The technical-scientific-informational environment and religious institutions: relations and possibilities

Abstract

Technological innovations and digital media are increasingly frequent realities in contemporary times. Likewise, religion as a human phenomenon is essentially related to society, since, since ancient civilizations, there have been connections between man and the sacred. With the insertion of the technical-scientific-informational environment in the modern era, communication has become increasingly accessible and religions have found themselves compelled to adapt to this reality, as they work from the perspective of encompassing the collective. Therefore, this article aims to provide a reflection on the religious phenomenon, making use of Milton Santos' theory about the technical-scientific-informational environment, in order to demonstrate how religious institutions use these new panoramas as a way to evangelization.

Keywords:
religion; geography; digital media; technical-scientific-informational environment

Resumo

As inovações técnológicas e as mídias digitais são realidades cada vez mais frequentes na contemporaneidade. Da mesma forma, a religião enquanto um fenômeno humano, se relaciona essencialmente com a sociedade, já que, desde as antigas civilizações, há conexões do homem com o sagrado. Com a inserção do meio-técnico-científico-informacional na era moderna, a comunicação se tornou cada vez mais acessível e as religiões se viram impelidas a se adaptar a essa realidade, pois trabalham na perspectiva de abarcar o coletivo. Portanto, esse artigo tem o intuito de proporcionar uma reflexão sobre o fenômeno religioso, valendo-se da teoria de Milton Santos acerca do meio-técnico-científico-informacional, a fim de demonstrar como as instituições religiosas se utilizam desses novos panoramas como caminho para a evangelização.

Palavras-chave:
religião; geografia; mídias digitais; meio técnico-científico-informacional

Resumen

Las innovaciones tecnológicas y los medios digitales son una realidad cada vez más frecuente en la época contemporánea. Asimismo, la religión como fenómeno humano está esencialmente relacionada con la sociedad, ya que, desde las civilizaciones antiguas, han existido conexiones entre el hombre y lo sagrado. Con la inserción del entorno técnico-científico-informativo en la era moderna, la comunicación se ha vuelto cada vez más accesible y las religiones se han visto obligadas a adaptarse a esta realidad, trabajando desde la perspectiva de abarcar lo colectivo. Por lo tanto, este artículo tiene como objetivo brindar una reflexión sobre el fenómeno religioso, haciendo uso de la teoría de Milton Santos sobre el entorno técnico-científico-informativo, con el fin de demostrar cómo las instituciones religiosas utilizan estos nuevos panoramas como vía de evangelización.

Palabras clave:
religión; geografia; medios digitales; entorno técnico-científico-informativo

Introduction

The period of great technical and scientific developments between the mid-to-late 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century was marked by the successive change from the natural environment to the technical environment (SANTOS, 2008). At that moment, there was a shortening of distances in the world, ease in forms of communication, the emergence of new technologies and, above all, a remodeling of geographic space, as a result of the contributions inherent to the technical-scientific and informational apparatus.

In his book “The Nature of Space”, Milton Santos presents the progressive change that occurred in spatial forms, so that societies gradually moved from the “natural environment”, crossing through the “technical environment”, until reaching the current period : the “technical-scientific-informational environment”, a process in which he calls “technical periods” (SANTOS, 1997b).

The institution of the technical-scientific-informational environment starts to act as a producer and reorganizer of space, reaching different places, in different ways and intensities, resulting in changes at different levels in the organization of the territory. Religion, in the same way, has the power to restructure landscapes and give new meaning to places, transforming spaces and modifying human perception of them.

An example would be the sociocultural change resulting from the takeover of religions by new techniques from the informational scientific context, as is the case of religious institutions that used the bases of communication through, solely, interpersonal exchanges and relationships and, in the face of current technological transformations and mass media, they shaped themselves to new realities, adapting to the environment.

The most recent methods of spreading news and reconfiguring social life have enabled religion to enter different types of media that allow access to the sacred in different ways. Religion has, therefore, been appropriating these new social dynamics as techniques for developing and maintaining its fixed and virtual religious territories (J. R. OLIVEIRA, 2019).

