This article employs the theoretical framework of religious mediatization and a philosophical–anthropological lens to examine how various religious traditions utilize audiovisual media in the digital age to disseminate their faith and transform the religious experience. By comparing representative film and television cases from Christianity, Islam, and Eastern religions, the study analyzes how digital media reconstruct religious narratives, ritual practices, and identity, and facilitate cross-cultural faith exchange in online spaces. The findings indicate that audiovisual media have become a key arena for contemporary religious practice: they reinforce believers’ identity within their tradition while enabling different faith communities to encounter each other’s narratives, generating new understanding and spiritual experiences. Meanwhile, digital media have fostered virtual religious communities and a fan culture reminiscent of “implicit religion” (secular activities imbued with religious-like devotion), challenging traditional religious authority. Finally, from an interdisciplinary perspective, this article reflects on the opportunities and challenges of religious mediatization in the digital era, highlighting how media shape humanity’s quest for meaning and transcendence in a “liquid modernity” context. It also calls for deeper research into interreligious digital communication.
Ding et al. (Thu,) studied this question.