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Living in a Digital Culture: The Need for Theological Reflection
Abstract
Today our lives are filled with technology through which we communicate, work, play, and even engage with for making meaning. This implies the pervasive presence of digital media as an integral part of our everyday life. Although studies on media are mostly done by sociology and communication students, living in a digital age has significant implications for theological reflections. Despite this being the case, there is a gap in terms of a religious response to technology. In response to this, the aim of this article is to stimulate theological reflections with regard to living in a digital culture. This is achieved by raising theological questions in the hope that theology could take a proactive role in these discussions. The implications of living in a digital culture are quite vast; therefore, the focus will be limited to how a community is formed and sustained, and the possible implications for the church as community.
... Refecting on this world, we should be looking at how the values present in internet technologies not only drive an agenda to commoditize and control people, but also work to encourage people to imitate and transform themselves consciously and unconsciously under the pressure of the internet's attention on us. The question being grappled with theologically is how we can live wisely and wholesomely in this digital environment, without either completely submitting to it or totally rejecting it (Byers 2013;Cloete 2020;Dyer 2011;Spadaro 2014;Stoddart 2019). ...
Prophetic witness has been around since Biblical times, when prophets spoke truth to power on behalf of God. In the South African context, prophetic witness saw the church speaking out against the injustices of colonialism and apartheid using various forms of protest. In post-1994 democratic South Africa, prophetic witness had to be reimagined in the public square, a process which appropriated various modes of prophetic witness. Cyberspace encompasses information technologies which manifest into a "virtual" world, and social media is one of the platforms of cyberspace. Theological and religious scholars have argued that the Internet is an essential space for religion, and this article further argues that cyberspace can also be regarded as a public space for prophetic witness. The role of social media users during pandemics, such as COVID-19, has the implications of spreading information, misinformation, and misconceptions at a rapid pace. Many churches used the virtual space to provide spiritual and emotional support during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article argues that the church also has a prophetic role to play, especially in the social media space, regarding the dissemination of information during a pandemic. Therefore, the main task of this article is to utilise Nico Koopman's five modes of prophetic witness, namely visionary, critics, storytellers, technical analysts, and policymakers in cyberspace in the recent COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics.
The digital ecosystem brings a new human culture. The churches respond differently based on their heritage and context. The book describes the new culture and both the negative and positive impacts for the churches in continuing their mission.
Ibadah virtual/online bukan hanya sebagai pengganti ibadah onsite di tengah pandemi ini atau sebagai ibadah yang kurang sakral dari yang seharusnya atau yang memberikan dampak buruk karena media digital yang digunakan. Itu sebabnya, respons pragmatis tidak cukup untuk merangkul ibadah virtual/online, melainkan gereja perlu merangkulnya dengan pemahaman bahwa pengalaman esensial, yaitu pengalaman transendensi, sesungguhnya merupakan sebuah keniscayaan dalam ibadah virtual/online. Keniscayaan tersebut dilihat dari dua hal, pertama, sifat imanen dan mediated dari teori pengalaman transendensi selama ini yang selaras dengan sifat ibadah virtual/online itu sendiri. Kedua, keniscayaan tersebut ditinjau dari refleksi terhadap seni digital intermedia teori Elwell Sage. Pengalaman esensial justru terjadi ketika komposisi digital secara sengaja “dikorbankan” untuk digabungkan dengan objek nyata yang rentan dengan kesalahan, untuk dihubungkan kepada pengalaman liminal, atau pengalaman ambang antara keterbatasan dan ketidakterbatasan. Sekali lagi, ini selaras dengan sifat pengalaman transendensi dalam ibadah. Rangkulan gereja kepada ibadah virtual/online dengan pemahaman keniscayaan tersebut dapat mendorong gereja untuk berefleksi dan bertindak lebih dalam di konteks yang aktual.
Digital theology, conducted primarily by those within a religious community, should not be confused with the field of “digital religion,” which is primarily concerned with how religion in its various forms engages with, is shaped by, and is present in digital culture and media. Digital religion provides a variety of methodologies and methods useful for digital theology, particularly for qualitative research. The chapter focuses on Christian theology but acknowledges that other religious faiths and traditions are also engaging with digital culture, media, and technology. In considering digitally enabled theological research, it notes that researchers are no longer limited to accessing resources at a physical location. The final digital theology category proposed is ethical living in digital culture. Qualitative insights and methods from those areas continue to inform digital theology scholars and practitioners, who then adapt and use those approaches in their own work.
Like many other organizations in the world, governmental organizations have not been isolated from the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As well known, it has affected business organizations in numerous ways. This paper examines how governmental organizations could survive the pandemic through the use of virtual leadership to its work teams. A sample of 300 governmental employees was used and descriptive analysis, simple and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The main results of the study indicate that there was a significant positive effect for virtual leadership with its different dimensions on managing remote work teams to survive the pandemic period from early 2020 till early 2022.
