Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds

by Heidi A. Campbell (editor)

Digital Religion offers a critical and systematic survey of the study of religion and new media. It covers religious engagement with a wide range of new media forms and highlights examples of new media engagement in all five of the major world religions. From cell phones and video games to blogs and Second Life, the book:

provides a detailed review of major topics
includes a series of case studies to illustrate and elucidate the thematic explorations
considers the theoretical, ethical and theological issues raised.

Drawing together the work of experts from key disciplinary perspectives, Digital Religion is invaluable for students wanting to develop a deeper understanding of the field.

Genres: Religion

285 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Heidi A. Campbell is Professor of Communication, affiliate faculty in Religious Studies and a Presidential Impact Fellow at Texas A&M University. She is also director of the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies, and a founder of Digital Religion studies. Her research focuses on technology, religion and digital culture, with emphasis on Jewish, Muslim & Christian media negotiations. She is co-editor of Routledge’s Religion and Digital Culture book series and the Journal of Religion, Media & Digital Culture. She is author of over 100 articles and books including When Religion Meets New Media (2010), Digital Religion (2013, 2ⁿᵈ edition 2021) and Digital Creatives and the Rethinking Religious Authority (2021). She has been quoted in such outlets as the Houston Chronicle, USA Today, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, and on the BBC World Service. She also received the RCA Scholar of the Year Award and TAMU’s Transformational Teaching Award.

Reviews

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The theoretical aspects to this book are truly a highlight, and are incredibly useful and insightful in the way they approach the subject of religion in the digital era. And the book does a decent job of ultimately representing a host of digital media, even if its focus is primarily on the internet and its various uses/phenomena. My one complaint is that some of the case studies seem a bit lacking, more like observational pieces than truly diving deep and digging into some of the more difficult questions and reasonings behind the use of technology for religious purposes. But still, there's lots of great stuff to be found in this collection.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thematic and thoughtful. I loved it.

[John Paul Arceno · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best

[John Funnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and insightful - academic rigour that supports how we can reach out to the world online (most relevant in a pandemic). Welcomes other sociological disciplines through a number of essays that give a holistic picture of online community engagement and how/why we do things.

Does contain the worst definition of “Religion” i have ever read. (Gregory Price Grieve-7. Religion).

[Jeremy Garber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Renowned media scholar and theorist Heidi Campbell provides a useful summary of the emerging field of digital religion studies. This field, as Campbell notes in her introduction, refers not simply to the practice of religion online, but how digital media itself influences and shapes religion in the 21st century context. This volume orients readers to the development of this fascinating interdisciplinary field, the intersection between multiplicities of varieties of study. The first section provides summaries of key concepts of the field, including ritual, identity, community, authority, authenticity, and the problematic category of “religion” itself. Mia Lövheim’s essay on identity and Kerstin Radde-Antweiler’s provocative thinking about authenticity in the digital age are especially notable contributions. The second section provides specific examples of digital religion, ranging from Buddhist practice in Second Life through Muslim adventure gaming to the ultra-Orthodox negotiation of cell phone use. These second essays are perhaps less helpful to the new or specialized scholar, but provide models of how deep anthropologically informed case studies might be further examples of digital religion. Finally, Part III, “Reflections on Studying Religion and New Media,” further investigates emerging theoretical possibilities in the study of digital religion, including theory itself, ethics, theology, and a final contribution from Stewart M. Hoover on the “third space” concept used in his work at the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture. Eminently useful for scholars of religion and/or media, seminary students and instructors, and graduate students of either field—or of the increasingly important intersection of interdisciplinary research).

[Antony Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personally, I have been part of this new media world and an intense consumer of the benefits and the possibilities of the same. It has taken the process of this reflection to become aware of that fact and to assess the involvement and the influence in relation to it. With the enormous possibilities that the new media promises, the process of making religion relevant to today's generation, can be taken to a level of lively collaboration with the very persons who are in question, the new generation. The awareness of the problems that are involved within this new media culture, can again spell tasks to be undertaken with the agencies that occupy themselves with the process, not forgetting the young themselves who can be roped in as protagonists. Thanks to this work, I am inspired and determined to delve deeper into the prospects of this newer developments in the field of religious practice, in a world dominated by the digital reality.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with many volumes that include academic literature that revolves around a particular subject, parts of this collection were mediocre and some were very insightful. I found the first two sections of this collection to be minor academic reflections that reflected their authors' interests (and were perhaps encapsulations of dissertation research). I wanted more than each article provided. I find that generally, case studies (such as presented in this volume) are limited in scope and reflection.

Yet the final section, "Reflections on studying religion and new media" was excellent. Four thoughtful essays explored intriguing ideas about religion online (or online religion). I would suggest that the interested reader start with the final section of this book, and if engaged, then move to section one and two.

[Sofi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent introduction to the complex themes of digital religion and the various scholarly attempts to understand it in the last thirty years.