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- Convenor:
-
Igor Mikeshin
(University of Helsinki)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Igor Mikeshin
(University of Helsinki)
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Beta room
- Sessions:
- Monday 4 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Vilnius
Short Abstract:
The panel invites papers on the use of technology during the pandemic by religious communities. How have technologies facilitated spiritual practices? How have believers made sense of technology in worship? What technologies adopted during the pandemic (will) remain being used in the "new normal"?
Long Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected lives of all people everywhere and across all social groups. Religious communities have reacted to the pandemic differently. The most fundamentalist groups have seen the pandemic as a great satanic conspiracy and resisted state-imposed measures and restrictions. Many congregations of historical churches — Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox — have had heated debates over the possibility and legitimacy of certain sacraments postponed or performed with restrictions. The most discussed issue among these has been Holy Communion, which has always been partaken of by believers in person and often using the same spoon or, in Protestant communities, the same cup. Various Protestant communities have contested similar issues, yet many adapted to the circumstances smoothly and even found good aspects in the improvement of online ministries and communication.
The panel invites papers dealing with the use of technology during the pandemic by religious communities worldwide. How have technologies facilitated the essential spiritual practices, such as church services, holy sacraments, preaching, missionary activities, and evangelism? How have believers made sense and reflected upon the use of technology in worship? What aspects of technology adopted during the pandemic (will) remain being used in the congregations' "new normal"? Any approaches based on empirical data are welcome.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Monday 4 September, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
I analyze how the extended use of online technologies by Russian Baptists during the pandemic contributed to the construction of the narrative I call eschatological tranquility—an easy adaptation to the unprecedented circumstances of the global crisis based on the literal reading of the Bible.
Paper long abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic affected all parts of Russian society, including religious groups. The Church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (ECB) also faced lockdowns, closures of houses of prayer, and the transfer of Sunday services (and most other ministries) online.
Church members reacted to the pandemic and to the challenges it brought about differently. However, most believers recognized the reality of the virus, its threat to health and life, and the necessity of taking measures, although different views on particular restrictions and regulations remain even now.
Believers promptly adapted to the new circumstances of full or partial restrictions on their church life. They did not just expand their already active use of online technologies, but found new advantages and opportunities in it, such as protection of the elderly, more evangelical outreach, and permanent availability of fellowship. Moreover, their active use of technology contributed to their eschatological tranquility—the relatively easy adaptation, emotionally and practically, to the unprecedented situation of the global crisis.
In my paper, I discuss how the ECB literalist reading of the Bible helps construct the narrative of eschatological tranquility and how the use of online technologies helps legitimize it. My paper is focused on believers' reflections on the pandemic and its consequences in the framework of their everyday practical theologies. During my last fieldtrip, in July 2021, I was asking whether they considered the pandemic a sign of the end times and if it would cause significant changes in evangelizing and missionary work.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the strategies through which Christian churches in New Delhi have sought to sustain fellowship and worship during and in the aftermath of the global Covid-19 pandemic and the experiences of their congregants who have meanwhile strived to maintain a life of Christian devotion.
Paper long abstract:
As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded over the past few years, religious institutions quickly discovered new and alternative ways of maintaining fellowship and worship online amidst lockdown and mobility restrictions. Churches not only followed each other in establishing and maintaining an online presence by opening YouTube channels and livestreaming their services, but they also had to modify the ways in which they engaged with their congregants, old and new. In an arguably unprecedented way, this afforded Christian believers multiple choices when it comes to fellowship and worship – they could choose to ‘attend’, in live or recorded formats, Sunday services, prayer meetings, special events and celebrations etc. organised online by different churches, and this put churches more pronouncedly than ever on the so-called market of salvation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in New Delhi (India), this paper explores how Christians belonging to the Naga and Mizo ethnic communities (the highest density Christian populations in India) have dealt with this apparent religious choice at the height of the pandemic and thereafter. What are believers’ experiences of online fellowship? Which church services do they choose to attend and why? What strategies do churches employ to maintain and expand their congregations, both online and offline? Why do some churches continue to livestream their services while resuming in-person fellowship? And what can we learn from all this about the changing nature of contemporary Christianity – and has it changed forever? The paper explores these and related questions as it seeks to understand this contemporary religious dynamic in urban India and the shifting experiences of what it means to be Christian in our increasingly complex world.
Paper short abstract:
Before the pandemic, Polish Muslim Tatars were not very active on the Internet. The pandemic forced Tatars to increase their religious online activity. They set up a YouTube channel with sermons by imams of foreign background. The paper will analyse whether these sermons are of interest to Muslims.
Paper long abstract:
Polish Muslim Tatars are a traditional religious minority in Poland. They have lived on the territory of present-day Poland since the 17th century and function within the officially recognised religious organisation, the Muslim Religious Union in the Republic of Poland (est. 1925; Muzułmański Związek Religijny w RP - MZR).
Before the pandemic, this organisation was not very active on the Internet. Mainly their online religious activity was manifested on the World Wide Web - e.g. publishing magazines, news and announcements of events.
Immigrant and convert Muslims had then already YouTube channels or Facebook profiles. They were publishing blogs, sermons and prayers.
The pandemic forced Tatars to increase their religious online activity. Most noticeably, they set up a YouTube channel where they publish sermons by imams from mosques in Podlachia, their traditional areas of settlement.
However, these imams are not Polish Tatars; their knowledge of the Polish language is rather poor. Nor have they been democratically elected as imams by the local communities, as is the case in the statute of the MZR and the Act of parliament of 1936 that regulates the functioning of this organisation - they were appointed by the Mufti.
The paper will analyse the thematic content of the sermons of these imams on YouTube, describe the level of the Polish language in which they are presented and show whether these sermons are of interest to Tatar Muslims and whether these imams are treated as religious authorities.