Church in the Digital Age: From Online Church to Church-Online

ABSTRACT

Digital technology has changed individual and communal lives radically, resulting in the emergence of online-based churches. Concerns regarding the nature of online-based churches call for a theological investigation. This article critically examines ongoing debates and argues that: An online-based church should be construed and welcomed from the perspective of theocentrism. As of now, it is worthy to embrace church online rather than an online church until the issues of immersion in worship and gatherings of church members, and problems of online sacraments are resolved. This article highlights the problems surrounding online-based churches, and elaborates ecclesiology in the digital era.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecclesiology
• church
• online church
• church online
• digital technology
• digital theology

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022S1A5A8048925).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Michael Adam Beck and Rosario Picardo, Fresh Expression in a Digital Age: How The Church Can Prepare For the Post-Pandemic World (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2021), 17.

2 Korean Ministry of Science and ICT, “Announcement of Results of Internet Use Survey in 2021,” https://www.korea.kr/news/pressReleaseView.do?newsId=156503306 (accessed April 14, 2022).

3 Teresa Berger, @Worship: Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), 2.

4 Hee-Jung Kim, “Virtual Reality,” in Contemporary Arts and Aesthetics, ed. the Society of the Korean Companion to Aesthetics (Seoul: Seoul University Press, 2007), 423. Kim differentiates between virtual reality and cyberspace. The former is an artificial space that can be built not only through computers but also through various media (e.g. an art exhibition space created based on a projector), but the latter is a space built through computers as the main medium. Ibid., 424–429. Ruth Tsuria and Heidi Campbell delineate that the term “cyber” in relation to religion have been used since the late 1990s and the term “virtual” since the mid-2000s. According to Tsuria and Campbell, most scholars in the field of online religion study no longer employ the terms, since both the terms connote meanings of being something independent that has no close connection with the real world. Accordingly, scholars prefer the term “digital” or “online.” Ruth Tsuria and Heidi A. Campbell, “Introduction to the Study of Digital Religion,” in Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in Digital Media, 2nd ed., eds. Heidi A. Campbell and Ruth Tsuria (London and New York: Routledge, 2022), 2–4. Appreciating the discussions with regard to the connotations of the terms, this article will employ the terms “online” and “digital” rather than “virtual” or “cyber.”

5 Douglas C. Estes, Simchurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 22–24; Do-Hoon Kim, Biblical, Apologetical, Incarnational Ecclesiology, in Korean (Seoul: Goyo Achim, 2021), 218–220; Jean-Nicolas Bazin and Jerome Cottin, Virtual Christianity: Potential and Challenge for the Churches (Geneva: WCC publications, 2004), 3.

6 Concepts signifying human presence in the digital and online space are used in a broad framework as telepresence, virtual presence, and digital presence. According to John V. Draper et al., in a strict sense, telepresence (presence experienced in a remote situation within a real environment) and virtual presence (presence experienced in an artificial environment created by a computer) can be distinguished. However, they uphold that the distinction may be meaningless at the psychological level of the person experiencing the presence. Essentially, if one experiences his/her own presence in an environment created through digital technology, s/he is not able to differentiate whether s/he is present in a virtual or real world. Since people tend to be immersed even within the virtually-created environment, the distinction between telepresence and virtual presence might be insignificant. In this context, Draper et al. mainly employ the term telepresence. See below for a detailed discussion. John V. Draper et al., “Telepresence,” Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Economics Society 40.3 (1998): 354–356. Anthony-Paul Cooper et al. define digital presence as follows: “Digital presence refers to technologies that provide communities a shared experience and a sense of togetherness, despite geographical distance.” Anthony-Paul Cooper et al., “The Reconfiguration of Social, Digital, and Physical Presence: From Online Church to Church Online,” HTS Theologiese Studies/Theological Studies 77.3 (2021), 1. In this way, digital presence can be construed as a concept meaning “technology” that makes people feel that they are in the same space among people who are in remote situations. However, the authors simultaneously employ the term for a different meaning that refers to the presence of a person experienced in a digital space in other parts in the same article. Ibid., 1–5. Acknowledging the point, this article employs the term “digital presence” that can be interchangeable with “telepresence,” and that signifies the presence of a person experienced in the digital space.

