Embodied religion in the post-pandemic digital age : insights from seven European countries

Črnič, Aleš (author), Jurekovič, Igor (author)

This article presents and theorises key findings from research examining how the increased use of digital technologies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic has affected diverse religious communities in seven European countries. Interviews with 270 members of 27 selected communities suggest that digital technologies alone cannot sustain a thriving and vibrant religious community. Drawing on scholarship related to the corporeal and sensory turn, the authors argue that their study largely confirms conceptions of religion as not only doctrines and beliefs but also embodied participation that engages the physical senses. Because religion is always embodied in everyday life, it resists being fully transposed into the digital realm. While the acceleration of digitisation may foster new forms of religiosity and spirituality, fears that traditional religions will vanish in the new digital world seem unfounded. However, it is inevitable that they will transform in response to the widespread digital shift.

• Language: English
• Keywords: digitalization, Covid-19, embodied religion, corporeal turn, sensory turn, material turn
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Evropa
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 83-103
• Numbering: Vol. 54, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-179568
• UDC: 2
• ISSN on article: 0963-7494
• DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2026.2617526
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268637187
• Publication date in RUL: 17.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Religion, state & society
• Shortened title: Relig. state soc.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• COBISS.SI-ID: 30650880

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: COVID-19, digitalizacija, utelešena religija, materialni vidik, telesni vidik, čutni vidik

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0194
• Name: Problemi avtonomije in identitet v času globalizacije