CfP: Postdigital Theologies Technology, Belief, and Practice

It is already well researched that digital technologies have an impact on the practical areas of ministry and mission within religious institutions. However, relationships between technologies and the actual content of belief and practice have received much less attention. A number of models are now starting to emerge, but each of these depends on the theological or philosophical framework within which the debate is set. Yet at the same time there seem to be dilemmas operating at different ends of the spectrum. For example, at one end there is a tendency towards subsuming the digital within the divine, and at the other an instrumental stance relating to how technology is deployed. Either of these stances could be said to ignore rather than acknowledge that the human itself is being changed as a result of the interactions with the digital. We therefore invite contributions in the following areas:

  • Where is God to be found or present in the postdigital condition? 
  • What are the implications of the postdigital for spirituality and indeed for the activity of God through the Holy Spirit?
  • How do concepts of transhumanism or posthumanism effect understandings of the incarnation?
  • Does the doctrine of the Trinity need revisiting in the light of the digital as medium of relationship? 
  • Does Creation now include the postdigital and, if so, what are the implications for an Ecological theology?
  • How do issues of digital afterlife and prospects of other forms of survival impact understandings of the Christian hope?
  • What of the Kingdom of God now that the kingdom of the Tech giants is so powerful and all-consuming?

Other titles are welcome. 

Editors’ ideas behind this book can be found in Postdigital Theologies: Technology, Belief, and Practice (Reader and Savin-Baden 2021).  

Important Dates
1 October 2021 – Deadline for extended abstracts (500-800 words)
15 October 2021 – Deadline for reviewer feedback
1 December 2021 – Deadline for full chapters
15 December 2021 – Deadline for reviewer feedback
1 February 2022 – Deadline for final chapters

The book will be published in 2022.

Editors
John Reader, William Temple Foundation, Rochdale, UK, and University of Worcester, UK
Maggi Savin-Baden, University of Worcester, UK

Please submit your papers to Maggi Savin-Baden, University of Worcester, [email protected]

Bibliography 

Reader, J. (2020). From New Materialism to the Postdigital: Religious Responses to Environment and Technology. Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00154-z.
Reader, J. et al. (2020). Enchantment – Disenchantment – Re-Enchantment: Postdigital Relationships Between Science, Philosophy, and Religion. Postdigital Science and Educationhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00133-4.   
Reader, J., & Savin-Baden, M. (2021). Postdigital Theologies: Technology, Belief, and Practice. Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00212-6
Savin-Baden, M. (Ed.). (2021). Postdigital Humans: Transitions, Transformations and Transcendence. Singapore: Springer. link


Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash

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