[Digitisation of Christian Church formats during Covid19: Empirical findings and systematising reflections from a religious studies perspective].

Abstract

With the contact restrictions at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic, religious institutions also had to rethink their previous services almost overnight. Especially in the case of worships, mainly digital alternatives emerged. This article sheds light on this evolving field of the digitalisation of Christian worship formats and its junctions to existing religious studies research on religion and digital media. As a starting point, it provides an empirical overview of the digitisation efforts of Christian churches in German-speaking countries under Covid19 conditions, drawing on the statistical surveys available so far. On the basis of qualitative interviews, then, the recipients' perspective on digital services is addressed. Lastly, these empirical findings are discussed in relation to the already debated systematic topics within research on religion and media, specifically the consequences of digitalised religious communication for forms of religious community, space and ritual as well as the self-empowerment of religious laypersons and the challenge of religious authority. The paper thus aims to offer some empirically grounded, preliminary considerations on the current covid-induced developments in the field of (Christian) religion and digital media, to integrate them into the existing state of research and to point out follow-up considerations.