Enduring Faith in a Digital Age

Faith Tweets: Ambient Religious Communication and Microblogging Rituals

The digital age has significantly transformed religious practices, presenting both opportunities and challenges for individuals and communities. This study examines the impact of technology on religiosity, focusing on the shift from traditional religious practices to digital formats. Using secondary data, the research explores how digital tools like online platforms and virtual communities have reshaped religious engagement and community building. Despite the benefits of accessibility, such as the convenience of attending services remotely and accessing religious resources online, challenges also emerge. These include misinformation, distractions, and the potential erosion of personal spiritual experiences, which can undermine the authenticity of religious practices. The findings suggest that while technology offers greater accessibility to religious resources, religious organizations and leaders must balance virtual engagement with maintaining the integrity of traditional spiritual practices. The study concludes with recommendations for integrating faith into the digital landscape while preserving the core values of spirituality. This includes promoting responsible use of technology, fostering virtual spaces that encourage meaningful engagement, and ensuring that digital tools serve as enhancements, not replacements, for authentic spiritual experiences.

There has been a steady rise in the practice and performance of religious activities within the cyberspace since the 1980s. Many pastors have embraced the use of technology in their religious and ministerial practices. However, what would be more critical is to understand how technology, once adopted and operational would assume the function of support and fulfil religious members’ spiritual, emotional and social needs. This paper discusses technology use in religious organizations, particularly during the lockdown period of Covid-19 between March 2020 to the July 2021. The article uses South Africa as a research context to explore technology use and its role to address the challenges of support, space and practice. The paper employed a qualitative interpretive paradigm to source data from six members from different religious organizations in South Africa. Three themes arose from the data: information and communication technologies provide space for religious member to network; information and communication media facilitate religious practice and activities; and information and communication technologies enhance management of resources.

Previous research on charitable giving has identified a significant relationship between political conservatism and greater financial giving to charitable causes. Yet that research has not adequately explored the important role of religion in that relationship, nor differences in financial giving targets (i.e., religious congregations, noncongregational religious organizations, and nonreligious organizations). Support for competing theories concerning political ideology, religious practice, and charitable financial giving is assessed using data from the Panel Study on American Ethnicity and Religion (PS-ARE). For both religious and nonreligious giving, the effect of political ideology is completely mediated by participation in religious and civic practices. These findings support recent arguments on “practice theory” in cultural sociology and suggest that it is less the effect of ideology than of active participation in religious, political, and community organizations that explains Americans’ financial giving to religious and nonreligious organizations.

The cholera epidemic has remained a recurring public health challenge globally, across Africa, and in Zambia. This study aims to identify the gap between cultural and religious beliefs and practices and public health initiatives in cholera control, as well as to propose strategies for bridging this mitigation gap in response to the 2023–2025 cholera epidemic in Zambia. A qualitative case study design was employed, focusing on Lusaka District as the epicenter of the epidemic. The study involved 15 participants, consisting of five health workers, five religious leaders, and five community members from selected cholera-affected areas in Lusaka. Data were analyzed using the cultural theory of risk and religious coping theory. The findings indicate that cultural beliefs and practices, including communal eating, drinking, and gatherings as cultural observances, contributed to the spread of cholera. Religious beliefs and practices, such as reliance on healing through prayer over recommended medical treatment, the use of traditional medicine, and funeral rites involving the washing of corpses, also hindered efforts to combat the cholera epidemic in Lusaka District. The study concludes that addressing cholera requires stronger alignment between public health interventions and the cultural and religious contexts of affected communities. It recommends that religious organizations, faith communities, and health agencies work collaboratively to promote positive attitudes and behaviors that support epidemic mitigation. The study contributes by developing a Culture-Health Action-Based Framework to guide more culturally responsive and religion-sensitive cholera mitigation efforts.

