expressions interact with media and investigates new ways of expressing and understanding religion within contemporary media culture (i.e. Hoover, 2006). Within Media, Religion, and Culture Studies, a number of theoretical lenses have commonly been employed to help interpret these interactions, including technological determinism, mediatization, mediation of meaning, mediation of sacred forms, and religious-social shaping of technology (for an overview see Lundby, 2013). Most influential within Digital Religion Studies has been mediatization, which focuses on the role media plays in creating and socializing public understandings of religion; mediation of meaning, concerned with how audiences consume and make connections or contrasts between media messages and their core values or beliefs; and religious-social shaping of technology, which asserts religious communities’ negotiations with technology are constrained by their moral beliefs and social boundaries, grounded in their religious histories and traditions (for overview see Campbell, 2017). These theoretical approaches have served as useful tools for scholars describing and analyzing how digital media are used to express personal religiosity online; how digital culture informs perceptions of communal spirituality, especially offline; and connections individuals and groups make between online and offline religious practices. More recently we have seen a revival in scholars placing attention on theorizing religion in Digital Religion Studies. Here, the focus is placed on how religion is manifest and the role it performs in a networked, digital world. In the 1990s many scholars (i.e. O’Leary, 1996) speculated about how the Internet and computers might change not only the practice of religion but the very perception of how religion was conceived or defined in contemporary society. Helland’s proposed the category of ‘online religion’ (2000) captured this idea, which saw religion beginning to adapt to digital culture and creating new interactive forms of spirituality online. Yet over the years, scholars have noted very few actual manifestations of born-digital new religions. Exceptions include documentation of Technopaganism in the 1990s, a new imagination of neo-Paganism whose rituals are conducted solely in digital spaces, and the rise of Kopimism in the early 2010s, which turned the principles of the open source movement and file sharing into a religious-like belief structure and is recognized in Sweden as an official religion. More recent focus has moved from seeing ‘online religion’ in terms of manifestations of new religious movements online to considering how digital engagement shifts and expands in what is understood as lived religion in a digital age. In other words, attention is being given to theories attempting to explain how people’s integration of the digital in their daily lives encourages new manifestations of religiosity and popular notions that can be considered the realm of religion in network society. Born-digital theories of religion taking place online seek to explain how the boundaries of where religion is found and what it looks like change as boundaries between online and offline religion become blurred in what Hoover and Echchaibli (2012) highlight as new digitally informed third spaces of social–religious interactions. We need more born-digital theories of digital religion. By this, I mean theories emerging from a careful analysis of the unique social nature and cultural context of our network society, an analysis that understands how religion is situated in a technologically infused space and culture. This is seen in my own work around the concept of ‘networked religion,’ arguing religion in a network Downloaded by [Texas A&M University Libraries] at 07:49 12 September 2017 4 H. A. CAMPBELL society, both online and offline, is manifest through a series of distinct characteristics, such as taking place in a multi-site reality, involving convergent practices, and creating shifting religious authority relations and structure. Here, religion in the broad sense is transformed as traditional notions of religious communities as tightly bounded institutions transition into more loosely bound social relations that are highly individualized (Campbell, 2011). This means how people live religion both online and offline is changing due to the restructuring of cultural and social space into network-based spheres of interaction, challenging the traditional religious structures to which many religious beliefs are tied. This approach of theorizing about the nature of Digitally Lived Religion has led scholars in the last five years to focus more attention on two themes: (1) (Post) Secularization of Religion in a Digital Age and (2) Existential Questions within Digital Religion. The past decade has seen an increase in predictions and debates about whether globally we are moving towards a more secularized society or a postsecular society. The secularization thesis argues that institutional religion plays a diminishing role in everyday life, so religion, in general, is marginalized in society. Post-secularists assert that people recognize the moral failings of modern society, which leads to a resurgence of religion in the public sphere, where certain religious groups seek to re-exert their influence alongside a noted rise in postmodern spiritual sensibilities advocating peaceful coexistence between the spheres of faith and reason. In Digital Religion Studies both discourses have been employed by scholars seeking to explain changes in the religious landscape within digital culture. Evolvi’s work on religious bloggers in Europe (2017) found religious Internet engagement plays an important role in framing Catholic Church members’ understanding and expectations of religious change within their communities and how religious authorities should adapt and respond to such changes, in light of the practices of flexibility and open-connectivity encouraged by digital culture. This suggests digital culture may encourage movements towards cultural secularization by undermining institutional religion. Yet Piela’s study (2017) of debates over the niqab via photo-sharing websites, such as Instagram and Pinterest, notes how Muslim women are often stereotyped as ‘victims’ in traditional media, while the Internet allows them to challenge such assumptions on a very intimate and personal level. This approach asserts that digital religion manifests a turn towards the postsecular as religious individuals online are empowered with unique agency, enabling them to reframe this socioreligious discourse in their own terms and change public assumptions of religion in a way that can and does encompass the social world. Rather than seeing these research trends as a battle over whether digital religion facilitates secularization or a postsecular turn, scholars should note that information communication technologies can encourage both trends, and the conditions on which these trends depend should be the focus. The shared social by-products