Thus, starting from the theory of the technical-scientific-informational environment, given the constant transformations occurring around the world, in this article we address the understanding of the Geography of Religion and the innovations in the forms of propagation of the sacred by religious institutions through new technologies and means of communication. We present the relationship between religion, geography and digital media, so that religious institutions and the information society start to coexist more closely, since with the emergence of mass media, religious communication gains more structure and professionalizes itself to increasingly introduce itself into the spaces that the press, TV media, virtual applications, radio and internet offer.

Brief reflections on the Geography of Religion

Religion and Geography are distinct human foundations, but they are knowledge surrounded by specificities and connections, acting on human life in different ways: whether through the norms applied by religion in relation to men (in space) or through the knowledge that geographic science makes possible for society through the modes of action in this space (SANTOS, 2002). As an area of knowledge, the Geography of Religion focuses its studies on the relationships between religion and space. Thus, it is necessary to study this connection to analyze the relevance of the religious phenomenon and its appropriation with the place of experience, since religion can be seen from the perspective of (symbolic) knowledge that generates action and transformation in space. (SALDANHA, 2020).

Geography began to take over religious studies in the post-Second World War period, when Geographical Sciences and geographers adopted landscape analysis as the main focus of analysis (BONJARDIM and ALMEIDA, 2022). According to the authors, it was with the studies of Fickeler (1999 [1947]) that religion effectively entered geography. For this German geographer, “all religions created a representation in the landscape, spatially and temporally perceptible, through magical or symbolic events, and he argued that religions should be considered in the eyes” (BONJARDIM and ALMEIDA, 2022, p. 133- 134).

For other authors, however, it was with Pierre Deffontaines (1894-1978), in his work Géographie et Religions, and David E. Sopher (1923-1984), with the work Geography of Religions, that the Geography of Religion came to be institutionalized in the scientific field. In Deffontaines, geography and religion are related through the influence that religious culture can impose on the landscape. This influence is analyzed through churches, temples, sanctuaries, cemeteries and other cultural systems found in spatial representations. Sopher, in particular, addressed religious phenomena and the spatial relationship between culture and space, presenting religion as an organized and culturally shaped system. The author focuses his attention on the religious component of culture. Currently, several researchers have dedicated themselves to and contributed to the dissemination of this subfield of geography.

From the second half of the 20th century onwards, studies focused on religious phenomenology emerged in geography, from the perspective of humanist-cultural geography, with significant contributions from authors such as E. Isaac, Anne Buttimer and Yi-fu Tuan. According to Gil Filho (2007, p. 209), "this new prism, of a humanist-cultural geography, became one of the ways through which geography sought to break prejudice - within the scope of logical positivism and Marxist structuralism - with the theme of religion”.

Analyzes focused on geography and religion revolve around principles linked to religious and cultural phenomena that have a sacred character. In this way, the interest of the geographer of religion is directed to the foundation of systems linked to the spatial phenomenon and the religious-cultural phenomenon in a unique and inexorable way, based on the idea of the sacred. Thus, humanist-cultural geography made significant contributions to the understanding of the connections between religious systems and geographic space, based on studies of the phenomenology of religion.

In Brazil, the Geography of Religion came to gain space in the mid-1990s, with the studies of geographer Zeny Rosendahl, through NEPEC/UERJ - Center for Studies and Research on Space and Culture at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, created in 1993. For the author (2002), the perspective that interests geographers is the analysis of the experience of faith in the space and time in which it occurs. In her works, Rosendahl explains that the cities where religion has centers of convergence of pilgrims and that model the spatial organization based on the influence of religious practices and beliefs, are called Hieropolis or Sanctuary Cities. In this way, the Geography of Religion focuses on the relationships between space and the sacred (ROSENDAHL, 2008).

The possibilities of relating geography and religion are countless. One of them refers to the symbolic relevance that the sacred plays in space, since geography, through an analysis of religions, seeks to understand spatial manifestations. Thus, religion and geography correlate through the spatial dimension. Gil Filho (2004, p. 2) clarifies that “the Geography of Religion is a subdiscipline of Human Geography whose object is the religious phenomenon seen as a space of objective and subjective relationships embodied in symbolic forms mediated by religion”.

