The smartphone as a mirror of the soul?

Abstract Smartphones have become integral to everyday life. This article asks whether the smartphone can be understood as a “mirror of the soul”, while also exploring the implications for pastoral and spiritual care. Drawing on the concept of postdigitality, this article argues that digital technologies shape self-perception, memory, and spirituality. The smartphone functions neither as the location of the soul nor as a neutral mirror, but as a structuring portal that intensifies processes of the soul while framing their visibility. By adopting a relational understanding of the soul as that dimension of human life in which relationship, vulnerability, the search for meaning, and relation to God intersect, this article maintains that processes of the soul cannot be reduced to digital storage or displays. Digital pastoral encounters are, therefore, not deficient forms of presence, but distinct relational practices that require conscious framing, attention, and boundary-setting.