Materiality, Religion and the Digital

This article proposes that the material dimension of religion can be articulated and experienced online. Considering that religion is an embodied phenomenon which relies on material elements, this paper will particularly focus on religious practices taking place in immersive virtual platforms in order to comprehend how the material dimension is manifested by users in their everyday life. Through a theoretical analysis, we propose that 3D social virtual worlds efficiently enable users to experience key material aspects such as embodiment and space, due to their high levels of immersivity, interactivity, and agency, by embodying avatars in customizable spaces. Meyer’s theory of mediation, Hoover and Echchaibi’s Third Spaces of Digital Religion, and Campbell’s theory of Religious–Social Shaping of Digital Technology (RSST) allows us to center the discussion on how religions are practiced and experienced by individuals and communities through various mediation practices, and how digital media acquires more affective meanings when they are involved in religious pursuits.