How the iPhone Became Divine: New Media, Religion and the Intertextual Circulation of Meaning (original) (raw)
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Religious Use of Mobile Phones
Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition, 2018
This article is divided into three sections. First, a brief background on studies of mobile technology and digital religion provides necessary context for understanding the history and trajectory of religion and mobile studies. Next, three key areas of religion and mobile media research are explicated: how religious individuals and communities negotiate mobile media use, the ways in which religious mobile apps are being designed and used for religious practice, and the commodification of religion through mobile media. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of emerging trends within mobile media and religion, which suggests future research opportunities.
communication +1 Issue 2 Intersectionalities and Media Archaeologies, 2019
Responding to the unannounced spiritual mysticism surrounding contemporary technologies, a religiosity present in the prayer-like devotion of social media piety to the cultish intensity surrounding each iPhone launch, this paper aims to dispel presumptions of the spiritual in opposition to the technological by surveying a range of media devices specifically developed for religious purposes. More than connecting scholarship in technology, media and religion, this survey recommends a new arc in the cultural examination of technology. As curious media artefacts, religious devices are independently worthy of study but they also offer a material past to the so-called "religion of Silicon Valley" as well as providing insight to the rituals, superstitions and beliefs of technology users. While recent shifts in religious studies have propelled the field toward computer-mediated communication, this study moves beyond sociological and anthropological concerns to examine the hardware and software of spiritual technologies, thereby connecting the media turn in religious studies with the material turn in media studies. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Media Theology: New Communication Technologies as religious constructs, metaphors and experiences
Recent studies have seen religious observance as inherently related to available communication technologies. This study follows this thrust but complements the focus on religious praxis with a look at media theology-the ideological dimension of the religion and media nexus. It traces three distinct facets of media theology: the way religious sensibilities affect how we create, shape, apply, and establish a relationship with media technologies; how media technologies serve as tools for grasping aspects of theology; and finally, how media use can launch mental and existential religious experiences. The study's orientation is historical, charting the development of the relationship between media technologies and the religious mind in the Abrahamic religions from the biblical media of fire and cloud through script and electric communications and all the way to the Internet.
Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps
Anthropological Perspectives on the Religious Uses of Mobile Apps, 2019
This edited volume deploys digital ethnography in varied contexts to explore the cultural roles of mobile apps that focus on religious practice and communities, as well as those used for religious purposes (whether or not they were originally developed for that purpose). Combining analyses of local contexts with insights and methods from the global subfield of digital anthropology, the contributors here recognize the complex ways that in-app and on-ground worlds interact in a wide range of communities and traditions. While some of the case studies emphasize the cultural significance of use in local contexts and relationships to pre-existing knowledge networks and/or non-digital relationships of power, others explore the globalizing and democratizing influences of mobile apps as communication technologies. From Catholic confession apps to Jewish Kaddish assistance apps and Muslim halal food apps, readers will see how religious-themed mobile apps create complex sites for potential new forms of religious expression, worship, discussion, and practices. To purchase the book online see: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030263751
Click to Share? Smartphones, Incarnation, and Christian Virtue
When we imagine the earliest tools used by humankind, we are likely to think of fire, sharpened rocks, and stones or sticks used for hunting. These objects extended the physical power of the human body to literally manipulate the material world to submit to the needs and desires of the tool-user. As complex and often totally immaterial as our tools have become, the outcome of using them remains fundamentally the same -in the caveman-like words of a current ad for food-delivery app Grubhub, "click. click. food." Click, click, report sent. Click, click, mood music. Click, click, social validation.
The Aesthetic turn: Exploring the religious dimensions of digital technology
Exploring the religious dimensions of digital technology T he arena for developing digital technology has undergone an aesthetic turn, broadening the focus from a functionalist approach producing centralized systems in the 1970s and 1980s to an increased awareness of the aesthetic aspects of the indi vidual user's interaction with technology in the 1990s and 2000s. Within the academic research fields studying digital technology (e.g. Human-Computer Inter action and Interaction Design) the aesthetic turn has resulted in a shift from a strong emphasis on user behaviour to an increased interest in aesthetic perspectives on the role of the designer, the design process, and the design material. Within these fields, aesthetics has often been interpreted as belonging to the realm of the individual; personal experiences such as pleasure, engagement, and emotions have been emphasized in both technology development and technology research. Aesthetics is not, however, only an individual phenomenon but also has relational and structural components that need to be acknowledged. Structural aspects of aesthetics condition the possibilities for individuals inter acting with digital technology. Thus, the tension between individual and relational aspects of aesthetics in digital technology also reflects a tension between freedom and limit ation; between change and permanence; between destabil izing and stabilizing forces.
There's a religious app for that! A framework for studying religious mobile applications
This article provides a new methodological approach to studying religious-oriented mobile applications available on the iTunes app store. Through an extensive review of 451 religious apps a number of problems were noted when relying solely on iTunes categories to identify app functions and purpose. Thus further analysis was done in order to present a new typology and framing of religious apps, which more accurately describe their design. We suggest that the 11 new categories offered here suggest a critical framework for studying religious apps. Thus this study provides a starting point for scholars interested in analyzing religious mobile applications to investigate how app developers integrate religious goals into their designs, and consider the primary ways people are expected to practice religion through mobile apps.
Design and the digital Bible: Persuasive technology and religious reading
Journal of Contemporary Religion, 2017
This article analyses two ‘digital Bibles’, products that allow the user to engage with the Bible through the screen and speakers of his/her mobile phone, tablet or computer. Both products, ‘YouVersion’ and ‘GloBible’, have been created by Evangelical Christian companies. I argue that both are designed to train the user in traditional Evangelical Christian understandings of the work of reading. Digital media offer new opportunities to guide and influence the user, and this article applies the concepts of ‘persuasive technologies’ and ‘procedural rhetoric’ to analyse the design intentions of the two digital Bibles. This approach helps us to appreciate the significance of the material form of a sacred text as a vehicle for religious socialisation and raises important questions about the potential for digital media to re-shape traditional relationships of power in Evangelical Christian communities.