This subfield of Human Geography, therefore, is an area that was created with the aim of explaining the social and cultural transformations experienced by society in space. Both – geography and religion – aim to explain the religious plurality of individuals in geographic space from symbolic space and demonstrate the role of the sacred in spatial organization. According to Gil Filho:

Man, in his process of adaptation to the environment, marks the earth based on his thoughts, attributing meaning to natural and supernatural realities. In this way, homo faber sapiens becomes homo religiosus. Because of this aspect, it is necessary for part of Human Geography to study man under the influence of religion, that is, a Geography of Religions. (GIL FILHO, 2007, p.208).

It is unequivocal that this link – geography and religion – is deeply operative and dynamic, as human beings attribute different meanings to the landscape and territories based on sacred feelings. Human actions portray a way of thinking, especially in the search for meaning in this world. Likewise, religious actions share geographic issues, such as the ways and strategies of dispersing their faith or the territorialities exercised by certain institutions (GIL FILHO, 2006).

Rosendahl (1996) asserts that the practice of religion and faith, through a geographical analysis, is relevant due to the time and space in which it occurs when thinking about the missionary action of effusion of ideas and symbolic experiences. According to his assertions, “the geographical study of religion provides human reason [...] since geography and religion meet through the spatial dimension, one analyzes space and the other, as a cultural phenomenon, occurs spatially” (ROSENDAHL, 1996, p. 11).

For Santos (2006) apud Souza (2020, p.10),” the geography of religion has the character of a cultural geographic discipline in the area of human geography studies”. The author clarifies that religion is a cultural phenomenon of relevance for the development of men's perceptions, beliefs and behaviors and therefore encompasses spatial, social phenomena, beliefs and symbols, as well as human behavior in space, being interconnected with perception.

Regarding the approaches and relationships between geography and religion, it is valid to state that these areas of study seek not only to present, but to analyze and understand the religious phenomenon and sacred nature. P.W.A Oliveira (2019) points out that a subfield such as the geography of religion is not interested in a perspective that guides its analysis based on fundamental functions that define man, “[...] what interests the geographer of religion in his studies on different religious systems is to analyze it, based on the religious scale” (P. W. A. OLIVEIRA, 2019, p. 05).

Therefore, the relationship between man and space, interposed by religious phenomena, allows for a resignification of spatial meanings based on geographic analysis, as the symbolic foundations provided by religion bring a new interpretation of the place based on human perception of the sacred. . That said, it is clear that the field of Geography of Religion has made substantial contributions to the understanding of religious phenomena and their profound correlations with geographic space, since, as a system that is part of a social organization, religion prints marks on the space according to the symbolic values expressed there.

The technical-scientific-informational environment and the use of digital media to spread the faith

There is a consensus that today's society is increasingly connected with information, with closer relationships with technology and the media. Information has become a commodity object for the maintenance of capital. Society then enters the period that Milton Santos (2008) calls “technical-scientific-informational environment”.

The information and communication stage emerged in the mid-1980s, following the scientific-technical revolution and technological advancement, marked by the formation and development of technological industries, the introduction of microcomputers, the implementation of electronic equipment and flexible capital. , in addition to changes on a global scale in media and television, representing a new system of mass control (SANTOS, 2008).

In this period, technical objects tend to be both technical and informational, since, thanks to the extreme intentionality of their production and location, they already appear as information; and, in fact, the main energy of its operation is also information. Today, when we refer to the geographical manifestations arising from new processes, it is no longer a technical means that we are talking about. We are facing the production of something new, which we are calling informational scientific technical means (SANTOS, 2008, p. 238).

Santos (2008) states that society has moved from an industrial context to an informational society. Thus, in the technical-scientific-informational environment, today's society is adjusted, adapting and modifying social relations and, above all, transforming collective and individual spaces of experience. Technique now joins technology and scientific advancement.

