Digital media and the frontiers of the religious

During the week we dedicated ourselves to writing the introduction to the dossier “Digital Media and the Frontiers of the Religious,” Mark Zuckerberg announced that his organization, Meta, would cease its fact-checking efforts in the United States and adopt a “community checking” model, similar to the one used by the platform X (formerly Twitter), owned by Elon Musk. Meta is a technology and social media company responsible for platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg's alignment with Elon Musk's efforts against any form of regulation of digital platforms became public during the same week that Donald Trump was about to begin his second term as President of the United States. He was, once again, elected by vocalizing and mobilizing a field of political articulation radically anchored in the defense of freedom of expression and the dissemination of all kinds of information, with no public commitment to verifying its truthfulness. Zuckerberg posted a video on his social media channels explaining his decision, in which he stated: “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.” Meta's stance in the United States directly criticizes the efforts made and encouraged in recent years by countries in Latin America, such as Brazil, as well as by several European nations, which aim to regulate and combat fake news and hate speech.

But what does this scenario have to do with a dossier on religion and digital media? The debates surrounding the tensions in the public sphere described in the previous paragraphs are also present in the core issues analyzed in the articles that make up this dossier. We are talking about the intense clashes over truth regimes, the production of authority, new institutional frameworks, regulatory strategies, and the relationship between state and market, among others. Beyond the convergence of these agendas, when we intersect these themes with analyses of the religious, other issues emerge, further complicating the dilemmas already outlined.

Perhaps, in a few years, the names of the companies, platforms, and individuals involved in the conflicts mentioned above will become mere notes from a distant past: we know that the temporality of the digital quickly creates ruins and leaves traces. However, we have also come to understand that analyses of the digital are not merely reflective exercises on apps, platforms, and social networks. Instead, they focus on social processes and relationships, conflicts, forms of governance, and practices of power that occur within and emerge from these digital environments. The aim of this dossier is to address these issues in their relationship with the study of religion and to explore the effects of this intricate frontier on urgent public debates.

Religion and Digital Media: Imaginaries of Utopian and Dystopian Futures

Public debates about the truthfulness of information on digital platforms today are directly connected to concerns about the dangers of mass control and the manipulation of specific social groups-a danger often linked to elections and political campaigns in various countries worldwide. In these discussions, concerns about media and religious manipulation are frequently placed in the realm of what facilitates deception.

Far from downplaying the concerns occupying the public sphere, our aim is to enrich the debate about the conceptions of religion that are being mobilized in this context, particularly regarding their relationship with ideas of alienation and mental manipulation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Machado (2020) critically reflected on this topic by analyzing how certain combinations of ideas are perceived as dangerously contagious and viral-especially religious ideas disseminated on a large media scale:

Religious media is often perceived as a powerful element of control: media facilitates the global presence of messages and carries a seductive quality by mobilizing meanings, sensory experiences, and aesthetics aimed at capturing minds and hearts. If media alone is already conceived as a threat to “individual consciousness,” the intersection of religion and media amplifies the perceived danger of alienation and mental control even further. (Machado, 2020, p. 6)

From this perspective, the media dimension of a religious project can delegitimize the initiative, forming an equation where the more media involved, the more deceptive and dangerous the religious practice is perceived to be. This dynamic reignites, in different terms, longstanding issues surrounding charlatanism and the regulation of religion. (Giumbelli, 1997).

For over two decades, a robust field of study on religion and media has addressed this relationship from a different perspective, emphasizing the centrality of mediation processes in all religious practices and broadening the concept of media to enhance research on this connection. While it is not necessary to revisit the review of this field-already explored in various works (Stolow, 2014; Engelke, 2010; Machado & Sant’Ana, 2023)-it is important, given this context, to highlight the specific contributions of the articles developed for this dossier, focusing on two main points.

The first point concerns the fact that the texts presented here provide critical analyses of the relationship between religion and media without reducing this combination to a mere denunciation of the dangers posed by religious projects and their leaders or to the supposed fragility and susceptibility to deception of the individuals participating in these actions. As we will further explore in this introduction, each study published here was developed using theoretical and methodological foundations that resulted in comprehensive and critical analyses of ongoing processes and the complexity of the relationships articulated within each of the fields discussed.

The second aspect we wish to highlight concerns the specificities of the digital in this field of issues related to religion and media. To what extent can research on religion and digital media be situated as a continuation of studies on religion and media? And what substantial ruptures do they imply in terms of forming new analytical networks that address their specificities? Can digital anthropology be considered a subfield within media anthropology, or do its issues belong to a different domain? Does thinking about the digital pertain only to those who identify as researchers of religion and media, or does it encompass all those interested in reflecting on religion in the present day?

As a reflective exercise on this issue, let us return to the theme of mental manipulation. The idea of manipulation has a direct affinity with a certain conception of media as mass communication enterprises that produce content for a broad collective. At the heart of this conception there is a project of broadcasting and manipulating information executed by large communication companies (agencies).