In the contemporary landscape, social media platforms have evolved into highly effective instruments facilitating participatory communication across diverse aspects of human life. The advent of the digital revolution has introduced a novel dimension to the application of social media, extending its reach into various realms of communication, management, and development initiatives. Particularly noteworthy is the role that social media platforms play in the domain of religious communication, mobilization, and organization. Among the myriad social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook stand out as extensively utilized tools by religious organizations and leaders. Leveraging these platforms, religious entities seek to establish direct communication channels with their target groups, fostering active engagement and participation in the organizational and managerial aspects of religious institutions. This paradigm shift in communication strategies has become increasingly relevant and influential. To explore the dynamics of this intersection between social media and religious engagement, the present investigation was undertaken in Delhi, focusing on the National Capital Region (NCR) – a geographical area encompassing all major religions in the country. The study delves into the multifaceted ways in which social media platforms are employed for religious outreach, examining their impact on communication strategies, organizational dynamics, and the active involvement of the faithful within the diverse religious landscape of the NCR. Through a comprehensive analysis of the use of social media in this specific context, the research aims to contribute valuable insights into the evolving nature of religious communication in the digital age. Keywords: social media platforms, religious communication, digital revolution, national capital region, participatory engagement

Despite the dynamics of public health policies during COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania, religious organisations (ROs) enhanced healthcare services and support while adapting safe measures. The study assessed the health care and support activities conducted by ROs during COVID-19. Furthermore, the study explored how Islamic and Christians teachings, practices, and meanings were crucial to the design and execution of ROs’ COVID-19 healthcare activities. The study employed the concepts of religion as a model for, and model of lived reality; and development as holistic process. The study used ethnographic approaches such as participant observation, interviews and focus group discussion. Findings showed that ROs conducted both medical and non-medical activities, formal and informal healthcare services and provided support to their members and the general public access to COVID-19 related healthcare services and support particularly for those coming from poor socioeconomic backgrounds. Religious teachings, practices and meanings informed and motivated ROs healthcare workers, followers and the management in responding to COVID-19. The study concludes that ROs’ COVID-19 healthcare interventions are dynamic, adaptive and practical for they influence and are being influenced by religious teachings, practices, experiences and meanings as well as existing socio-economic and political realities.

This essay provides an overview of demographic and organizational changes in American religion since 1965. We focus on religious beliefs and practices, congregational life, special purpose groups, religion outside of religious organizations, and transnational and global aspects of religion. American religious institutions are increasingly diverse, reflecting the growing ethnic, linguistic, and religious pluralism of the United States. Recent immigrants to the United States are more Catholic, more Orthodox, and less Christian than adult Americans overall, and they have joined existing congregations in addition to forming their own religious organizations. A substantial number of Americans now consider themselves spiritual, but not religious, and many do not identify with organized religion at all. American Christianity itself is more politically polarized than in the past, and individuals who are religiously active across traditions tend to be more politically and socially conservative than others with tensions evident around contemporary social issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Existing religious organizations and secular organizations such as hospitals, universities, and prisons have responded to demographic and religious changes by offering new or changed services and physical spaces to meet religious and spiritual needs. We encourage future scholars to address institutional changes in American religion by considering diverse people and traditions, asking questions about religion in religious and nonreligious organizations, and situating studies of the United States in their broader global contexts.

The article provides a brief description of the religious space of the Perm region and analyzes social and liturgical practices and possible options for their transformation as a result of self-isolation of residents of the Perm region from April to December 2020. There is a General trend towards the virtualization of religious space, the use of which ceases to be specific only for new religious teachings. Traditional religious denominations are beginning to actively use the Internet space, offering believers a virtual religious product, however, an important assumption is made that traditional organizations are not ready to completely replace traditional social and liturgical practices, which are an important part of the religious process, with their virtual counterparts. The article clarifies the concept of «religious practices» and suggests that the speed of transformation processes depends on the size of urban agglomeration and the complexity of building a religious space in a particular area. In particular, the analysis of Protestant religious space, high organizational complexity and low vertical structure that allows Protestant religious groups, organizations or associations as quickly as possible to implement its social and liturgical practice traditional religious archetype innovations. The article deals with the peculiarities of transformation of social and liturgical practices in the majority of religious organizations and associations registered in the territory of the city of Perm. The analysis of the processes taking place in the religious environment in a large urban agglomeration with a complex structure of religious space shows the presence of transformational changes in the implementation of social and liturgical practices of religious organizations and associations under the influence of self-isolation and a pandemic, despite the conservative conditions of the internal religious environment.

