Martino Kas-Mikha
Research Mentor(s): William Calvo-Quiros
Mentor Department: American Culture
Authors:
Session: Session 6 (3:00pm – 3:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 87
Abstract
Digital technologies are reshaping religious experiences all over the world. It is shifting spiritual practices, communities, and people’s online understanding of religious authority. This project explores the emergence and evolution of online religious practices, virtual faith communities, and digital spiritual expressions in the recent two decades. In the wake of the canonization of Carlo Acutis, the “Saint of the Internet,” this research paper maps out how faith finds a new language and meanings in the digital era, where the lines between the sacred and the virtual are increasingly blurred. This project seeks to answer some crucial questions: How do digital technologies mediate religious rituals? What role do online platforms play in fostering faith-based communities? How do traditional religious institutions respond to the decentralization created by emerging forms of digital spiritualities? The first stage of this research has explicitly focused on the Catholic Church and its transformation into the digital. Some of the cases studied include the proliferation of international online prayer networks, the centrality given to emerging religious influencers, and the process of managing religious expressions like virtual pilgrimages and live-streamed Catholic masses. Preliminary results of this research suggest that the rise of the internet is transforming the methods of prayer, practices, and intimacy modes of the spaces (apps) used to worship. Furthermore, the internet has become a beacon of a new type of evangelization. It seems as if we are experiencing a similar transformation as the one generated by the Reform in the 1500s. The digital age is transforming people’s socialization processes around religion, emphasizing religion’s individual and personal connection between believers and the transcendental. At the same time, it is creating new types of socialization and religious experiences online. The study aims to bring forward these transformations, contributing to a broader understanding of how religion evolves, changes, and adapts to cultural, historical, and economic factors.
