Approaches to the Study of Religious Apps in Digital Religion

Abstract

One manifestation of the digitalization of religion is the emergence of religious apps. These are small programs for personal devices (smartphones, tablets) specifically designed for religious purposes. The functionality of such applications can be used by followers of different faiths in prayer, meditation, worship, the study of sacred texts, communication with other believers, etc.; some apps also offer self-tracking functions. Due to their growing number and variety, religious apps have drawn researchers’ attention in digital religion studies. These studies emphasize the connection between offline and online contexts and how digital media and spaces shape and, in turn, are shaped by religious practices. The researches of religious apps seek to identify the existing effects and predict the possible outcomes of their use for religion in general and users’ experience in particular. The article reviews the existing research approaches; the author identifies certain thematic areas of them. The first theme is the analysis of discourses by religious app developers; the second theme concerns the study of religious apps’ structure and functionality (or affordances); the third theme is research into the user perspective (mainly the motives and outcomes of app usage). The concluding section discusses the methodological problems of the reviewed approaches and outlines the prospects and possible avenues for further study of religious applications. © 2022, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.