In the last decade, many religious communities from all over the world have embraced the Internet as a primary way to spread their creed, organize their communal activities, and even debate the tenets of their faith. Either demonized as a gateway to sin or legitimized as a gift of God, the Internet has become a constant presence in the everyday life of believers: a presence that religious communities cannot ignore.
Starting from these premises, the going-digital of religious communities raises several questions concerning the role faith will play in the globalized platform society: how do religious communities define the boundaries of the acceptable use of Internet Communication Technologies? How do they protect their members from immoral information? How do they relate to user-generated content, either secular or devotional? Which media strategies do they employ to build their community online in contrast other religious groups? Are new religious figures emerging, such as digital evangelizers or devotional app developers? And if yes, how do they position themselves in relation to traditional religious hierarchies?
To answer these questions, the Networking Holiness project focused on the first formal monastic community of religious media managers: Canção Nova. Canção Nova is a Brazilian Catholic community whose primary purpose is global evangelization through online platforms (e.g. online videos, social networks and apps). Located at the crossroads between a monastic tradition and media entrepreneurship, Canção Nova’s doctrine combines religious praxis and professional media activity. Members of the community practice a variety of religious lifestyles (e.g. celibacy, priesthood or devout couples) and all serve as webmasters, content media managers, app developers, information systems technicians, cameramen and editors. They work at the Canção Nova headquarters in Cachoeira Paulista, and in several media and broadcasting centers located in Sao Paulo and around the globe.
To understand how religious institutions act to shape users’ worldviews and renegotiate authority on digital platform is of pivotal importance for the future of European governance and leadership on the global stage. As shown by recent crises, religious affiliation still plays a central role in the management of human societies. Interestingly, today’s fast circulation of religious information, propelled by the popularization of smartphones and the ubiquitous presence of broadband connections, has impacted the socio-political landscape in two almost opposite ways. On the one hand, religious communication through social media has been employed to recompact fragmented national identities. This is the case, for example, of evangelical congregations in Brazil or Hindu supremacists in India, where religious organizations deeply influenced the political process. On the other hand, religious agents have been actively reaching out to distant groups of faithful with the intent to connect them to transnational networks of believers. Indeed, religious proselytization online potentially requires only minimal investment in order to disseminate knowledge on a global scale, target specific interest groups and maintain communal engagement. Accordingly, religious online communities have been growing by enabling the faithful to interact beyond the borders of their local community, a dynamic that is evident both in the case of religious propaganda and the social functioning of migrant communities.
