Looking Backwards and Forwards at the Study of Digital Religion

Over the past three decades, there has been a steadily increasing interest in how religious communities and practices interact and intersect with digital media and emerging technologies. It was initially seen and documented in the late 1990s by scholars of Religion and Media as a novel phenomenon. Attention was paid to how tech-savvy religious groups sought to transport their traditional religious rituals online while others experimented with the ways Internet-based platforms and tools might give birth to new forms of religiosity. In these early days, scholars often focused their attention on investigating dominant exemplars, such as Christian communities' Internet use, and unique innovations of religion, such as Technopaganism and Wicca online. By the late 2000s, it became clear that adopting digital media-informed religious practices and translating religious beliefs into a digital landscape was becoming the norm rather than the exception in twenty-first century religion. The global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 also forced many religious groups who had been technological laggards or resistant to reconsider the role technology might play in their religious practices. During this time, we saw a rise worldwide in many diverse religious communities' adoption of digital and mediated communication technologies or to continue their community gatherings and rituals during the periods of lockdowns and social distancing. As this 50th anniversary issues of Religion look back at the past developments in the study of religion and then speculates on our future inquiry into emerging forms of communal and individual religiosity and spirituality, I argue more attention needs to be paid to the role digital media and emerging technologies will play in both the practice and study of religion. In this short essay, I introduce the concept of digital religion, a term that proposes a distinctive way of understanding the practice of religion in digital spaces and cultures. Digital religion is both a theoretical approach to the study of contemporary religion and an academic area of inquiry that focuses attention on where and how religion appears in a network society. By providing an overview of the concept and study of digital religion, this essay maps a trajectory where scholars of religion might focus their attention in the years to come as technology plays an increasingly central part in social and religious culture globally. Over the past three decades, the intersection of contemporary religious beliefs and practices with digital spaces and emerging technology has been described as the study of cyber religion, virtual religion, and religion online and has come to be known as the study of digital religion. Digital religion, as I define it, draws attention to how digital media and technologies influence and shape religious beliefs, practices, communities, and expressions in the contemporary world. Specifically, digital religion "investigates the conceptual, technological and cultural space that is evoked when we talk about how online and offline religious spheres have become blended and integrated" (Campbell 2013a, 13). This is a unique approach to the study of how religious people, practices, and beliefs engage with digital media, cultures, and spaces. It goes beyond merely acknowledging the presence of religious content online but delves into understanding how digital platforms and tools have become an integral part of a human's religious experiences as part of their everyday lives. Much of the research within Digital Religion studies has focused on exploring how technology affects religious identity, community formation, rituals, engagement with religious teachings, and structures of religious authority. However, I emphasize that digital religion is not just about the replication of traditional religious practices in an online space but involves a transformation and adaptation of these practices within the digital realm. It involves the dynamic interaction between the virtual and physical dimensions of religious life (Campbell 2017). The central premise of the study of digital religion is the acknowledgment that religion in the twenty-first century exists in a world wrapped in media and mediated by technologies. Therefore, based on this understanding, I assert one cannot study religious individuals or groups' practices without considering the ways in which digital tools, environments, or experiences inform the religious life world in implicit or explicit ways. This understanding of digital religion often highlights the ways in which technology influences religious practices and community engagement. The importance of researching digital religion lies in understanding how these technological advancements impact religious identity, community building, and expressions of faith in contemporary society. It helps unravel the complexities of the evolving relationship between religion and the digital landscape. Digital religion research has evolved over the past three decades and has often been described in terms of "waves" of research. This metaphor of the wave was first presented in Hojsgaard and Warburg's book "Religion and Cyberspace" (2005), who use this image to describe the shifts in scholarly attitudes, conceptualizations of digital technologies, and analytical foci over the first decade and a half of research. Their book was an important early contribution highlighting key research studies on religion and the Internet emerging from a 2001 conference in Denmark, the first international conference gathering scholars from around the world to study religion online (Campbell 2020). The metaphor of waves, drawn from Hojsgaard and Wartburg (2005), has been a defining but contentious way of describing the study of Digital Religion. The image of the wave has often been used to imply a linear progression of research and thinking about the phenomenon of digital media engagement with religion. It potentially undervalues and suggests earlier research as outdated and ideas to be left behind in scholarly development. The metaphor of a wave also suggests that research and the development of new areas of inquiry typically proceed in a straightforward linear progression. It evokes the notion that a line of scholarly inquiry always produces clear trends and findings that can be documented and give rise to new sets of research questions that build on this acquired knowledge. However, over the past decade, I have come to see the wave metaphor in a different light. Waves are defined by peaks and valleys, and though it can be assumed that a wave represents a mapping of a simple forward movement and progression of something, this is not how the waves of the ocean work. Standing on a beach, looking out to sea, it may appear that the waves crest and fall till they break on the shore. Yet, what is happening under the water, beyond our line of sight, is very different. Ocean waves vary in their sizes and impacts and are driven by unseen circular undercurrents that push them forward. It is these undercurrents that give rise to the beginnings of the next wave as well as push the initial wave toward its completion. This understanding of waves highlights the cyclical nature of research, where each wave not only builds on the previous one but also sets the groundwork for the next. This perspective encourages viewing the waves of research as a continuum, connected and influencing each other rather than isolated events. The cyclical motion of undercurrents represents the unseen forces shaping the trajectory and momentum of the research