Digital media ventures radically alter the model of this project. Large companies, such as Meta, mentioned at the beginning of this text, invite users to produce their own content and advocate for (supposed) individual freedom of expression. The slogan Broadcast Yourself, used for many years by the YouTube platform, and the reference to user profiles as “Channels” represent the communicational principle of this platform: allowing anyone to operate a personal broadcasting station.

If we revisit the debate from the early 2000s, driven by the turbulent turn of the millennium and its technological advancements, we can identify two contrasting imaginaries about the future of what was then called “cyberculture.” On one hand, the explosion of the prevailing communication model pointed to a glorious and utopian future, driven by the mobilization of “collective intelligence.” In the book Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace (2003), Pierre Lévy presents his theoretical and philosophical vision of how the interconnection provided by cyberspace transforms the way society organizes and shares knowledge. As his central argument, he proposes the concept of collective intelligence, defined as the capacity of human groups to combine their knowledge, skills, and experiences to solve problems and create new possibilities. Lévy argues that the internet and digital technologies enhance this capacity, fostering a new type of social and cultural relationship based on global-scale collaboration. From his perspective, collective intelligence can promote greater equality in access to knowledge, provided that individuals' digital inclusion is ensured and the ethical use of technologies is upheld.

On the other hand, various dystopian scenarios were also formulated. In The Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen (2009) offers a critical analysis of the impact of the internet and digital platforms on culture, journalism, and creative industries. Keen argues that, although the internet had the potential to expand access to information, the excessive valorization of user-generated content would compromise the quality, reliability, and sustainability of culture and knowledge. His concerns revolved around the following themes: misinformation; the decline of professionalization; the illusion of democratizing knowledge; the benefits reaped by large corporations; and ethical issues related to the loss of privacy and the spread of hate.

Our aim in this brief journey through time is to highlight that many of the critical themes considered ultra-current in discussions about the digital have been permeating the concerns of researchers in this field for over 20 years. For this reason, with each new phase of this game, it becomes essential to refine the critical points that define each era. One such point, crucial to the debates in this dossier, is the pervasive dimension of the digital in everyday life today. As formulated by Lins et al. (2020, p. 4):

With the consolidation of wireless internet and the popularization of smartphones (see Lins, 2019), we no longer “enter the internet” but live immersed in it-or, at the very least, have our daily lives intersected by digitalization, which affects even those without domestic access. Today, institutional and personal documents are digitized, services of various kinds-both private and public-are accessible online and require internet access via login (using personal passwords); professional activities across diverse fields, as well as educational activities, assume at least a minimal engagement with digital technologies and online communication. Thus, the prescriptive dimension of technology becomes evident in the fact that, as individuals, we no longer have the option to reject the digital in its broadest sense.

As highlighted by the authors in the introduction to the dossier “Estratégias para se pensar o digital” (“Strategies for Thinking the Digital”), published in the journal Cadernos de Campo in 2020, the spread of digitalization in everyday life, intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, has expanded interest in issues previously confined to scholars of media and the internet, now engaging researchers from a wide variety of fields. According to Lins et al. (2020, p. 5), “in fact, the pandemic merely accentuated a movement of expansion and diversification of digital studies that had already been observed for some time.”

Frontiers Between the Religious, the Technological, and the Digital

The efforts undertaken in this publication highlight the interest of researchers in the field of religious studies in engaging with theoretical and methodological questions emerging from research on digital media. This statement might give the impression that these domains have only recently come into contact. However, contrary to the entrenched premises of modernity projects, religion and technology have a far more complex relationship than this perspective suggests. Moreover, many of these connections have their origins in the technical-scientific field.

To understand how this technoreligious imaginary was present in the early formulations about the digital, we revisit, once again, some works from the early 2000s. Margareth Wertheim (2001), in one of her books on the cultural history of science, gathered testimonies from a variety of scientists working on the development of technologies for what was then called cyberspace. She paid close attention to the religious formulations that shaped their understandings, imaginations, and expectations about the future of the digital. Michael Benedikt, a professor at the Harvard University School of Design, for instance, in a scientific journal edited by him-Cyberspace: First Steps-stated that

The impulse toward the Holy City persists. It should be respected; in fact, it can flourish-in cyberspace [...]. If it were possible, we would wander the Earth without ever leaving home; we would enjoy triumphs without risks and eat from the Tree without being punished, we would live with angels every day, enter heaven now, and never die. (Wertheim, 2001, p. 15)

Kevin Kelly, executive director of Wired-a U.S. publication dedicated to science and technology topics-pointed out: “You might be surprised at the amount of soul-data that we'll have in this new space.” From the perspective of virtual reality researcher at the Human Interface Technology Lab at the University of Washington, Nicole Stenger: “On the other side of our data gloves we become creatures of colored light in motion, pulsing with golden particles... We will all become angels, and for eternity!... Cyberspace will feel like Paradise”. (Wertheim, 2001, p. 15)