This transformation has occurred in different ways and with gradual changes. With urbanization and progressive technological development, society has changed its behavior and worldviews, moving from an individualized position to building collective bonds. Amid the tightening of social relations, technological innovations and ease of communication, there was also, on the part of religious institutions, the need to exercise their leading role in society, to carry out their main function as an evangelizing institution: the proclamation of the sacred to different cultures.

As a result of the accelerated development of information technologies and means of communication, together with the process of globalization and the insertion of the technical-scientific-informational environment, there is currently in Brazil and in several countries, a new communications scenario, reproducing a phenomenon that also encompasses the mystical reality, providing a relationship between society and its faith, that is, the appropriation of churches by technologies and mass communication media as a means of evangelization.

Such transformations occurred with the expansion of digital technologies and access to the media, so that religious institutions were forced to adapt to the new panorama, changing representational processes to reach new audiences. According to Sbardelotto (2012), “the Church, previously conservative in the face of the new reality of communication and the loss of believers, understands that the powerful domain of religious communication must be extremely relevant and timely in maintaining the power of evangelizing management in the world” (apud J. R. OLIVEIRA, 2019, p. 09).

According to Veiga (2007), if we looked for a dividing line between Modernity and Post-Modernity in religious matters, we would certainly find this disjunction in the appropriation of technological means. However, given the current context, there was a need to associate the digital with the spiritual to expand faith.

While the popes of Modernity excoriated new times for trying to emancipate man from God and also science for instilling the novelty that could infect him “with everything that reminds him of the old”, the current religious trend, encouraged by John Paul II, who knew how to use the media in favor of fides propaganda like no other, is to combine the digital and the spiritual in search of spaces where expressions of faith do not only act in the symbolic and ritualistic field as in churches, but as a powerful supporting element in everyday life of the believer, acting as a relief in times when a real assistant cannot be contacted. (VEIGA, 2007, p. 01)

Digital media, in addition, enable a geographical approach and access to news from different parts of the world, also spreading the premises of the sacred and spreading faith. Regarding this perspective, Silveira (2014, p. 221) states that “image representations are catapulted by mass and electronic media, in a process of convergence with new physical platforms (computers, notebooks, iPads, smartphones, iPhones), enhancing the consumption circuit”. According to the author, this process directly affects “the way in which religion is conceived, the experience of the sacred and religions.” (SILVEIRA, 2014, p. 221).

In this way, the territory of religion has occupied a new place in modern society. Not withering away, nor suppressing itself; it has only been reorganizing itself in the territory, undergoing a resurgence, sometimes dramatic, but renewing. According to Santos (2002), this reorganization of the territory occurs because it – the territory – is, above all, inhabited and used, being part of the population's identity.

These adaptations of churches to the demands of modernity refer to what Santos (2008) attributes to the information society, to the technical-scientific-informational environment. According to the author, the technical-scientific-informational environment is marked by the use of science and technique; Furthermore, the medium and techniques produce and transmit information, which is why it is called technical-scientific-informational means. “The technical-scientific-informational environment is a geographic environment where the territory necessarily includes science, technology and information” (SANTOS, 2008, p. 20).

With this insurgency, virtual and technological reality is now in line with spirituality. The places where they were previously directed to the specific materiality of sacred objects are beginning to be replaced by the computer, internet, cell phone applications or television. According to Jefferson de Oliveira (2019), the propagation of faith online and the different ways of expanding devotion through message flow in the media allow it to reach countless devotees.

This modern context, relating the ideas of Santos (2002), is linked to the innovations proposed by the technical-scientific-informational environment, which, in an accelerated manner, enables the dissemination of information to a group of people. “Communication technology allows innovations to appear, not only together and associated, but also to be propagated together” (SANTOS, 1997a, p. 27).

Masses, services or religious celebrations that necessarily lacked the physical presence of the faithful are now also aimed at a viewing public or internet user. “There is a true evangelization occurring through communication vehicles or the so-called “Televangelization”, a process occurring especially through open television” (BARROS, 2014, p. 11). Alves (2000, p. 41) also discusses this issue when he states that “in modern times, prophets of religion no longer need to go to the squares [...]. They speak in the name of divinity and return the designs of the heavens to the people. They bring the Almighty to the screen. They make God ‘in the air’.”