waves, highlighting the interconnectedness and evolution of Digital Religion studies. It also emphasizes the importance of the growth of knowledge over time, which both allows and requires scholars to build upon existing literature. This understanding of the movement of ocean waves, I believe, helps us conceptualize the diverse nature of research within the field and how each wave contributes to our expanding knowledge of how the digital and technological tools and forces within our world have come to shape the sphere of religion. According to Hojsgaard and Warburg, the first wave of digital religion research originated in the mid-1990s, when scholars sought to document and define the emergence of different expressions of religion on various Internet platforms. Pioneering works, such as Stephen O'Leary's "Cyberspace as Sacred Space" (1996), explored the novel aspects of online religious communities and religion-related Internet interactions, posing questions about users and the purpose of Internet practices. Other scholars sought to carefully investigate how a variety of religious groups sought to adapt ancient religious rituals to these new technological platforms and the unique instrumental and spiritual questions this raised for religious groups and leaders. Notable here was the Symposium on Religion and the Internet that appeared in 2002 in Religion, which raised early questions about the potential authenticity, efficacy, and acceptability of online rituals in religions such as Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity (MacWilliams 2002). It is true that some early studies were sometimes caught up in utopian or dystopian speculation about the impact of Internet technologies on humanity, culture, and, of course, religion. Yet this tendency for both scholars and the public to fall into the dualism of either praising or decrying the unseen and potential path created by any new technology is, to some extent, to be expected and possibly unavoidable. The unknowns of the social and cultural impact of any emerging technology easily evoke strong responses from the public and a desire among "experts" to clearly define and create conceptual boundaries around them. Indeed, media debates and scholarly discussions in 2022–2023 around the future of artificial generative intelligence like ChatGPT and the general impact of AI on society and religion primarily centered around two polls. Scholarly discourse around such contestations eventually demanded scholars take a more nuanced and critical approach. The second wave, as Hojsgaard and Warburg describe it, transitioned from mere reporting on these new religious phenomena on the Internet to trying to identify patterns and common typologies of religious Internet-based rituals and practices. Scholars also sought to apply historical lenses and social perspectives to move beyond a fascination with these novel religious forms to critically examine the implications and authenticity of digital religious practices. Helland's typology of "religion online" and "online religion" (2000), which he coined to describe different perspectives on the relationship between religious practices and the digital realm. Religion online refers to how traditional religious practices and beliefs are manifested and imported into the online environment. Online religion, in contrast, emphasizes specific categories or ways in which religion might be modified or reimagined and new expressions of the sacred created through online engagement. This typology opened the door for theoretical reflections on religious practices online, which I believe ushered in the third wave of digital religion research. Hojsgaard and Warburg describe their book as contributing to an emerging third wave, with increased theoretical attention to the interconnectedness of online and offline settings. The third wave, in turn, paved the way for the fourth, characterized by an exploration of people's media practices in their daily lives. This wave emphasizes the continued integration of online and offline experiences while also delving into existential, ethical, political, gender, race, class, and ethnic aspects of digital religion. It scrutinizes the broader societal implications of digital religious practices. In a special issue of Information, Communication Siuda 2021). Indeed, it is important for scholars to reflect on the new complexities and opportunities created for religion by emerging technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence. As religious communities and individuals are faced with new social and ethical issues arising from next-generation technologies, this next wave requires close investigation of the Existential Questions raised by living in a digital and augmented reality. As Lagerkvis's work has asserted, scholars of digital religion need to "critically interrogate the lived and often complexly ambiguous experiences of our digitally enforced lifeworld" (98). This recognition has also caused many scholars to shift from focusing on comparative and/or contested discussion of the online-offline world, which I suggested (Campbell 2013b), to a general understanding that we exist "onlife." This concept was suggested by Luciano Floridi in The Online Manifesto (2015) to think about how our lived experience of the pervasiveness of information and technologies is infusing our everyday life. He suggested that the concept of "onlife" provides a counterpoint critique of the either/or binary of our being online or offline, which no longer makes sense in our mediated daily existence. This fifth wave of scholarship should also be characterized by an increased diversification of our interdisciplinary discussion partner to expand the scope of cultural, social, and religious dynamics in which our evolving technosphere is leading both our scholarship and human-lived reality (Campbell & Tsuria 2021). This requires a further expansion of the interdisciplinary focus of Digital religion studies to be in conversation with the fields of Information Science, Computer-Human Interaction, Philosophy of Technology, Smart Computing, and Computer Ethics. Scholars must also reflect and consider what the study of Digital Religion has to offer current conversation on the rights of Robots, public debates on AI ethics, and issues of privacy around the creation of Digital Twins and the governmental monitoring of individuals' digital footprints. The metaphor of waves of research continues to be evoked by scholars to represent the evolution of digital religion research. Each wave suggests the need to bring forth different or refined approaches to media platforms, users, and existential concerns to help this area of scholarship progress. The questions posed by scholars within these time frames have led to the development of various theoretical and methodological tools, contributing to the ongoing exploration and understanding of digital religion as a dynamic field. I suggest if scholars in digital religion studies continue to use the metaphor of the wave to describe the growth and development of this area of inquiry, we must shift to this understanding of how ocean waves function and so challenge this overly simplistic view of how our field has emerged and the ways our understanding of the religion in the digital world has to evolve. We need to emphasize the complexity, continuity, and interconnectedness of research waves. Acknowledging the dynamic nature and interplay of forces in waves provides a metatheoretical perspective that enriches the understanding of digital religion research, urging scholars to appreciate the multifaceted journey rather than just peaks and crashes (Campbell and Cheong forthcoming).