7 A series of neuroscientific studies disclose that the human brain does not recognize the difference between interactions in real and virtual realms and, thus, reveals similar activation patterns. Jim Blascovich and Jeremny Bailenson, Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution (New York: Harper Collins, 2012) 1. See also J. Chen, et al., “The Impact of Social Belief on the Neurophysiology of Learning and Memory,” Presentation at Society for Neuroscience, November, 2008.

8 The digital turn of human life has also affected the academic realm. A typical example would be digital humanities. Digital Humanities is a new sub-discipline that encompasses humanities research, education, and writing activities based on information and communication technology. Its origins can be traced to the fact that the National Endowment for Humanities established the Office of Digital Humanities in 2008 to promote digital humanities research in universities. Undoubtedly, the beginning of the direction pursued by digital humanities is much earlier than that. Numerous literatures point to the digital archiving of Latin texts centered on Aquinas’ writings by Jesuit priest Roberto Busa as the beginning of digital humanities. Hyeon Kim, “Digital Humanities: Cooperative Scheme between Humanities and Cultural Contents,” Humanities Contents 29 (2013), 12; Susan Schreibman et al., A Companion to Digital Humanities (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004). In this context, the link between the study of religious studies and theology and the digital humanities seems to be not only possible, but inevitable. In fact, the study of Digital Religion, a division of religious studies on religious activities and religious phenomena in the digital space, is being conducted in connection with digital humanities. Christopher D. Cantwell and Hussein Rashid, “Religion, Media, and the Digital Turn: A Report for the Religion and the Public Sphere Program,” Social Science Research Council (December, 2015), 4–5.

9 Suk-Whan Sung, “A Study on the Possibility for Digital-Existential Reconstruction of Ecclesiology: Toward Digital ‘Missio Dei,’” Mission and Theology 55 (2021): 155.

10 Amanda Lagerkvist, “Digital Existence: An Introduction,” in Digital Existence: Ontology, Ethics, and Transcendence in Digital Culture, ed. Amanda Lagerkvist (London and New York: Routledge, 2019), 2–3.

11 Eunji Lee, “The Antecedents of SNS Fatigue: Influences on Intention to Continuous Usage and Discontinuing Intention,” Journal of the HCI Society of Korea 13.2 (2018): 22.

12 Digico KT, “My Name is Kim So-Hee,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2YSy-9LOmA (accessed May 25, 2022).

13 EBS Docuprime, “Fourth Human – How to Live with Machine,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIUfcErwkco (accessed August 2, 2022).

14 VR Human Documentary, “Finally, I Meet You Again,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uflTK8c4w0c&t=160s (accessed August 3, 2022).

15 Berger, @Worship, 16–17.

16 Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Revised Version (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000), xx.

17 Kyung-Ran Jeon, “Virtual Reality and Virtual Community,” in What is Digital Game? ed. Kyung-Ran Jeon (Seoul: Communication Books, 2014), https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=2274834&cid=42171&categoryId=51114.

18 Scholars in the field of Digital Religion claim that various religious communities have formed and existed online. For example, Christopher Helland points out that many of those who leave the church are looking for answers outside of the traditional church or religion, particularly through the Internet to satisfy their religious needs. Christopher Helland, “Popular Religion and the World Wide Web: A Match Made in (Cyber) Heaven,” in Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, eds. Lorne L. Dawson and Douglas E. Cowan (New York: Routledge, 2004), 33–34. Robert M. Geraci argues that virtual world-based online games are positioned as a new way to replace traditional religious practices. Specifically, he points out that in virtual world-based games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, which are MMORPGs, accessors have a kind of religious experience and form a community in a manner similar to that of an existing religious community. Robert M. Geraci, Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 1–9. For more details, see Heidi A. Campbell and Ruth Tsuria, eds., Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in Digital Media, 2nd ed. (London and New York: Routledge, 2022). With regard to the study of religious phenomena in the digital space via technology, see the journal Online: Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet. Berger, describing the impact of the digital turn on religious life, as a key change is “the emergence of novel materials and sites generated by digital communication technologies” and the transfer of text-centered culture to the fusion of “text, image, audio, video, and other non-textual formats.” Berger, @Worship, 6.

19 Rachel Wagner, Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality (New York: Routledge, 2012), 4.

20 Jana M. Bennett, Aquinas on the Web? Doing Theology in an Internet Age (New York: T&T Clark, 2012), 113.

21 Antonio Spadaro, Cybertheology: Thinking Christianity in the Era of the Internet, trans. Maria Way (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), 1–18.