This paper discusses specifically how church pioneering is carried out in a digital context. The urgency of this topic is elaborated considering that in the present day digitalization has been cultivated from various aspects. With today's digital age, the church needs to adapt evangelism according to the context and era in which the church exists. This paper uses the approach of digital religion and literature methods to answer two questions on the topic, how is digitalized religion? And how is the establishment of church that digitalizes? The results of the description on this topic suggest that, the church establishment in a digital context can start from the establishment of a virtual church. Although the virtual church is not in the physical form, religious activities can be felt and experienced by believers through the virtual church. The establishment of the church in a digital context can be done by establishing a virtual communion. The virtual communion serves as a forum to unite people of faith in Jesus. The virtual communion is an alternative to the establishment of digital church. The establishment of digital churches can preserve evangelism as mandated by the Great Commission.Abstrak:Tulisan ini membahas secara spesifik bagaimana perintisan gereja dilakukan dalam konteks digital. Urgensitas topik ini diuraikan mengingat masa kini digitalisasi telah membudaya di berbagai aspek. Dengan zaman digital saat ini, gereja perlu menyesuaikan perintisan sesuai dengan konteks dan zaman dimana gereja berada. Tulisan ini menggunakan pendekatan metode digital dan literatur dengan menjawab dua pertanyaan pada topik, bagaimana tentang agama yang terdigitalisasi? Serta bagaimana penanaman gereja yang meng digital? Hasil uraian pada topik ini mengemukakan bahwa, pengamanan gereja dalam konteks digital dapat dimulai dari pendirian gereja virtual. Walau gereja virtual tidak bersifat fisik, namun aktivitas keagamaan dapat dirasa dan dialami orang percaya melalui gereja virtual ini. Penanaman gereja dalam konteks digital dapat dilakukan dengan membangun persekutuan virtual. Persekutuan virtual sebagai wadah mempersatukan orang yang seiman kepada Yesus. Persekutuan virtual sebagai alternatif dalam penanam gereja secara mendigital. Penanaman gereja secara mendigital melestarikan penginjilan sebagaimana mandata Amanat Agung.
Contemporary Christian ministry and theological education in Africa cannot neglect her children and young people. Engaging effectively with the children and youth in Africa's cities presents a rising challenge to scholars and practitioners. In addition to the developmental issues surrounding children and youth, there are worldview issues at play among young people. Urban African cities like Nairobi contain a mixture of African traditional religious worldviews, modern worldviews, and postmodern worldviews. This means that Christian ministry with the emerging generations will often take an apologetic mode. The scholarly literature on apologetics in the continent is scanty. Further, much of the research is merely theoretical and lacks empirical insight from practical ministry. This article will use an empirical methodology among African church leaders to collect salient themes in the discipline and practice of apologetics and draw conclusions for ministry and theological education.
Globally, the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) also known as Covid-19 affected every facet of human life. Everyone had to find new ways of doing things, as many nations introduced lockdown regulations as a means of curbing the spread of the corona virus that causes Covid-19. Included in the regulations was the closure of places of worship, which challenged the clergy from different denominations in South Africa to imagine how to do ministry in this new context called the "new normal". Not only that, African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors, like other members of the clergy, were also expected to guide and encourage church members in these times of uncertainty. In addition, they were also expected to care for church members, the community and for themselves and their families. This article reflects on how African township Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors may minister in the Covid-19 context by applying the modified theologies of Mashau and Kgatle's Ubuntology.
Digital technologies have become an integrated part of everyday life, and this development has not left relationships untouched. A need exists for theological reflection on the interaction between the dynamic contexts of the digital age and Christian marital relationships. The relational implications of the digital age are quite vast; therefore the focus of the article will be limited to online identity formation as a particular challenge of the digital age. Employing the method of a literature study within the scientific field of practical theology, this article explores the interplay between online identity formation and Christian marriage. It suggests that online identity formation exists around a reciprocal interaction with two prominent qualities of Christian marriages: The expansion of the self and one-ness. When considering the interplay between online identity formation and Christian marriage, awareness can be created regarding the marital implications of spouses’ online engagements, which may enhance contextual pastoral care with a relational focus within the digital age.
Contribution: The article contributes to practical theological reflection on challenges posed to Christian marriages by the digital age. It is aimed at stimulating pastoral thinking regarding online identity formation and its adverse effects on so-called one-ness in Christian marriages that can enhance pastoral care with a view on the flourishing of couples in the digital age.
Confessions of a YouTube preacher: Prelimaniry autoetnographical reflections on the recording and conducting of a digital worship service. Digitalisation as part of a ministry strategy was already high on the agenda of communities of faith prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. When considering possible ministry strategies, references to, among others, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its potential systemic influence were evaluated in reflections on the nature of future congregations. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, considerably complicated and accelerated these trajectories, as the digitalisation of congregations took place, as it were, overnight. An autoetnographical exploration presents a personal, intimate and subjective reflection of this dynamics as well as the significance of digitalisation for communities of faith as can be seen in die conducting and recording of a digital worship service.
Contribution: In these critical-evaluative autoetnographical reflections, the author sensitively considers, from a practical theology perspective, the possible significance of perspectives for future worship practices of communities of faith.
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