Images of God in the Digital Age. On the Connection Between Digitalisation and the Talk of God's Presence

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the relationship between digitalization and the concept of God’s presence in the world. I argue that the currently evolving digital age will have a huge impact on theological concepts such as the idea that God’s presence in this world can be discerned by human beings. From a theological perspective, the paradigm of digitalization will turn out to be ambivalent: On the one hand, it extends the possibilities of communication and therefore potentially enlarges the space in which God’s presence may be detected. On the other hand, it reduces the complex and multi-layered forms of intersubjective communication and may therefore impoverish the specific qualities of the human relationship to the world (and, consequently, to God). Drawing on the Philosophy of Embodiment and New Political Theology, I argue that the increase in the quantity of communication opportunities will be counterbalanced by a loss of quality in digital acts of communication. While digitalization can be a useful supplement to intersubjective communication, it cannot replace the symbolic interactions of embodied minds who meet in physical presence.