The dream of transcendence that, according to Wertheim (2001), populated cyberspace, also encompassed the theme of immortality. At this subtle boundary between technology and religion, several authors in the scientific field took on the role of prophetic announcers, dreaming of the day when we would be able, through a download, to transfer ourselves to computers. Stenger imagined that in cyberspace it would be possible to create virtual doppelgängers (doubles) who would remain young and magnificent forever. According to her, the “eternal present [of cyberspace] will be seen as the Fountain of Youth, where you bathe and refresh yourself to emerge as a shimmering youth.” As we “resurge” in cyberspace, Stenger suggests, we will acquire the “habit of perfection”. (Wertheim, 2001, p. 189)

The cyberspace theorists of the early 2000s became prophets of an eternity achievable through scientific and technological evolution. The hope of immortality resurfaced as a renewal of an evolutionary order of the universe, the principles of which are found in ancient religiously rooted utopias. According to Dovey (1996), one of the rhetorical characteristics of popular texts on new media is the profusion of terms and assertions that aim to transcend, rather than define. The author states that the seemingly exponential levels of technological development make it difficult to establish any precise definition of what is happening (Dovey, 1996, p. xiii). The problem, he says, is knowing where to stop, how to draw the lines that can provide us with references to analyze this process. The author then asks: “Are we simply experiencing a new dose of the dizzying effects of progress that characterized modernism, or is this something completely different?”

Critically following these religious imaginaries that populated the technical-scientific field, important works in the field of religious studies have focused on analyzing this version, updated by digital issues, of the relationship between religion and technology. It is worth emphasizing here, with the intention of providing some additional elements for the broader debate, that the relationship between religion and the digital shows significant continuity with a more general, historically relevant relationship between religion and technology.

The anthology organized by Jeremy Stolow (2012), Deus in Machina: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between, addresses this field of study from an interdisciplinary perspective. It brings together works from anthropology and the history of religion, media studies, and science and technology studies. The discussions gathered in this book cover different religious traditions in various regions of the world. They contemplate a variety of technologies and technological procedures, such as clocks and other time-measuring devices, cables, belts, and talismans with magical powers, kidney dialysis machines, and online-mediated commercial transactions. This work edited by Stolow, as well as his research on the telegraph (Stolow, 2009) and techniques for capturing the aura (Stolow, 2025), are contributions to the necessary effort of thinking about the ruptures, but also the continuities, that permeate the relationship between religion and technology in light of technological innovations.

Returning to the debates within the field of religious studies interested in engaging with digital issues at the beginning of this century, we highlight the publication organized by Stef Aupers and Dick Houtman (2010), Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital. In addition to discussions on the interplay between computational technology, imaginaries of spiritual salvation, technological animism, and magic, this work gives special attention to research on New Age Movements and their affinity with matters related to the digital imaginary.

Another strand of these studies focused on the relationship between religion and the imaginaries of science fiction and pop culture, where the digital appeared in its exaggerated form through fiction. An example of this thematic exploration is the Handbook of Hyper-real Religions, edited by Adam Possamai (2012). Hyper-real religions, as provocatively defined in the collection, are innovative religions and spiritualities that blend elements of religious traditions with popular culture. Among the works discussed in the book are studies on groups practicing Jediism, inspired by the Star Wars films; Matrixism, inspired by the Matrix trilogy; and neopagan rituals based on stories from The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. On the other end of the spectrum, members of traditional religions, such as Christianity, may be influenced or inspired, for instance, by The Da Vinci Code. By gathering various case studies, the book analyzes the religious consumption of these narratives in dynamics of co-presence, both online and offline, using a social sciences approach.

In research that connects religion and digital technologies in the 2020s, some questions concerning the relationship between the religious and the digital have been updated, while others have reorganized in new directions. Beth Singler's text (2020), “‘Blessed by the algorithm’: Theistic conceptions of artificial intelligence in online discourse”, published in Portuguese in the journal Debates do NER in 2023, seeks to explore the intersections between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and religion. It establishes a certain resonance with previously discussed issues regarding the convergence of technological and religious imaginaries.

However, the articles in this dossier point in another direction, more closely related to everyday experiences where religion and digital media intersect. The pioneering works of Birgit Meyer on religion, modernity, technology, and media (Meyer & Pels, 2003; Meyer, 2006, 2009) already urged researchers in religious studies to resist the allure of technological innovations and to approach them critically and consistently, paying attention to the power dynamics embedded in these relationships. This approach calls for a direct engagement with our specific questions about the religious and the transformations relevant to people's lives. According to Machado (2015, p. 140),

Instead of interpreting the sometimes spectacular appropriations of new media by religious groups as an entirely new phenomenon, the question raised by Meyer is how a new medium interacts with older media that have long been part of religious practices. This understanding, the author asserts, shifts the investigation from the narrow and limited field of binary oppositions, in which religion is presented as the Other of modernity and technology, whose eventual disappearance is presumed (2006). The rearticulation of religion in contemporary times, the author discusses, necessarily involves a kind of transformation, which brings about changes in relation to the state and the market, as well as in the form of the religious message, in structures of authority, and in the modes and dispositions of connection and belonging to religious communities. One of the reasons religion continues to be a vital and appealing force, Meyer argues, lies precisely in its propensity for transformation, incorporating new media and addressing and connecting people in new ways.