of these trends are also in need of further exploration. One perspective both trends tend to agree on is a tendency towards syncretism within the lived religious experiences of many digital cultures. Syncretism is manifest in individuals’ acceptance of combining and integrating different religious and cultural beliefs, even those considered to be in tension with one another, into a common outlook. Numerous studies over the last three decades have speculated about this occurrence with various examples and singular case studies. More recently, scholars have begun to secure data to back up such claims. For example, McClure’s study of social networking sites (2016) found that young adults who use social media are more likely to think it is acceptable to pick and choose their religious beliefs and practices from amongst multiple religions’ traditions, independently of what their own religious tradition teaches. This is due to exposure to alternative viewpoints gained by interacting with others online. Thus it becomes essential for current scholars to focus attention on identifying the specific categories of belief and religious practices held in tandem by religious individuals online and in network society. More broadly, this will greatly assist in theorizing the extent to which, and in what specific contexts, secularization of post-secularism emerge. Second, we have seen a turn in studies of Digitally Lived Religion from speculation to focused investigation on how living in a digital world is shaping both our attitudes and our practices relative to key existential questions. Such questions were often initially engaged via the theme of embodiment and authenticity, concerning how we understand what can be considered real and what is Downloaded by [Texas A&M University Libraries] at 07:49 12 September 2017 ANNALS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION 5 virtual or false, in relation to our bodies and personas being represented through digital technologies and spaces online (Radde-Antweiler, 2013). Another area of focused interest to scholars is beginningand end-of-life issues. Studies of religion, digital media, and death over the past decade have paid attention to common rituals within online memorialization, the lifecycle of one’s digital footprint and persona, and what public grieving practices say about religious sensibilities in digital culture. Whitehead (2014) found mommy blogging amongst Evangelical Christians has allowed personal narratives of trauma and loss to become healing and community-building rituals when engaged by an inclusive and interactive listening public that enables the creation of a shared story of meaning. Here the digital space transforms personal religion into a communal event and so publically affirms distinct spiritual narratives about the meaning of life. Scholars are increasingly concerned with how digital technologies raise questions about human existence. This is seen in the ways digital spaces and practices engage and shape our understanding of classic themes (i.e. death, time, being there, and being-in-and-with-the-world) as argued by Lagerkvist (2017). This also means paying attention to other key human areas often overlooked within Digital Religion Studies, such as how sexuality and gender are informed when the religious and digital contexts and outlooks intersect (i.e. Lövheim, 2013). Many of these discussions increasingly engage notions of the posthuman, as an evolutionary-based outlook that suggests humanity is becoming something more-than human as we embrace and merge with new digital technologies, especially Augmented Reality, Virtual Worlds, and mobile technologies. Scholars find posthuman discourse offers as a useful lens for interrogating ethical concerns about the future of the human–technology relationship (i.e. Campbell, 2016). Considering the existential in digital religion also requires investigating the extent to which we can talk about digital discourse in creating norms for how we approach religion as worldviews engage in the framing of reality and defining notions of truth. Research has highlighted some forms of digital discourse, such as those facilitated through religious Internet memes, which tend to essentialize religious meaning in problematic ways that encourage stereotyping of particular groups and their beliefs (i.e. Aguilar, Campbell, Stanley, & Taylor, 2017). While interesting and important work has been done, scholars of digital religion must continue to push past studying religion primarily in its traditional and institutional forms and consider how Digitally Lived Religion is morphing and even creating new contexts of meaning with new constituencies. As stated by Lövheim and Campbell (2017, p. 11), This requires a shift of perspective, where scholars of digital religion might need to move from focusing primarily on organized religious groups and individual believers, to asking how religious symbols and discourses are used by other actors in society and culture as tools to understand and manage life in a digitally saturated world. Scholars of religious communication and technology must continue to look outside religious communities and groups as such to discuss how religion as a social arena and meaning system is influenced by the wider changes in communication infrastructures being brought by new media technologies. I would argue current research within Digital Religion Studies presents important insights and study tools to the larger Communication discipline on how scholars can more closely investigate Internet users’ perceptions of digital media and beliefs about digital cultures. It also offers some theoretical tools especially useful in studying processes of technology negotiation. Interrogating research findings from Digital Religion Studies around religious user technology practices and systems of integration offers a focused microcosm for identifying broader trends in how digital technology can be used to satisfy individual and communal social and communicative needs. This can be done by considering works on how individual religious users integrate digital technology into everyday patterns of life, and how approaches such as the Mediation of Meaning help reveal personal and cultural motivations for technology engagement. Further, by considering the patterns revealed through the Religious-Social Shaping of Technology approach can help scholars study the technological decision-making practices employed by other user-communities who share a common identity or moral economy. Overall, Digital Religion Studies focused on distinctive sub-groups of Internet 6 H. A. CAMPBELL Downloaded by [Texas A&M University Libraries] at 07:49 12 September 2017 users offer Communication scholars the opportunity for comparative study looking at other bounded communities, or those with clearly identifiable moral economies, and insights into how decisionmaking processes can be identified and mapped, and future responses to new technologies projected. 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