The article analyzes the transformation of forms of religious communication against the background of the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus, that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the advanced opportunities offered by the virtual space, various religious organizations and individual leaders have the opportunity to acquaint all users with their religious doctrines. But if in ordinary times the virtual religious space often functioned as an "addition" to the real religious space, then in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, it became almost the main channel for broadcasting religious teachings and ideas. In this regard, the capabilities of the virtual environment made it possible to search and experiment. For some people this can lead to a deeper understanding of their religious traditions and practices, while for others it can open up completely new ways of worshiping God, generating a variety of new ideas and trends. The closure of prayer facilities during the coronavirus pandemic has forced most religious institutions around the world to communicate with their followers online, and most of the self-isolated believers have also turned to virtual space in order not to interrupt their religious practices. By itself, virtual religious activity is not a new phenomenon, but in a crisis situation it has become an adequate substitute for real religious activity, making it possible to maintain the epidemiological situation and curb the outflow of the flock, adjusting their religious rituals to the new conditions. On the example of some religious institutions operating on the territory of Russia, it was revealed that during the period of restrictive measures in the country, some forms of religion have undergone significant changes and accelerated digitalization.

The development of modern society is gathering pace. Information and communication technology has been changing the world on an unprecedented scale, turning it into a transparent global village. There are immense changes in behaviour and habits caused by globalisation, rapid access to information and increase in individual knowledge, which is especially noticeable in the developed world. Business entities have long realized that adaptability is the key factor of survival and growth in a changing environment. Religious organizations have also recognized this idea and are beginning to embrace new ways of operation, although rather cautiously. Some of the key requirements for successful adaptation to modern times are the use of information and communication technology as well as the use of marketing activities. Marketing is frequently viewed as nothing more than advertising, whereas it should be noted that its main function is not pushing of products or services, but rather recognizing and meeting consumer needs. The present research has focused on proper interpretation of the marketing philosophy and on seeking the optimum way to apply marketing in religious organisations in the digital age. For this purpose, the appropriate technological platform has been analysed and optimum marketing techniques for religious organisations proposed. It is concluded that the proposed model is universal and thus applicable in religious organisations in Central and Eastern Europe.

Religiously affiliated agencies are organizations founded by a congregation or other religious organization to provide human services. They are characterized by at least one but not necessarily all of the following variables: (1) the mission and values of the organization derive from religious beliefs and practices; (2) the organization identifies with one or more religious congregations or other religious organizations, often expressed in the organization's name and funding streams; (3) the policies reflect the organization's religious mission, such as hiring only persons who are members of a religious group or requiring or inviting staff or clients to participate in religious practices; and (4) the goal of service is that service recipients embrace religious beliefs and values, and program evaluation strategies may measure this outcome. This entry describes resources for understanding religiously affiliated social service agencies, with specific reference to social work in these practice settings.