Studies on religion, media, and technology from the early part of this period, predominantly published in English, consisted of works by researchers from different countries who, over the years, connected through various networks and research projects (see Engelke, 2010; Stolow, 2014; Machado, 2023). After this important discussion on works developed mostly in countries of the Global North, it is also relevant to highlight and qualify the contributions to this field of study based on research conducted in Latin America and Brazil.

As is well known, the geopolitics of knowledge production concentrates debates and publications in regions where resources for such endeavors are readily available. In the classic South-North circuit, as part of the body of publications mentioned earlier, edited by Stef Aupers and Dick Houtman (2010) and Adam Possamai (2012), there are two articles by Machado (2010, 2012). These articles are based on her doctoral dissertation, defended in 2006 under the supervision of Patrícia Birman at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and Birgit Meyer at the University of Amsterdam.

Machado's dissertation (2006) explores the techno-religious imaginary of the Raelian Movement, which is infused with visions of extraterrestrials, scientific innovations, biotechnologies, digital transformations of everyday life, and futuristic imaginaries broadly expanded by the potentialities of scientific and digital revolutions. Beyond the mere use of technology and the digital, the study examines, within the framework of this new religious movement, the shaping of modes of subjectivation and worldviews understood as codifiable, programmable, and remodelable, both in their biochemical aspects-such as human cloning-and in digital and informational transmutations. These are envisioned as potentially capable of promoting a model of eternal, extracorporeal, and digital life.¹

In more recent reflections on the field of Religion and Media studies, Machado and Sant’Ana (2023) highlighted the particularities of significant academic contributions, with a more assertive focus on “perspectives from the Global South and Brazil.” They sought to emphasize pioneering works on religion and media in Brazil between 2000 and 2010, such as those by Magali Cunha, Patricia Birman, and Maria das Dores Machado (as cited in Machado & Sant’Ana, 2023, pp. 298-305). Among these initiatives, we also recall the “Religião e Mídia” (“Religion and Media”) dossier, edited in 2014 in this journal. It included articles committed to analyzing media and sonic, visual, and digital mediations, examined in close relation to the everyday lives of individuals, intersected by issues related to work, suffering, gender, and relations with public space (Machado, 2014).

Ten years later, the dossier “Digital Media and the Frontiers of the Religious” engages with a different context, more directly related to the issues highlighted by Lins et al. (2020), previously mentioned, regarding the digitalization of everyday life and its intensification during the pandemic. The impact of this process on religious practices was noticeably significant, and since then, research in this field has been striving to develop theoretical and methodological approaches to address this reality. The text by Bottino et al. (2020), titled “Experimentos etnográficos em redes e varandas: a religião em tempos de pandemia” (“Etnographic Experiments on Networks and Balconies: Religion in Times of Pandemic”), serves as a valuable record of the commitment and, at the same time, the challenge of continuing religious studies during that period. It focuses particularly on “lived religion” (Orsi as cited in Bottino et al., 2020) during quarantine and on the mobilization of social actors through religion in their daily lives. According to the authors,

By following the shifts that emerged within the groups we were already researching, the multiplication of religious references in our communication led us to recognize that their religious experiences were simultaneously being influenced and stimulated by the pandemic. This is what we aim to discuss here, albeit in a preliminary manner. The data we present was collected in two ways, corresponding to the sections into which we organized the article: through the Internet, via WhatsApp and Facebook, and through the windows and balconies of the condominium where Bottino resides and conducts fieldwork. Therefore, as suggested by Miller (2000), these observations represent reconfigurations of ongoing studies prompted by a crisis, resulting in ethnographic experiments surrounding religion in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Bottino et al., 2020, p. 292)

The dossier “Religiões e Pandemia” (“Religions and the Pandemic”), organized by Côrtes and Machado (2021) in Religião & Sociedade, brought together several articles that also sought to explore aspects of the relationship between religion and digital media in the pandemic context. Carini (2021) analyzed new online rituals and the formation of transnational communities within the Buddhist context. Barbosa (2021) discussed how the Brazilian Islamic community reconfigured its devotional practices during the month of Ramadan in 2020. Campos and Silva Neto (2021) reflected on the effects of the transition to digital in conflicts of intolerance, driven by the antagonism between two religious marches held in the city of Pelotas, in Rio Grande do Sul.