22 Tim Hutchings, “Creating Church Online: A Case-Study Approach to Religious Experience,” World Christianity 13.3 (2007): 243–245.

23 Ibid.

24 The Catholic Church, for example, distributes a “Click To Pray” app maintained by the Vatican, which provides short messages and prayers from the Pope. In addition, a channel to communicate with users is opened and operated in the app. You can check the app via the following link. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/click-to-pray/id934935942. Among the Protestant groups, the Grace and Mercy Foundation is distributing and operating the “Drama Bible” app. Through the app, visitors can listen to the texts of the Bible in three dimension, and concurrently, communication channels between visitors are also provided, so it is possible to socialize between them. You can check the app via: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.futuresoft.public.reading.ko&hl=ko&gl=US.

25 Berger, @Worship, 32–34.; Mary Allison Cates, “The First Church of Cyberspace,” http://weeklywire.com/ww/09-27-99/memphis_pew.html (accessed April 21, 2022).

26 Carla Hinton, “Life.Church celebrates its 20th anniversary,” The Oklahoman (January 2016), https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/religion/2016/01/10/lifechurch-celebrates-its-20th-anniversary/60699167007/ (accessed April 21, 2022); Tim Hutchings, Creating Church Online: Ritual, Community, and New Media (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 170–172. For more details, see the webpage of Life.Church. https://www.life.church/

27 Simon Jenkins, “Rituals and Pixels: Experiments in Online Church,” Online: Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 3.1 (2008), 95–115; Berger, @Worship, 34–35, 49, 55. More details about St. Pixels, see their webpage. St. Pixels: Church of the Internet, http://www.stpixels.com/?fbclid=IwAR3eVTMwdoZXU_KzSpp-Rva922XxDxWInu-8O5rJcFjB_GdVRzQIWcfBxXU.

28 For the need of a new church community in the Oxford Diocese, it is well described in the following report of the Church of England. Graham Cray, Mission-Shaped Church: Church Planting and Fresh Expressions of Church in a Changing Context (London: Church House Publishing, 2009). However, Hutchings claims that there is a difference between the I-Church and a new alternative community that the report delineates. For more details, see Hutchings, Creating Church Online, 91–92.

29 Ibid., 90–111.

30 St. Bonifatius Internet Church, http://funcity.de/ (accessed October 13, 2022).

31 Online Church, http://www.onchurch.or.kr/ (accessed October 13, 2022).

32 Christopher Helland, “Online-Religion/Religion-Online and Virtual Communities,” in Religion on the Internet: Research Prospects and Promises, eds. J. K. Hadden and D. E. Cowan (New York: JAI Press, 2000), 205–223.

33 Tsuria and Campbell, “Introduction to the Study of Digital Religion,” 3–4.

34 Christopher Helland, “Online Religion as Lived Religion: Methodological Issues in the Study of Religious Participation on the Internet,” Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 1.1 (2005), http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2005/5823/pdf/Helland3a.pdf.

35 Anthony-Paul Cooper et al., “The Reconfiguration of Social, Digital, and Physical Presence: From Online Church to Church Online,” HTS Theologiese Studies/Theological Studies 77.3 (2021): 358.

36 Hutching, Creating Church Online, 254–258.

37 Jean-Nicolas Bazin and Jerome Cottin, Virtual Christianity: Potential and Challenge for the Churches (WCC Publications, 2004), 1.

38 Young Hoon Yoon, “A Study on the Possibility of Online Church in the Crisis of COVID-19,” University and Mission 46 (2020): 209.

39 Ibid., 218.

40 Megan Fowler, “The Potter's House Denver Sells Property, Goes Virtual,” Christianity Today Jan. 10th, 2022, https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/january/potters-house-denver-sells-property-goes-virtual.html (accessed October 13, 2022). About more details, see The Potter's House of Denver, https://www.tphd.org/ (accessed October 13, 2022).

