Divine Revelation and Digital Religion

Abstract

This chapter considers the relationship between divine revelation and digital religion by exploring how revelation of divine or religious truth is presented and negotiated on the internet and within digital culture. Revelation is a fundamental component of religious practice and experience and has long been studied in its relation to mediation. Digital culture offers unique resources that allow individuals to receive, engage, and share in divine revelation in digital contexts. The multiplicity of digital contexts and their blended ties to offline practices in worship practices have become known as digital religion (Campbell 2013), which can be likened to a bridge which connects and extends religious practice online into offline religious spaces and contexts. This chapter will consider how revelation is understood and enacted in different spaces of digital religion by providing an overview of Digital Religion Studies and looking at Campbell and DeLashmutt’s (2014) research on multi-site churches to offer insights into how churches structure and negotiate their digital worship practices to assist people in engaging with divine revelation. In particular, we emphasize questions of presence and authority that churches ought to consider in regard to how their use of digital technology may impact views on divine revelation in digital contexts.