Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority - Chapter 1

Dr. Campbell, director of the Network, explores the interactions between digital innovators and religious organization and institutions, in her latest book: Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority (Routledge 2020). Here, we provide a glimpse into her insights shared in the book on how digital creatives with religious motivations and digital media experts working the churches are challenging traditional notions of what it means to have religious authority in a digital age. The following blog post is an edited excerpt from a chapter appearing in Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority give our readers a unique insights into her arguments and findings shared in the book.

Chapter 1: Investigating Approaches to the Study of Authority

While authority is a characteristic often discussed in relation to how the internet affects relationships and structures within contemporary society, as I argue in previous works (Campbell, 2007, 2010), the way authority is defined in scholarly works is often not clearly contextualized. This is because what constitutes authority in new media or digital culture can be varied and context specific (Campbell, 2007; 2010). Within Internet Studies, the notion of authority has been approached in a variety of ways. These include discussing it in terms of: Organizational or com- munity structures, systems or hierarchies, referencing leadership roles or positions of influence, an ideological notion such as moral or higher authority relative to issues of governance; as a general term synonymous with the term power and even to refer to nonhuman sources of authority such as documents, texts or historical events (Campbell, 2007). So when evoked, authority can mean different things to different researchers, and “there appears to be no unified understanding about what is meant when the concept of ‘authority’ is taken up in studies of the internet” (Campbell, 2007).
Scholars have tried to define religious authority in a way to distinguish it from the general conception of authority and make its meaning or the focus of study more precise. In Sociology of Religion, religious authority is often described as drawing on a particular form of legitimation, often linked to a unique or divine source. As Chavez (1994) stated, “The distinguishing feature of religious authority is that its authority is made legitimate by calling on some supernatural referent” whether that be a specific actor (i.e., god or spirit) or designated structure (p. 756). This understanding of religious authority seeks to distinguish itself by noting it is divinely inspired and given to specific sources within a specific religious context. In this way, religious authority depends on the community recognizing and supporting this spiritual sanctioning of designated religious authorities. This means the legitimation of authority for specific religions or groups, such as Christianity, may rely at least partially on recognizing the fact that a particular divine source plays a role in offering external validation. Whom or what is considered an authority is not solely a human designation. While this understanding of religious authority is helpful in understanding the rationale behind many established religious structures of legitimation, it does not truly help us unpack what is meant by religious authority and its full defining features.

The term religious authority, in general, has been used as a broad concept in much as the same way the term authority has been used in much scholarship. What is actually being referenced (an individual, structure or hierarchy) as authoritative may vary greatly when the term is evoked. Use of the term has varied from seeing religious authority as divine authority granted to religious structures (De Pillis, 1966) or appointed gatekeepers or representing the sentiments and decision- making of God on earth (Wiles, 1971). Religious authority has also been conceived as a trust-based relationship given to institutional professionals (Chavez, 2003) or self-appointed leaders (Barnes, 1978) by their followers, or authority representing systems of knowledge able to define what constitutes religious authenticity, especially in relation to religious identity and membership (Jensen, 2006).

This fluidity of the use of the term is mirrored in discussions of religious authority and digital media and the internet. Scholars of Digital Religion Studies have used Turner’s notion of religious authority as tied to the structures of established religious traditions and groups as a way to discuss the variety of ways religious groups’ community boundaries are challenged by the internet. Baker similarly took a community or institutional approach when she discussed how the internet allows religious community members to make private institutional and theological discussions public (i.e., Barker, 2005). Others discuss the challenge the internet poses to religious authority in terms of the creation and privilege of alternative voices (inferred to be new forms of religious authority in established com- munities), as individuals seeking advice bypass official religious hierarchies (i.e., Herring, 2005; Piff & Warburg, 2005). From this brief review, we see references to religious authority typically indicate established religious structures or groups and how they respond to the new freedoms of communication offered by digital media, which allow members to bypass traditional gatekeepers or monitoring structures. So while evoking the term religious authority helps us focus attention on the specific concerns religious groups and structures may have about the internet, it does not help us further concretely clarify the features of what defines something or someone as authoritative in this digital context. Therefore, simply using the term religious authority as a way to define what authority is may in fact further obscure rather than clarify our understanding.

Excerpt taken from:
Campbell, H.A. (2020). Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority. Routledge.

This book can be purchased through the publisher at: https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Creatives-and-the-Rethinking-of-Religi...