Transformations of Eastern Orthodox Religious Discourse in Digital Society

Yana A Volkova

doi:10.3390/rel12020143

Abstract

Digital technologies have exerted a profound influence on every aspect of human life including religion. Religious discourse, like no other type of social-communicative interaction, responds to the slightest shifts in the concepts of life, identity, time, and space caused by digitalization. The purpose of this study was to reveal the digitalization-associated transformations that have taken place in the eastern orthodox religious discourse over more than quarter of a century. This discussion focuses on the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church towards digital technologies as reflected in the interviews of its official spokespeople. On the basis of extensive empirical material, it is shown that two major factors determine new tendencies in eastern orthodox religious discourse: the necessity to adapt to modern digital environment and benefit from organizing the internet space in order to influence large numbers of “digitally educated” non-religious people, and, at the same time, a distrust of these new digital technologies. The study is based on the theory of discourse, with discourse analysis being the main research method along with the descriptive analytical method. The article also analyzed the changes in traditional genres of eastern orthodox religious discourse (the sermon), as well as the rapid development of new religious discourse genres (the commented liturgy and call-in show) and para-religious discourse genres. It is concluded that with the help of digital technologies, religious discourse penetrates into everyday life of people, regardless of their social status and religious affiliation, eliminating the borderline between the church and society in modern Russia.

Highlights

Among the works that focus on linguistic aspects of religious discourse are Karasik (1999, 2004), who proposed the general theory of religious discourse; Rastorgueva (2005); Zvezdin (2012), who analyzed the sermon as a genre of religious discourse in Russian Orthodoxy; Golberg (2002), who studied the moral concepts of the religious-preaching style in the modern Russian literary language; Kaznina (2004), who described the concept of faith in modern religious discourse; Mechkovskaya (1998), who examined the genres of religious discourse and described the communicative features of mythological and religious practices, exploring the relationship between religion and language and their mutual influence on each other; and many others
The transformations that have taken and are taking place in eastern orthodox religious discourse in the digital epoch stem from two main factors: the necessity to adapt to modern digital environment and benefit from organizing the internet space in order to influence large numbers of “digitally educated” non-religious people, and, at the same time, a distrust of these new digital technologies
Russia needs to unite its people, and the Russian Orthodox Church strives to fulfill this function while resisting any dramatic digital transformation

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Digital technologies have a profound influence on every aspect of human life, and religion is no exception, since digital means have transformed the concepts of life, identity, time, and space. The attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church towards new digital technologies was clearly indicated in 2003, in an interview) with Archpriest Vsevolod. The Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow. Patriarchate, in which he expressed the hope that the Internet would become a means of demonopolizing a large information space

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