In this sense, it is unequivocal that the different religious denominations that use television networks or cell phones, internet, apps and computers to propagate the faith, aim to present to the faithful a reality that deviates, on average, from social norms, since which presents the sacred in the way it best suits, and at different times indicates to the viewer or Internet user the encounter of a life with peace, aiming at salvation or divine protection. According to Barros (2014), initially many commercial broadcasters began to rent their time slots to these religious structures, opening up space in their daily schedule to broadcast many programs of a religious nature and Eucharistic celebrations, so that this phenomenon became popular and grew within the scope of broadcasting in the country.

In addition to TV and radio broadcasts carried out by various religious broadcasters, these liturgical celebrations are currently broadcast over the internet, through social networks or cell phone applications, providing the faithful with the possibility of effectively following them through computer screens or mobile phones. According to Veiga (2007, p.01), “virtual spirituality acts like a domestic church: the niche where the saints were placed was replaced by the computer screen which, together with the saint, brings his prayer; requests do not need to be taken to the altar of the statue in the temple.”

With this insurgency, virtual and technological reality is now in line with spirituality. The places where they were previously directed to the specific materiality of sacred objects are beginning to be replaced by the computer, internet, cell phone applications or television. According to Jefferson de Oliveira (2019), the propagation of faith online and the different ways of expanding devotion through message flow in the media allow it to reach countless devotees.

This modern context, relating the ideas of Santos (2002), is linked to the innovations proposed by the technical-scientific-informational environment, which, in an accelerated manner, enables the dissemination of information to a group of people. “Communication technology allows innovations to appear, not only together and associated, but also to be propagated together” (SANTOS, 1997a, p. 27).

Masses, services or religious celebrations that necessarily lacked the physical presence of the faithful are now also aimed at a viewing public or internet user. “There is a true evangelization occurring through communication vehicles or the so-called “Televangelization”, a process occurring especially through open television” (BARROS, 2014, p. 11). Alves (2000, p. 41) also discusses this issue when he states that “in modern times, prophets of religion no longer need to go to the squares [...]. They speak in the name of divinity and return the designs of the heavens to the people. They bring the Almighty to the screen. They make God ‘in the air’.”

In this sense, it is unequivocal that the different religious denominations that use television networks or cell phones, internet, apps and computers to propagate the faith, aim to present to the faithful a reality that deviates, on average, from social norms, since which presents the sacred in the way it best suits, and at different times indicates to the viewer or Internet user the encounter of a life with peace, aiming at salvation or divine protection. According to Barros (2014), initially many commercial broadcasters began to rent their time slots to these religious structures, opening up space in their daily schedule to broadcast many programs of a religious nature and Eucharistic celebrations, so that this phenomenon became popular and grew within the scope of broadcasting in the country.

In addition to TV and radio broadcasts carried out by various religious broadcasters, these liturgical celebrations are currently broadcast over the internet, through social networks or cell phone applications, providing the faithful with the possibility of effectively following them through computer screens or mobile phones. According to Veiga (2007, p.01), “virtual spirituality acts like a domestic church: the niche where the saints were placed was replaced by the computer screen which, together with the saint, brings his prayer; requests do not need to be taken to the altar of the statue in the temple.”

In addition, there is also the dissemination of faith through websites and applications that help the believer to connect with the sacred online, with nowadays a range of web pages, applications, virtual courses, social networks , etc., being made available both for marketing purposes and free of charge. In this context, there is a link between the media/technology and religion, in order to facilitate the encounter between the believer and the sacred, in which religious denominations increasingly use digital media.

With the sacred entity now “closer”, the devotee has the opportunity to have the virtual Bible, applications that guide the monitoring of songs sung in services/celebrations, biblical readings and meditations through apps and, in addition to all this, effectively be a member of a religious denomination without necessarily moving from home. Here we refer to Virtual Churches, the newest religious/informational reality created today to attract believers. The first church created in this format is “Lagoverso”, originating from the Lagoinha Baptist Church, which has more than 600 units in Brazil and other countries, using metaverse technology, as a virtual reality platform where services are held with the structure of a conventional church.

