*CFP* CALL FOR PANEL CONTRIBUTIONS, "THEOLOGY AND DIGITAL MEDIA" ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN ACADEMIA OF RELIGION

Since the Internet has gained a deep penetration into the everyday life of a lot of societies, Christian Churches strive to increase their presence on digital media for missionary and spiritual purposes and in order to counterbalance the negative coverage in secular media. This change has brought about the need for digital professionals who use their media and technical skills to create resources for Churches. Heidi Campbell (2016) coins the term ‘digital creatives’ to signify this new group of professionals.

At the same time, the ways Christian Churches use digital media are closely entangled with existing institutional practices and are shaped by theological dispositions. They may vary in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches.

This panel is aimed at a comparison of how Christian Churches adopt digital media for religious purposes. The comparison will be worked out through the dialogue between scholars who study the adaptation of digital media by Christian Churches and digital creatives, i.e., ministers and/or priests from these Churches who work with digital media.

Papers that scrutinize digital media uses in Christian Churches from theoretical, theological and practical perspectives are particularly welcome.

We invite scholars to submit proposals to the panel Theology and Digital Media: a Comparative Perspective from Christian Churches, which will be organized at the Annual Conference of European Academia of Religion (June 22-25, 2020, Bologna, Italy).

Please send your abstract up to 300 words to Marianna Napolitano (La Fondazione per le Scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII) mariannanapolitano@hotmail.com and to Ekaterina Grishaeva (Ural Federal University) katherina.grishaeva@gmail.com by December 20, 2019.