By articulating post-pandemic issues with even more pressing dilemmas related to the political dimension of this debate, as indicated at the beginning of this introduction, it becomes increasingly urgent to examine the role of digital media in the formation of religious communities-especially when religious subjects, practices, and arguments are shaped and enabled by processes of conflict and contestation. Here, we draw closer to the questions posed by Hirschkind and Larkin (2008). They emphasize that understanding how religion, media, and politics intersect requires a careful analysis of the forms and processes of circulation that effectively give rise to these spheres. According to these authors, religions are constituted by an architecture of circulation and representation, which, in turn, creates the pragmatic contexts for modes of practice and worship.

In this sense, only through careful attention to the materiality of religious forms-whether based on sound, image, or body-and their circulation as aesthetic and ritual forms can we understand how religion intertwines with politics. Mochel’s doctoral dissertation (2023), defended in the Social Anthropology Graduate Program at the National Museum under the supervision of Maria Elvira Díaz-Benítez, presents an ethnography on the circuits of gender, race, and class that shape evangelical everyday life. It raises questions about the ethical-political projects emerging from the use of digital media. Based on the trajectory of a non-institutionalized ministry that centered its interactions on WhatsApp prayer groups, the study examined how this app has reconfigured evangelical collectivities and pastoral careers within Pentecostalism.²

About the Articles in the Dossier

One of the central questions during the COVID-19 pandemic was how the “new normal”, the “new” daily life, would unfold after that period. This inquiry reflected on what aspects of the intensified digitalization of life would persist and what would be discarded. Perhaps we can say that this dossier, published in 2024, captures a glimpse of this "new normal" within the religious field and, true to the quotation marks, seeks to address the continuities and ruptures that characterize this process. Unlike studies produced during the early years of the pandemic, the research gathered here does not focus on the transitional experiences of adapting religious practices to the digital realm. Instead, it examines cases that illustrate the consolidation of the pervasiveness of digital technologies in institutional, collective, and individual religious projects.

The six articles in this dossier highlight the effects of the ubiquitous presence and pervasive quality of the digital in human relationships and, consequently, in religious practices. Based on well-grounded field research, the authors gathered here emphasize the digital through its everyday uses, as well as the effects generated by these uses in the Christian religious field. Analyses of Catholic and evangelical practices lead us to issues specific to this historical moment, positioning how digital media operate as agents of transformation for new regimes of Christian visibility in the public sphere.

The gender dimensions involved in this visibility gain greater prominence in Raphael Bispo’s article titled “É fã ou hater? Interrupções religiosas e colapsos morais nas redes sociais digitais de artistas evangélicas” (“Are you a fan or a hater? Religious interruptions and moral collapses in the digital social networks of evangelical artists”). Through an analysis of artists who become (or cease to be) evangelical, his focus is not on the more common reinforcement of norms around femininity and marriage, but rather on the rejection these artists display towards virtuous paths. Between the boundaries of the so-called secular and religious, the author relies on ethnographies he has conducted on the topic to capture how moralities and emotions are contested in digital interactions. Inspired by the field of anthropology of ethics and morality, Bispo draws on concepts such as interruptions, moral collapse, discontinuities, and transitions to reflect on two events involving former gospel singer Priscilla Alcântara and model and former member of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Andressa Urach, who entered the sex industry.

Bispo’s analytical focus is on the relationship between the artists and their followers on social media, particularly Instagram. Not by chance, this platform was chosen as a fundamental locus for understanding the singular processes of fame production in the contemporary world, a digital environment that the author highlights as “one of the main communication platforms for artists to engage with their audience.” Thus, it was the gossip surrounding the posts made by these artists that allowed for an understanding of the conflicting, unstable, and ambivalent relationships involved in evangelical reputational trajectories. By emphasizing the relationships the artists develop with their haters-a type of fan that accentuates transgressions and delimits exemplarity-the author shows how the digital world brings forth new agents for the construction of gender and sexuality norms in the evangelical field.

Although the processes involving the digitalization of religious life are also focused on studying a trajectory, they take different methodological paths in the article “Mídia, mercado e ministério: a trajetória recursiva de um aplicativo para igrejas” (“Media, Market, and Ministry: The Recursive Trajectory of an App for Churches”), by Bruno Reinhardt. The conflicts surrounding the everyday use of platforms and the highlighting of religious subjects, addressed in Raphael Bispo's cases, give way to the controversies behind the construction of platforms. Through the trajectory of an app designed for churches, inChurch, Reinhardt describes how the app's expansion occurred through “pivoting”-a term common in business discourse referring to adaptations and changes in course within a project. His analysis contributes to thinking about a model of ministry that, unlike a mere update of “media ministries,” reflects changes stemming from a “deep mediatization,” driven by new relationships between producers and consumers.

