Digital Theology

A Computer Science Perspective

Erkki Sutinen, Anthony-Paul Cooper

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781839825361
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Sociologia delle religioni

Digital Theology is a rapidly emerging field of academic research and gaining traction with scholars of Computer Science, Theology, Sociology of Religion and the wider Humanities.
This book explores Digital Theology from a Computer Science perspective, providing a comprehensive definition of the subject and setting the agenda for future work in the field for both academics and practitioners. A range of Digital Theology case studies highlight the challenges, and successes, and the lessons learned which can be applied to future situations. The book also includes a timely analysis of the role that digital technology has played in the response of the global church to specific world events; clarifying a number of turning points which have driven dramatic and rapid change in churchoperating models.

1

INTRODUCTION: TOWARDS A DIALOGUE OF THE THEOLOGICAL AND THE COMPUTATIONAL

The proliferation of information technology (IT) over the past 30 years has driven fast-paced change throughout every aspect of society – the ways in which we work, learn, socialise, date, interact with family and engage in acts of worship have all adapted to embrace a new technology. While the role of technology in most walks of life has been well documented, the role of technology in expression of faith and, conversely, the role of faith in technology, have thus far received surprisingly little discourse. This is starting to change. The new and emerging field of Digital Theology has recently begun to pick up momentum, exploring the complex and rapidly evolving relationship between the fields of technology and theology.

The related area of digital religion overlaps with Digital Theology. However, while digital religion explores the integration of technology within the phenomenon of religion, the perspective of Digital Theology is that of a given faith and its intellectual conceptualisation as digital representation. The particular viewpoint of Digital Theology focusses on expression of faith, as do the classic fields of Christian theology: exegetics, systematic theology, church history and practical theology¹ when they explore and analyse the sources, methods, trends and practices of the intellectual exercise of expressing and conveying faith as various forms of information. The interrelatedness between faith as spiritual belief and its intellectual, tangible expression as creed, doctrine or concrete behaviour forms the basis for the dialogue of theology and computer science applied in IT, as Digital Theology.

To help you, the reader, to navigate through the book, we will overview the design principles that guided us to compile our vision, agenda and methods of Digital Theology.

1.1. MEETING THE INCREASING DEMAND FOR DIGITAL THEOLOGY

Thus far, the discussion and debate surrounding Digital Theology has tended to be theology led, with reflections on the applications and uses of technology in faith communities being framed from a theological perspective. The discussion has also tended, so far, to be academically focussed – the debate has largely taken place in academic journals and at research symposia, often at a very high level and through a theoretical lens. The field of computer science has yet to offer a robust response to this discourse and, therefore, the unique perspectives which computer scientists can bring to this fascinating topic have so far not reached the mainstream.

This book seeks to address both of the identified gaps. First, it seeks to present a discussion on Digital Theology from a computer science, or more extensively computing, perspective – by exploring what the field might encompass, the types of problems the field might address and the approaches which the field might take, all through the lens of computer scientists.

The field of computing covers computer engineering, computer science, information systems, IT and software engineering.² Since our viewpoint is mostly focussed on the design of novel digital solutions for theologically relevant challenges, the relevant subfields for us are computer science that explores and develops computational methods at the limits of automation and software engineering that investigates the engineering aspects of designing the solutions. Because the solutions need to meet with the emerging requirements, co-design and evaluation are critical aspects of the engineering process – and these perspectives are studied in information systems. The solutions themselves are products of IT, dependent on computer engineering.

Second, this book seeks to address a wider audience than the typical academic circles who have tended to be the primary target audience for work published to date. This book seeks to engage readers from a variety of backgrounds – academics, students, technical developers, leaders of diverse churches and denominations, religious laypeople and the curious individual simply intrigued by how emerging technology might shift faith-based behaviours and practice and by how faith might inspire new approaches to technical design and innovation.

In taking this approach, this book hopes to drive forward the conversation around Digital Theology and equip readers to understand more about key challenges in the field and support readers in knowing where to look to take forward their interest and, we hope, active participation in the design challenges of this exciting, fast moving and innovative field.

