Technologies of Religion

Breaking new ground by bringing together empirical work done in the vein of the emergent field of "digital religion" and larger social-theoretical discussions on secularism and modernity, this book investigates the powerful entanglement of religion and new media technologies. It takes stock of the repercussions of both digital culture and technology on various aspects of religious life, specifically worship and community, as they have been recast to emphasize themes of embodiment, affectivity and sociality. Drawing from the cultural and media theorist Peter Sloterdijk, it specifically makes the argument that religion and new media technologies come together to create "spheres," digital environments that recast prior theological definitions of religious participation and community through shifting what it means to be a worshiper and also what it means to worship. Using the case of the strain of American Christianity called "multi-site," an emergent and growing church-model that has begun to win favor largely among Protestants in the last decade, the book details and examines the way in which this new mode of religiosity bridges the realms of the technological and the physical. The book connects this empirical instance of contemporary digital-religious culture and practice with the larger theoretical concerns regarding the place of religion in today’s post-secular, post-modernity.

Sam Han is a Seoul-born, New York City-raised interdisciplinary social scientist, working in the areas of social and cultural theory, religion, new media and globalization. He is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Hawke Research Institute of the University of South Australia. He is author (with Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir) ofDigital Culture and Religion in Asia (Routledge, 2015), Web 2.0 (Routledge, 2011),Navigating Technomedia: Caught in the Web (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) and editor (with Daniel Chaffee) ofThe Race of Time: A Charles Lemert Reader (Paradigm Publishers, 2009).