In a detailed study on the “elective and growing affinities” between Christianity and capitalism, the author shows how new waves of mediatization provoke reformulations in what we call the human. The author invites us to the epistemological exercise that constitutes anthropological science, i.e., reflecting on how the mediatization of life modifies concepts we use in our analyses of religion. The idea of recursivity, stemming from a mathematical concept used in computer programming, is fundamental to his reflection on the ongoing transformations. This is because, for him, recursivity constructs other worlds. In this sense, the trajectory of the inChurch app revisits the classic relationship between church and world, almost always treated in terms of feedback, to show us how the digital and its markets reinvent religious worlds.

Gender dynamics return to the center of religious reconfigurations through digital media in “Femininas, modestas e antifeministas: o ativismo on-line de mulheres católicas tradicionais” (“Feminine, Modest, and Anti-Feminist: The Online Activism of Traditional Catholic Women”), an article by Jaqueline Sant’ana Martins dos Santos. The research shows how Catholic women, unable to rise institutionally to decision-making positions, have been organizing collective projects that grant them unprecedented protagonism in this context. In her analysis of the conservative activism of women involved in the traditionalist Catholic movement, digital interactions surrounding the practice of “Christian modesty in dress” were identified as promoters of anti-feminist community ties that extend to circuits of co-presence between online and offline, such as the sale of books and the organization of courses and in-person meetings among women.

Far from drawing a simplistic association with the concept of female agency that permeates anthropological studies of religion, the author identifies how Catholic women united by conservative banners constitute themselves as an “organized action seeking to exert political pressure and social transformation,” projecting themselves into the public space in a way similar to progressive initiatives. Santos highlights the importance of strategic movements in this field that approach feminist achievements (such as the valorization of domestic work), while simultaneously rejecting “liberatory” ideals involving bodily autonomy, sexuality, and desire.

Equally attentive to the reconfigurations caused by the digital in the Catholic field, Moisés Sbardelotto, in the article “A missão nos ambientes digitais na perspectiva de uma Igreja sinodal: respostas católicas à ‘Reforma digital’” (“Mission in Digital Environments from the Perspective of a Synodal Church: Catholic Responses to the ‘Digital Reform’”), shows us how new forms of communication have shifted boundaries by renewing more traditional and institutionalized forms of the religious. The author proposes ways to understand how the Catholic Church responds to the transformations prompted by the ubiquity of the digital through the realization of an unprecedented “Digital Synod” via debates that took place in 2021. In his analysis, we learn how this ecclesiastical update initiative involved institutional alliances with ecclesial networks and Catholic digital influencers, effecting restructurings that resulted in documents aimed at fostering more active online participation from the Church.

According to Sbardelotto, this synodal process has produced “new meanings for the very idea of communion, participation, and mission.” Furthermore, it has also reshaped the dynamics of religious authority, which flirt with the danger of institutional ruptures-something we have historically witnessed in the evangelical field. The author highlights attempts by the Church to institutionalize the new “digital missionaries.” Both in Jaqueline dos Santos’s article and in Moisés Sbardelotto’s work, we observe these and other recurring efforts within the Catholic field, aimed at fostering more conservative initiatives compared to the digital engagement in the evangelical field.

This explosive quality, more characteristic of (neo)Pentecostal movements, is emphasized in the articles included in this dossier, particularly in the arguments developed by Leandro de Paula and Adoliran Medrado in the article “‘Sua voz chegará antes do seu corpo’: espaço, tempo e mediação no ministério de um bispo profeta” (“‘Your voice will arrive before your body’: space, time, and mediation in the ministry of a prophet bishop”). Based on an analysis of Bishop Bruno Leonardo’s digital presence, the authors demonstrate how institutional practices and connections in the evangelical field differ from Catholic relations in the digital sphere, where transformations in terms of space are possible but not in terms of time. This is because the Catholic digital field presents significant spatial dissociation of the religious, due to the widespread synchronous broadcasting of masses through live streams, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, evangelical digital practices differ in both spatial and temporal dissociation.

To support this argument, Paula and Medrado cite the doctrines outlined in the guidelines of the Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB) (National Conference of Bishops of Brazil) regarding the use of digital tools in the Catholic Church. These guidelines discourage pre-recorded rituals, arguing that they would not correspond to “effective forms of communion with the ‘Living Church’.” Thus, unlike Catholicism and other “traditions that adopt more formalized practices of prayer,” evangelical mediations allow for temporal discontinuity. This is because they propose that the sacred can be experienced with each replay of a prayer video, regardless of the synchronicity of the encounter. The authors' analysis examined the use of platforms such as Instagram and YouTube by Bishop Bruno Leonardo, a Pentecostal preacher who rose to prominence in Brazil through a digital presence combined with the organization of mega-events in public spaces, particularly in his hometown of Salvador.

The authors highlight the importance of combining media and events in ministries such as that of Bruno Leonardo, emphasizing the potential of digital religious relations to expand classic concepts like charisma, community, and religious authority. Through his strong presence on social media, the bishop’s public image is transformed, shifting from being a “preacher to the masses” to a “pastor who prays for his flock.” Thus, the authors show us that, more than simply connecting, the religious uses of digital media challenge conventions, blur the boundaries of the religious, and profoundly reshape faith practices.

