Short Abstract

In this roundtable, scholars working on major research projects about digital religion and/or the changing role of religions during the COVID-19 pandemic will share key insights and findings about how religious groups and actors are negotiating digital technologies in different national contexts.

Long Abstract

In this roundtable, scholars working on major research projects about digital religion and/or the changing role of religions during the COVID-19 pandemic will share key insights and findings about how religious groups and actors are negotiating digital technologies in different national contexts. The projects are: The Changing Role of Religion in Societies Emerging from COVID-19 (Trans-Atlantic Platform) with projects in Canada, Poland, Germany and Ireland/Northern Ireland; Religious Communities in the Virtual Age (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe) in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the UK; Digital Islam across Europe (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe) in the UK, Sweden, Spain, Poland and Lithuania; Churches Online in Times of Corona (CONTOC) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; and Religious and Secular Narratives of the Body, the Virus, and the State in the Covid-19 Crisis (Covid-19 in Society) in Switzerland. Themes for discussion will include how religious actors discursively framed the use of digital technologies; positive, negative, and ambivalent attitudes towards digital technologies; the blending of virtual and in-person religious practices; and how digital technologies affected religious practices, rituals, authority, and community; and how religious and secular actors narratively framed the Covid-19-crisis by using digital social media. Participants will identify new and emerging findings from these ongoing projects, ensuring a lively conversation comparing digital innovations across Europe and beyond.