03/07/2026 11:20 - 12:20

HALL: Pola - A101

Contact: Greuter F.

Chair: Schlag T.

The interdisciplinary University Research Priority Program (URPP) «Digital Religion(s)» at the University of Zurich examines how digital transformations influence and reconfigure religious practices, forms of authority, and modes of community among individuals and institutions. Within different research areas - like digital pastoral care or emeriging technologies - four subprojects within an interdisciplinary cluster focus on «Religious Education within the Post-Digital Context».


A central concern of this cluster is how religious education can foster critical media reflection and thereby strengthen religious digital literacy as a key competency for navigating contemporary mediatized environments. Attention is also given to how issues of equality and inequality are reproduced, negotiated, or challenged within digital media practices. While the concept of literacy has a long intellectual history, it remains indispensable in light of accelerated developments in digitalization and artificial intelligence. Religious education is thus understood not merely as the transmission of technical digital skills but as fostering ethical, analytical, and critical capacities that enable adolescents to engage responsibly and reflectively with digital media and AI, including an awareness of power relations and ethical responsibilities in digitally mediated contexts.


The post-digital is approached as a critical analytical concept highlighting opportunities and challenges inherent in digital transformation processes. It raises questions about how young people encounter and manage these dynamics and how reflective, autonomous, and ethically grounded media practices can be supported in religious educational settings.


The proposed panel introduces the interdisciplinary framework of the URPP «Digital Religion(s)» and presents initial empirical and theoretical insights from two educational subprojects for scholarly discussion.