In the article that concludes the dossier, titled “O coaching no universo evangélico brasileiro: um panorama descritivo” (“Coaching in the Brazilian Evangelical Universe: A Descriptive Overview”), Taylor de Aguiar presents a detailed analysis of the relationship between coaching and Christianity. He blends themes that appear in various texts, such as the intersections of religion, digital media, and capitalism, as well as the digital reconfigurations within the realm of religious authorities. The author highlights the contemporary emergence of “Christian coaching” as a practice connected to evangelical references. He emphasizes a native and analytical distinction in which Christianity becomes dissociated from the concept of religion and transforms into a “lifestyle.”

Aguiar places central importance on the network of relationships established by Pablo Marçal with highly influential evangelical figures in the public sphere, revealing a complex panorama of accusations concerning the dangers associated with the intersection of religion and politics. Once again, the digital realm emerges as a fundamental agent, rather than a mere backdrop, in legitimizing the public activities of Christian coaching. Based on an analysis of online schools dedicated to this type of training, Aguiar identifies trends that define this universe. He highlights the importance of understanding the relationships between coaching and Christianity in their complex interplay with entrepreneurship, electoral demands, and the religious market. Far from offering a generalized or simplistic view of these combinations, the article delineates significant differences among coaching “designed for Christians,” coaching “that identifies as Christian,” and “stage entrepreneurship” coaching.

Finally, aware that we are faced with inexhaustible possibilities in the use of digital media, this dossier aimed to open analytical pathways rather than define them. The absence of certain religious affiliations in the articles published here does not imply that digital media is absent from various projects and experiences of faith. By emphasizing the intersections between religion and digital media, we reflect on more conservative initiatives for such uses in the Catholic field, as well as evangelical movements that challenge institutional frameworks, incorporating heterogeneous models of Christian practices and affiliations. Within this theoretical-conceptual scope, it is possible to envision innovative approaches to questions raised by the debates on religion and media, which persist over time, updating our repertoire on the technological capacity to revive and animate the imagination of other religious worlds.