In taking readers on this introductory journey through the emerging field of Digital Theology, we will cover a number of key topics:

• What is Digital Theology?
• Why study Digital Theology?
• How to study Digital Theology?
• What does the future of Digital Theology look like?

In guiding readers through these key questions and providing an overview of the field, the authors, both computer scientists and one also an ordained priest, will provide readers with a wide range of high-level examples and case studies. Many of these examples will be from our own portfolio of recent studies, which have focussed extensively on a variety of Digital Theology research questions. However, studies by other authors, from a range of academic backgrounds will also be referred to, to help demonstrate the diversity of thought already present within the field.

It will not be possible, in this short introductory book, for the definitions and examples which we will cover to be in any way exhaustive. That is not our intention. Our intent through this book is to provide a glimpse into as wide a range as possible of interesting Digital Theology activities already taking place and to provide a tempting overview of the art of the possible for future Digital Theology research and development.

Globally, several contemporary phenomena indicate the demand and interest in Digital Theology. The landscape of existential challenges includes interfaith encounters, dialogue between the Global South and Global North, the rise of religions (sometimes seen in the West as new spirituality), climate change, ageing demographics, political, ideological and religious polarisation, the fall of democracies and institutions, sudden pandemics and the interdependency of humankind that shares the same humanness, as expressed in the African concept of Ubuntu. All of these challenges have a theological dimension in the technology that needs to be understood.

Academically, the interest in digital humanities and computational social sciences is on the increase. The recent development trends of technology and its active userbase expanding to all walks of life not only creates opportunities, but also threats that have a theological dimension. A hands-on comprehension of how theology and digital technology not only enrich, but also challenge each other is needed more than ever before, for designing what is called humane technology.³

1.2. COMPUTER SCIENCE POINT OF VIEW ON DIGITAL THEOLOGY: DESIGNING DIGITAL SOLUTIONS FOR THEOLOGICAL CHALLENGES

From the viewpoint of computer science, this book uses the application field, theology and its requirements, as a source of inspiration. The focus is to show their relevance as challenges for digital applications that can change the world for the better, not to be theologically precise or comprehensive. The approach, however, is based on Paul Tillich’s method of correlation.⁴ Tillich advises theologians to identify an existential question and struggle to answer it from the domain of theology. Thus, while our perspective is that of digital design for theologically relevant, or existential, challenges, we apply a method adopted from theology. The emphasis on existential questions in the digital realm and their intellectual, or informational, answers means that we use term theology, not religion.

Our, to some extent, relaxed approach – not very usual in most theology – translates to our flexible use of key terms that we use interchangeably. First, for an expression of faith, we also use terms belief or in some contexts religion. An intellectual elaboration of faith is not only theology, but occasionally also doctrine or creed. A group of people sharing the same faith is called a community of faith, congregation or church. And finally, an existential question is that of ultimate concern.

In this book, we adapt mainly the constructive or design approach of computer science. Computer science, originally a multi-disciplinary field born of mathematics, science and engineering, gets its inspiration from problems that can be conceptualised and represented as and solved by computational, automated processes. Therefore, while Digital Theology is a truly interdisciplinary field where all the integrated disciplines contribute, our perspective is that of computer science: we are mainly interested in the design and character of applications, and the influence and impact of computer science on challenges and problems of a theological nature. We have a pragmatic orientation: we look at these phenomena from a constructive point of view, emphasising the digital theological artefacts as instantiations of computer science. These artefacts do not necessarily need to be digital tools that are used only or even primarily in theological research and training, but in any areas which are rooted or inspired in the theological realm.

Within computer science, we approach Digital Theology from the perspective of interaction design: how to devise technologies that enhance and enrich the encounter and mutual understanding between people, rather than that between a computer and its user. This is because most of the theologically relevant questions are solved within faith communities. These questions can get novel insights by interactive technologies that allow different people to explore and elaborate them together. However, the focus on interaction does not restrict the choices or genres of technologies: they can range anywhere from (shared) text searching and analysis to (distributed) artificial intelligence to (collaborative) games.