Reviewed by: Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Traditions in U.S. Catholicism Miguel A. Segovia (bio) Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Traditions in U.S. Catholicism. Edited by Timothy Matovina and Gary Riebe-Estrella. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2002. 189 pp. $19.95. Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Traditions in U.S. Catholicism is an important volume, with essays that consider a range of Mexican American religious practices, written by leading Latina and Latino scholars. Together, the six essays by Timothy Matovina, Karen Mary Davalos, Lara Medina and Gilbert R. Cadena, Luis D. León, Roberto S. Goizueta, and Orlando O. Espín offer a compelling narrative for understanding the individual and collective dimensions of Mexican American spirituality, worship, and identity in the United States. They focus on Mexican American devotions in the Southwest and Midwest, and provide an excellent exposition of the social, political, cultural, and religious scope of several communities' pursuit of social justice in various sectors of life, especially as they are informed by Catholicism. The authors narrate and recount various forms of religious expression in different contexts, the multiple ways and the various levels through which persons give meaning to religious events and practices that not only express their beliefs, history, and culture, but also, in other salient respects, their various ethno-racial identities and gender dynamics. Each of the authors considers practices within a specific community of worship, and locates these customs within the parameters and systems of belief, healing, and understanding that are particular to a given group's practice. While all of the studies engage different forms of Mexican American religious traditions, there is a particular focus on healing and devotion as kinds of activism in the United States. The space of the Church and the public sphere are thus construed as places where oppressed communities can develop bonds that allow them to express their spirituality, faith, and politics. By exploring several forms of religious devotion, the authors attempt to capture the complexity of Mexican American history, culture, and identity in this country. In light of their different methodologies, the authors share several characteristics: [End Page 250] they investigate religious traditions as practical forms of survival through religious organizations and groups; they look at private and public rituals as forms of community activism; and they probe various practices such as Guadalupan devotion, Day of the Dead celebrations, and the performances of the Way of the Cross, as powerful aspects of "resistance" to oppressions such as racism and individual and collective manifestations of discrimination, social inequality, and poverty. But more specifically, they illustrate how worship among Mexican Americans works not simply as "performance" of past occurrences and sacred events, but as lived cultural and political expressions that bear sacred significance for these communities in the present. A key dimension of these religious practices is that through participation in private and public forms of worship, marginalized Mexican American individuals and communities can affirm their sacred traditions, their faith, their multifaceted beliefs and forms of ritual and history, and their national and cultural pride. All of the authors chronicle and give voice to the manifold ways that Mexican, Chicana and Chicano lives are conditioned, but not altogether effaced by the complex social, cultural, racial, and political landscape of Mexico and the United States. The space of the local neighborhood parish, the authors argue, like the space of the local neighborhood botanica with its Catholic healer and psychic, allow recent immigrants and residents alike the opportunity to bond as a community, to express their ethnic solidarity, resistance to racism, patriotism, cultural pride, and spirituality. For instance, Matovina demonstrates how racism and discrimination drove Mexicans to a predominantly Mexican American parish in San Antonio, Texas during the early decades of the twentieth century. "Parishioners," he says, "exerted their strongest leadership and influence at San Fernando through the numerous pious societies that they established and developed," allowing men and women to work in solidarity, and to become leaders at a time when they could not do so in the wider segregated landscape or when women, for example, were not only oppressed in the public sphere, but were confined by strict gender roles in the home (28, 31...

This paper explores the relationship between religious practice and the cultural marginality of Islam in the West. Its focus is the religious organization and practice of Muslim immigrant communities in Australia. It interprets immigrant religious culture as a dimension of the process of incorporation of migrants in class cultures. Its theoretical approach derives from Bourdieu's analysis of the social world as both a symbolic system and system of power relations. It argues that the process of incorporation of immigrants structures the reconstitution of religious culture in migration selectively, creating a distinctive Islamic culture linked to new social movements in the Islamic world.

Since the 1970s, religious charities in Chinese communities have gradually become public and rational, transforming from previously raising donations for the temples or disaster relief. Even in mainland China, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam all began to enter the secular society after the 1980s and gradually merged into local public life by providing public welfare. Little attention has been paid to Baha’i, which originated in Iran in the middle of the 19th century and has become one of the most rapidly expanding new religions in the world. Based upon the ethnography of a Baha’i group in Macau, we first introduce the development of Baha’i, its activities and its charity services. In considering this example, we engage with the following questions. As a new world religion, why would Baha’i carry out these charity events? How did it begin its charity activities in Macau? How do charity activities convey its religious philosophy and religious practice? How should we interpret these religious charity practices? This exploratory research on a religious group in Macau revealed that the modern religion derives publicity and rationalization from its strong driving force for secularization, that the believers are also increasingly emphasizing their social and cultural citizenship, and that the religious organization is also gradually transforming into a networked faith-based community.