References

• Aupers, Stef, & Houtman, Dick. (2010), Religions of modernity: Relocating the sacred to the self and the digital Brill.
• Barbosa, Francirosy C. (2021), “Covid-19, comunidades islâmicas, islamofobia”. Religião & Sociedade, 41(2), 115-134. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-85872021v41n2cap05
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-85872021v41n2cap05
• Bottino, Carolina M. M.; Scheliga, Eva L.; Menezes, Renata de C. (2020), “Experimentos etnográficos em redes e varandas: a religião em tempos de pandemia”. Cadernos De Campo, (São Paulo - 1991) 29(supl), 289-301. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9133.v29isuplp289-301
  » https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9133.v29isuplp289-301
• Campos, Isabel S.; Silva Neto, Francisco L. P. (2021), “A presença virtual do sagrado em tempos pandêmicos: a virtualidade e a rua na construção do espaço público de Pelotas/RS”. Religião & Sociedade, 41(2), 135-160. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-85872021v41n2cap06
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-85872021v41n2cap06
• Carini, Catón E. (2021), “La práctica on-line del budismo en tiempos de pandemia: rituales, comunidad y mediatización”. Religião & Sociedade , 41(2), 93-114. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-85872021v41n2cap04
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-85872021v41n2cap04
• Côrtes, Mariana; Machado, Carly. (2021), “Religiões e Pandemia”. Religião & Sociedade , 41(2), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-85872021v41n2editorial
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-85872021v41n2editorial
• Dovey, Jon (ed). (1996), Fractal Dreams: New Media in Social Context London: Lawrence and Wishart.
• Engelke, Matthew. (2010), “Religion and the media turn: A review essay.” American Ethnologist 37(2), 371-379. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01261.x
  » https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01261.x
• Giumbelli, Emerson. (1997), O Cuidado dos Mortos: Uma História da Condenação e Legitimação do Espiritismo Rio de Janeiro: Arquivo Nacional.
• Hirschkind, Charles; Larkin, Brian. (2008), “Introduction: Media and the Political Forms of Religion”. Social Text, v. 26, n. 3 (96) , p. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-2000-001
  » https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-2000-001
• Keen, Andrew. (2009), O culto do amador: como blogs, MySpace, YouTube e a pirataria digital estão destruindo nossa economia, cultura e valores Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar.
• Lévy, Pierre. (2003), Inteligência coletiva: por uma antropologia do ciberespaço 2 ed. São Paulo: Loyola.
• Lins, Beatriz A.; Parreiras, Carolina & Freitas, Elaine T. M. de. (2020), “Estratégias para pensar o digital”. Cadernos De Campo (São Paulo - 1991), 29(2). https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9133.v29i2pe181821
  » https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9133.v29i2pe181821
• Lins, Beatriz A. (2019), “Caiu na rede: mulheres, tecnologias e direitos entre nudes e (possíveis) vazamentos”. São Paulo: Tese de Doutorado, USP. Repositório da Produção USP. https://repositorio.usp.br/item/003023961
  » https://repositorio.usp.br/item/003023961
• Machado, Carly. (2006), Imagine se tudo isso for verdade: O movimento Raeliano entre verdades, ficções e religiões da modernidade Rio de Janeiro: Tese de Doutorado em Ciências Sociais, UFRJ. Biblioteca Digital Brasileira de Teses e Dissertações. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/handle/1/8390
  » http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/handle/1/8390
• Machado, Carly. (2012), “Brain, Biological Robots and Androids: Prophecies in the Realm of Science Fiction and Religion”. In: A. Possamai (Org.). Handbook of Hyper-real Religions Leiden: Brill.
• Machado, Carly. (2010), “Science, Fiction and Religion: about real and Raelian Possible Worlds”. Aupers, Stef; Houtman, Dick (Orgs.). Religions of modernity: Relocating the sacred to the self and the digital . Leiden: Brill .
• Machado, Carly. (2014), “Introdução ao Dossiê Religião e Mídia”. Religião & Sociedade , 34(2), 139-145. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-04382014000200007
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-04382014000200007
• Machado, Carly. (2015), “Religião e Mídia: reflexões de uma mente inquieta e o desafio de uma antropologia ‘sensacional’”. Campos, 16(2):138-144. 10.5380/campos.v16i2.53445
  » https://doi.org/10.5380/campos.v16i2.53445
• Machado, Carly. (2020), “Rebanho de quem? Sobre religião, contágio e ideias que viralizam em tempos de pandemia”. Dilemas: Revista de Estudos de Conflito e Controle Social - Rio de Janeiro - Reflexões na Pandemia pp. 1-14.
• Machado, Carly. (2023), “Uma nova atualização da religião? Sobre religiosidades digitais e tecnologias religiosas”. Debates do NER, ano 23, n. 43, pp. 79-92. https://doi.org/10.22456/1982-8136.134645
  » https://doi.org/10.22456/1982-8136.134645
• Machado, Carly; Sant’ana, Raquel. (2023), “Religião e mídia - Breves notas a partir do Brasil”. In: TEIXEIRA, Faustino; MENEZES, Renata (Eds.). Antropologia da religião: autores e temas Petrópolis - RJ: Vozes.
• Meyer, Birgit; Pels, Peter (Eds.). (2003), Magic and Modernity: Interfaces of revelation and concealment Estados Unidos: Stanford University Press.
• Meyer, Birgit & Moors, Annelies. (Eds.) (2006), Religion, media and the public sphere Bloomington/Indianapolis, Indiana University Press.
• Meyer, Birgit (Ed.). (2009), Aesthetic formations: media, religion, and the senses Nova York, Pal-grave Macmillan.
• Possamai, Adam. (Ed.) (2012), Handbook of Hyper-real Religions . Leiden: Brill .
• Mochel, Lorena. (2023), A fluidez da unção: raça, gênero e erotismos evangélicos nas materialidades de um Ministério digital. Rio de Janeiro: Tese de Doutorado – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social.
• Singler, Beth. (2020), “Blessed by the algorithm: Theistic conceptions of artificial intelligence in on-line discourse”. AI & Society, v. 35, n. 4, p. 945-955. 10.1007/s00146-020-00968-2
  » https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-00968-2
• Stolow, Jeremy. (2009), “Wired Religion: Spiritualism and Telegraphic Globalization in the Nineteenth Century”. In: S. M. Streeter , J. C. Weaver , & W. D. Coleman(Eds.), Empires and autonomy: Moments in the history of globalization (pp. 79-92). University of British Columbia Press.
• Stolow, Jeremy. (Ed.) (2012), Deus in Machina: Religion, Technology, and the Things in Between Fordham University Press.
• Stolow, Jeremy. (2014), “Religião e Mídia: notas sobre pesquisas e direções futuras para um estudo interdisciplinar”. Religião & Sociedade , 34(2), 146-160. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-04382014000200008
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/S1984-04382014000200008
• Stolow, Jeremy. (2025), Picturing Aura: A Visual Biography MIT Press.
• Wertheim, Margaret. (2001), Uma história do espaço: de Dante à Internet Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar .

• 1
  The exchange that enabled this research, conducted in different European countries, was made possible by funding from a Doctoral Scholarship Abroad (2005, CAPES - Brazil) lasting six months, as well as institutional financial support at the University of Amsterdam through the Pioneer Project in Mass Media and the Imagination of Religious Communities, coordinated by Birgit Meyer (2000-2006, NWO - Netherlands).
• 2
  Mochel's research expanded into a postdoctoral project (2024-2028, FAPERJ Nota 10 Fellowship) under the supervision of Carly Machado, focusing on the transnational religious circuits formed through WhatsApp.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  10 Feb 2025
• Date of issue
  2024