Our focus means that the emphasis is on design thinking rather than computational thinking, albeit we cover aspects of computation, like artificial intelligence and computational methods for interpreting data. Therefore, the term Digital Theology is a better choice for this book than its narrower alternative Computational Theology. A person doing Digital Theology could be called digital theologian or designer of Interactive Theology, another possible variation for Digital Theology that emphasises the interactive role of digital technology. In fact, Tillich’s method of correlation is a design method.

Ideally, a design process for a meaningful, digital, interactive application for a theological challenge follows the principles of co-design. Co-design refers to a process where a set of diverse stakeholders work together throughout the design process, from identifying the requirements until the design is operational. The process requires trust and empathy that the co-design team exercises in a given real-life context, or several of them in which case we talk about intercontextual design. It resembles the approaches of Tillich’s contemporaries in the Bauhaus design school. A functional design should touch its users with all their senses, being an aesthetic rather than anaesthetic experience.

For constructing any meaningful and functional digital artefact, the co-design process has to take place in one or more specific contexts that set the requirements and expectations for the artefact’s use. For a relevant artefact in Digital Theology, the design process requires a given theological perspective and interpretation, throughout its design and evaluation. In our case, if not otherwise indicated, our context is that of Christianity and Christian faith communities. However, the insights and approaches can be re-contextualised to other faiths as well.

The book is inspired by the contemporary and emerging challenges at the crossroads of interactive technology and theology, rather than on a systematic literature review. The focus is on the question of how academic fields which seem so remote from each other can cross-fertilise each other and initiate novel insights and applications in a world that is increasingly shaped by technological and theological interests.

1.3. HOW DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SHAPES DIGITAL THEOLOGY

For integrating the digital to theology, we can talk about three levels. Digitisation in theology refers to the representation of theologically relevant content in a digital form; like digitising the Bible. Digitalisation of, or in, theology calls for integrating and making use of the full potential of digital technology in theology. Digital transformation of theology requires re-thinking theology – its contents and methods – by what digital technology allows for.⁵

Digital transformation requires a bold attitude towards innovation, a critical dimension of the trinity of research, development and innovation (RDI). While various technology acceptance or adoption models have identified reasons or motivations for making use of available technology as expected benefit or demand influenced by trusted people (Kambunga, Winschiers-Theophilus, & Goagoses, 2018), our viewpoint is that of designing new, rather than applying existing technological solutions. A serious, reformative digital transformation does not only automate a current, possibly outdated or irrelevant function, process or routine, but also explores what is really demanded and designs the solution accordingly. The former uses technology in a conserving way, possibly with an integrated incremental innovation and the latter designs new technology in a reforming way, with a twist of radical innovation.

Digital transformation in theology leads to solutions that are not adapted from another industry, but which are, truly and from the outset, theology-native – disruptive solutions, or game changers.

Five centuries ago, Christian theology met with another novel technical innovation – the printing press. The impacts of this encounter led to reformation that had, and still has, global implications. Maybe the contemporary encounter of theology with digital technology will turn out as impactful and decisive, for the method as well as the contents of theology.

1.4. TECHNOLOGY AND POWER ISSUES: TOP-DOWN OR BOTTOM-UP?

Technology has always had an impact on power: those who have will and skill to use technology, easily dominate others. This applies even more to IT that combines effective and efficient access and ownership to information. But knowledge, or for that matter, information on theological or the transcendental issues adds a significant element to power: those having ultimate comprehension of humans’ final destiny could ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1. Introduction: Towards a Dialogue of the Theological and the Computational
• 2. What is Digital Theology?
• 3. Why Explore Digital Theology?
• 4. How to Research Digital Theology?
• 5. What Might the Future of Digital Theology Look Like?
• 6. Conclusion
• References
• Index