Communicating the sacred in religious advertising in light of the mediatization of religion theory and research on digital religion

Abstract

Abstract The main research problem of the article is the communication of the sacred in the Catholic Church in light of the theory of mediatization of religion and research on religion in the era of digital media. Communicating the sacred takes place through various channels and in various ways. One of its carriers is religious advertising, a special type of visual communication used more and more often in the Catholic Church. It occupies an important place in the social processes taking place, such as secularization and desecularization, and in the religious practices of internet users. The text presents the results of the author’s research conducted using the method of focus group interviews on religious advertising, its definition, typology and goals as well as the elements of the sacred present in it. Religious advertising should be treated as a new, completely separate type of advertising, whose inherent part and sine qua non condition is the sacred. Religious advertising is a form of visibility of religion in public space and a way of communicating the sacred in public space.