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.