These Churches were born in the face of the desires of the modern context, in which material realities are gradually being exchanged for virtual, cybernetic reality, which is still real, but superimposed on the physical/concrete plane. According to Veiga (2007), since the 1990s, when we saw a sudden boost in digital technologies, we can see, at the same time, a paradigm shift in religious relations with such technologies.

These actions reflect the need to propagate the faith to achieve a high degree of evangelization since, at once, it is possible to reach a large number of people. According to Sposito (2008, p. 148) “new technologies are changing relationships between people, as well as the internal organization of cities and between different cities.”

Thus, in this experience of the “technical-scientific-informational environment”, it is clear that, faced with new realities, the growth of networks and the reduction of distances, there is a dynamization and diffusion of information, which makes humanity experience and review the paradigms of communication in the globalized world. This allows the redefinition of the notion of time in space, demonstrating the metamorphoses of an archaic, rigid and traditional society, into a dynamic, modern and globalized society.

Online religiosity and cyberspace

Motivated by the belief in the sacred, thousands of people seek, in some way, to connect with mystical realities, surrendering themselves to the supernatural forces that subsidize their choices and, to a certain extent, determine their actions on earth. When we talk about determining actions, we are not referring to breaking freedom or canceling ourselves as a being. In this case, it is about obeying the orders of an inner belief that guides outer actions, in a form of submission in the belief of something greater than oneself. This reflects what Eliade (1999) calls homo religiosus.

Participation in religious rituals – cults, masses, magic, celebrations or consecrations – is a frequent reality in society, dating back to ancient civilizations. Although society has undergone significant transformations in today's world, there is no way to say that there has been a decline or suppression of religious practices. After all, as Geertz (1989) states, religion is part of the cultural system produced by subjects in their social contexts.

Combined with technological innovation, sacred symbolism has undergone a process of resignification, introducing itself into an unusual system, which escapes hieratic traditions, but which is still religious. Physical space is replaced by virtual space, introducing the so-called cyberspace, as adapting to technological realities also involves adjusting to the sacred universe. Cyberspace, according to Loro (2009), p. 02), “it is the space for everything and everyone. It has the ability to make available, in any time-space, through words and/or images, different contents, activities, ways and expressions of life.”

In cyberspace, as well as in physical space, there is the experience of life stories, imaginaries, symbolisms, cultures and religions. There are social representations, cultural phenomena, news, ideologies, literature and politics. There is, above all, communication, which comes in different forms and accesses. As mentioned by Santos (2008) about the speed of information and the shortening of distances from the technical-scientific-informational environment, it is necessary to consider the linking of cultures and convergences of ideas and perceptions in the same space, even if seen geographically distant, provided by internet access. In this way, territories coming from cyberspace are essential for the continuity of the church in modernity

The internet is responsible for most access to virtual churches or virtual religiosity, whether through social networks, with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or through apps aimed at churches and believers, or through specific websites for monitoring religious rites and celebrations. These possibilities reflect how symbolic boundaries are increasingly blurred, so that subjects meet virtually for social communication, enabling contemporary society to multiply and for different cultures to meet, as Pace (1997) states:

[...] if ultramodern society is increasingly organized as a set of non-places (the subway, airports, large shopping centers, which we currently find in many parts of the world, as well as the repetitiveness of advertisements advertising), the first criterion to adopt is to start thinking about how the Other is currently close to us and no longer far from us because in contemporary society free zones are multiplying in which different cultures touch, touch and sometimes they conflict (PACE, 1997, p. 27).

Virtual religiosity is an increasingly latent fact in society. Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, which occurred in 2020 and 2021, in which it was necessary to adapt the global reality to social isolation, religions broke the barriers of time and space and became more dedicated to online evangelization. The sacred became digital and the faith expressed in virtual spaces reflected the transformations in the manifestation of religion. For Sbardelotto (2012, p. 5) “if communication (its logics, its devices, its proceduralities) is in constant evolution, religion, when making use of it, also follows this evolution and is impelled by it to something different than what traditionally was.”