41 Yoon, “A Study on the Possibility of Online Church in the Crisis of COVID-19,” 230. The theological discussion of the possibility of an online-based church is not to make all churches online-based. As seen through real-life examples, it is for those who cannot attend offline church regularly due to their lifestyle, such as occupation and personality, and for those who do not attend the existing offline church, such as the so-called Canaanite members who left the church because they were disappointed with the existing church format. If an online-based church is already performing the work of existing churches, it should be recognized as an alternative church. Moreover, one should not disregard the growing need of spirituality online. Brenda Brasher asserts, “A segment of the religiously inclined populace has deemed cyberspace a viable outlet for its religious interests and made it the virtual repository of a tremendous outpouring of religious enthusiasm and desire … online religion is crucial to and positive for the future of religion. It is a vital cultural vehicle necessary for the emergence of religious experience and expression relevant to a future society.” Brenda Brasher, Give Me That Online Religion (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001), 11. These claims are supported by the research of sociologists of religion. They point out that post-secularization and the resurgence of religion are taking place, and religious activities are actively growing as online-based religions satisfy the religious needs of the public. Lorne L. Dawson and Douglas E. Cowan, Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet (New York: Routledge, 2004), 26.

42 John S. Hammett and Jonathan Merritt, “Surfing the Church? Can Real Connection Be Found Online?” Relevant Reader (2008): 42–46.

43 Craig A. Baron, “Sacraments ‘Really Save’ in Disneyland: Reconciling Bodies in Virtual Reality,” Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy 86 (2005): 301–305.

44 Estes, Simchurch, 63.

45 Ibid., 63–64.

46 Ibid., 55, 69.

47 Berger, @Worship, 16.

48 Ibid., 16–17. Furthermore, Berger underlines that contemporary offline service is not comprised with the natural embodiment of worshippers either. Essentially, people attend offline services with technological aid and thus technologically enhanced bodies. If this is the case, it would be self-contradictory to ban or refuse a technologically-mediated service online. As Berger puts it, “Worshiping with the help of new technologies is of course not the exclusive domain of digitally-mediated practices … Not only have worship technologies, such as sound systems and lighting, been enhanced, human bodies themselves come to worship ‘enhanced’ by various body technologies. Many of these body technologies have become naturalized in our experience of them and therefore do not intrude into our consciousness as ‘artificial,’ for example, contact lenses, cochlear implants (‘bionic ears’), artificial hips, arterial stents, and cosmetic or gender reassignment surgery. These bodily technologies for the most part are unquestioned elements of contemporary life, which has become technologically enhanced both offline and online.” Ibid., 20.

49 Ibid., 23–26.

50 Yoon, “A Study on the Possibility of Online Church in the Crisis of COVID-19,” 220.

51 Ibid., 221.

52 Ibid., 220; Christopher Helland, “Ritual,” Heidi A. Campbell ed., Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds (New York: Routledge, 2013), 26. Italic mine.

53 Berger, @Worship, 36–37.

54 Ibid.

55 Estes, Simchurch, 59, 196–197.

56 Berger, @Worship, 26–29.

57 Lagerkvist, “Digital Existence,” 2.

58 Anita Cloete, “The Church is Moving On(line),” Heidi A. Campbell ed., Digital Ecclesiology: A Global Conversation (Digital Religion Publications, 2021), 29.

59 Sherry Turkle, “Realtechnik and the Tethered Life,” Yale Divinity School Reflections 98.2 (2011): 33–35.

60 Berger, @Worship, 28–29.

61 Sung, “A Study on the Possibility for Digital–Existential Reconstruction of Ecclesiology,” 174–175; Sarah MacMillen, “The Virtual Pilgrimage: The Disappearing Body from Place to Space,” Journal of Religion & Society, 13 (2011): 1–19, 8.

62 Online communities comprised with devoted and non-devoted members have their own governing bodies and rules. The closed group of operators sets up the levels of membership, plans their online activities, runs programs, and warns or withdraws some members that do not follow regulations. With regard to the establishment of a governing body of online church, and its rule and operation, see Hutchings, Creating Church Online, 91–98.

63 Andrew Byers, TheoMedia: The Media of God and the Digital Age (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2013), 230–232.

64 Gordon S. Mikoski, “Bringing the Body to the Table,” Theology Today 67 (2010): 257–259.

65 Soong-hong Han, “Virtual Church in 21th Century,” Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology 14 (1998): 651.

66 Stephen Garner, “The Distanced Church: Pragmatism, Creativity, and Rhythms of Life,” Heidi A. Campbell ed., The Distanced Church: Reflections on Doing Church Online (Network for New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture Studies, 2020), 55–57.

67 Peter Philips, “Enabling, Extending, and Disrupting Religion in the Early COVID-19 Crisis,” Heidi A. Campbell ed., The Distanced Church: Reflections on Doing Church Online (Network for New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture Studies, 2020), 73.

68 Matthew John Paul Tan, “Communion in the Digital Body of Christ,” Heidi A. Campbell ed., The Distanced Church: Reflections on Doing Church Online (Network for New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture Studies, 2020), 81–82.

69 Charles Melvin Ess, “‘Beyond the Binary?’ How Digital is ‘the Digital Church’ in the Corona Age? Analytical, Theological, and Philosophical Considerations,” Heidi A. Campbell ed., Digital Ecclesiology: A Global Conversation (Digital Religion Publications, 2021), 43–45.

70 Kim, Biblical, Apologetical, Incarnational Ecclesiology, 238–240. In this context, Kim Do-hoon, based on the discussion of Estes, examines the following four models of online sacraments: symbolic virtual communion and baptism, and avatar-mediated virtual supper and baptism, extensional virtual communion and baptism, and outsourced virtual communion and baptism entrusted to an external real church. The first model, the symbolic virtual supper and baptism, is to administer the sacrament and baptism by an online church accessor following the instructions of a pastor via face-chatting (e.g. Zoom) while reading and meditating on the biblical texts on communion and baptism. However, this model is highly likely to be criticized for the fact that the religiously-authorized minister is physically absent, and thus for that the validity of the sacrament may be questioned. The second model, communion and baptism through an avatar, is a way to participate in the sacrament and baptism through an avatar that exists in the online space. Participation in the sacrament in this way runs the risk of reducing the sacrament to only the ritual of the mind, which lacks physicality, because any kind of sensory experience is not synchronized between the avatar and the accessor. The third way is extended communion and baptism. It is based on the method practiced by the early Christian leaders, such as Cyprian, Justian, and Tertullian. They recommended passing the sacrament directly to the sick or those on the verge of death. In a similar fashion, the extended sacrament of the online church is carried out in the form of directly delivering the sacrament or visiting and baptizing. However, this type of sacrament also has limitations in that there may be cases where the sacrament cannot be delivered or the baptist cannot visit due to time and space constraints. Finally, there is a way to entrust the sacraments to other local churches. This has strengths in terms of administering the sacraments based on the union between the online and offline church, and in that online church members can also participate in the physical sacrament. Nevertheless, there are also limitations such as difficulties in connecting the online and offline churches, problems with partnership between the two churches, and issues related to membership that may arise. Ibid., 240–244.

71 Hans Küng, The Church (New York: Image Books, 1976), 32–35.

72 Ibid., 75, 84–89.

73 Ibid., 74–76, 105–108.

74 Ibid., 107.

75 Ibid., 110. Italic original.

76 Ibid., 118.

77 Martin Luther as quoted in Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, 6th ed. (Malden: Wiley Blackwell, 2017), 361.

78 Küng, The Church, 174.

79 Ibid., 171–173.

80 Ibid., 286–288. Küng writes, “The Lord's Supper is, to use an Augustinian formula, a ‘visible word’ (verbum visibile), and in receiving it – much more clearly than with the ‘audible word’ (verbum audibile or sacramentum audible) – I can be absolutely certain that it is intended for me and for no one else.” Ibid., 287.

81 Ibid., 134.

82 Ibid., 291.

83 Ibid., 269–272.

84 Ibid., 356. Italic mine.

85 McGrath, Christian Theology, 361–363.

86 Kim, Biblical, Apologetical, Incarnational Ecclesiology, 218.

87 Ibid., 223.

88 Heidi Campbell, “An introduction to Digital Ecclesiology: What Does a Conversation on Digital Ecclesiology Look Like?” Heidi A. Campbell ed., Digital Ecclesiology: A Global Conversation (Digital Religion Publications, 2021), 3–4.

89 I am indebted to anonymous reviewer who suggested to design the bespoke church software.

90 Heidi A. Campbell, “What Religious Groups Need to Consider When Trying to Do Church Online,” in The Distanced Church: Reflections on Doing Church Online, ed. Heidi A. Campbell (Network for New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture Studies, 2020), 50.

91 Anthony-Paul Cooper et al., “The Reconfiguration of Social, Digital, and Physical Presence: From Online Church to Church Online,” HTS Theologiese Studies/Theological Studies 77.3 (2021): 360–361.

92 More details about online sacraments, see Note 70.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daekyung Jung

Daekyung Jung is the Assistant Professor at Baird General Education College at Soongsil University in Seoul, Republic of South Korea.