The physical and tangible urban space was transformed, or rather, given new meaning, by virtual space. Loro (2009) even mentions that not only urban space has changed. Evangelization pastorals are no longer the pastoral care of the city, but of the city-world. According to the author, we can say that the “urban” is present wherever there is a computer connected to a communication network. In this way, the virtual world introduces itself to the physical field and expands based on a new religious communication on the internet, which Giraldi (2021) calls “Virtual Church”.

Virtual is the real. Yes, the virtual or virtus is the force that moves religions. From medieval Latin, the word is translated as power, virtue, grace. It is through the virtual that the communicative action of deities occurs, which, like God, manifests itself in omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence; being in different locations, without being tied to any reality. We are facing a convergence of faith in religion. The concept of virtuality goes beyond its technological definitions and can be understood as a possible experimental space for transcendence. Therefore, new social media should not only be seen as communication tools between the Church and the faithful, but an opportunity to think about Christianity in the times of the internet and the media culture of faith that is born from this new environment (GIRALDI, 2021, p. 06).

The virtual church also relies on the use of social networks, a reality that is very widespread today. We have very clear examples of religious leaders who have surrendered to digital influences and today have thousands of followers. This is the case of Brazilian religious celebrities who are inserted in the religious media context not only through the television network, but are now present through the internet and social networks, such as Bishop Edir Macedo, Father Fábio de Melo, Father Marcelo Rossi , among other icons that allied themselves with the strength of digital media, in order to establish links with the faithful and, consequently, gain more followers.

In addition to these personalities, we also have the example of the Canção Nova Catholic Community, which in addition to the television channel, has thousands of followers on its social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flick, among other means, with the aim of approaching faithful followers and encompassing countless devotees. Furthermore, according to Oliveira (2016), the religious time between homo religiosus and the sacred can also occur through virtual chapels, virtual candles and applications with the Bible.

Given this virtual dynamic, it is evident how practices of access to religion have been undergoing metamorphoses and adapting to modernity, in order to bring together the largest number of believers so that they can experience faith through virtual space, cyberspace. After all, the religious man feels the need to be connected to the sacred, as “he is the one who has been touched by the sacred power. He can pray, offer sacrifices, perform religiously motivated acts, once he has been struck by the manifestation of the Holy One. (GRECO, 2009, p. 87-88). This emergence through connection with mystical reality transforms human experiences through divine action, because “like every human construction, the sacred is endowed with a spatiality that is translated by its own attributes and is inserted into general human spatiality” (ROSENDAHL, 2008, p. 9).

In this way, the role of religions in accompanying the process of religious communication is notable, constantly adapting to new social practices and, as Rosendahl proposes, transcending to a sacred space imaginalis – which is the space of encounter with the sacred (ROSENDAHL, 2002). However, the space referred to here is one that has a new mobility and accessibility through cyberspace, and can be used in any time-space for the dissemination of belief and ideals, offering the user/internet user a range of possibilities for accessing belief and approach to the sacred.

Final considerations

Since ancient times, due to various circumstances, churches have always sought to meet their audiences, seeking to attract their faithful and win new followers. With media and virtual reality it would be no different. Churches of different denominations, in different ways, have also submitted themselves to this new contemporary panorama, seeking, through various means of communication and new technologies, to achieve their main purpose as an evangelizing institution: to spread the faith to all cultures, helping the faithful to connect with the sacred.

In this way, the relationships between geography and religion were highlighted and how the latter can influence spatial actions and transformations. Likewise, the expansion of the technical-scientific-informational environment was attested and how religious institutions adapted to new techniques and used the media and digital media to reach the faithful, whether through radio, TV , internet, cell phone applications, or even with the creation of a new type of denomination – Virtual Churches – willing to embrace a modern and strong audience: the internet user.

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  » http://www.historica.arquivoestado.sp.gov.br/materias/anteriores/edicao24/materia01/texto01.pdf

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  19 July 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  30 Dec 2023
• Accepted
  30 Apr 2024