Possibilities and risks of – traditional and non-traditional spirituality in cyberspace
Possibilities and risks of – traditional and non-traditional spirituality in cyberspace

Summary/Abstract: The cyberspace of digital media is now becoming a new lifeworld, a new existential dimension of human beings. Many activities, including work, education, sport, entertainment or, even religious-spiritual activities, are moving into it. On the one hand, traditional religions use this cyberspace for spreading information, education, or streaming of worship services. On the other hand, new non-traditional forms of religion and spirituality are being created in virtual cyberspace, especially in new forms of media, for example in videogames. Traditional religions with their spirituality have been shaped to a large extent by the media such as speech and writing. However, new digital media are disrupting these forms of old media. It can be concluded that the cyberspace of digital media as such influences traditional religions and their spirituality. The authors of this paper believe that a certain degree of adaptation is both possible and inevitable. In this context, the question of, to what extent traditional spirituality can adapt to the new digital media arises. Essential in this process is the renewal of the depth of spirituality that is most evident in mysticism and that represents its own identity. Even though some authors argue that non-traditional religions and spirituality saturate the needs of the postmodern and secularized human living in a digital virtual world, the authors of this paper believe that the new digital media or audiovisual technologies can at most provide some support for true spirituality and its development, but not spirituality itself. These non-traditional spiritualities underestimate the fact that the body or the physicality of humans, constitutes an irreplaceable correlate of spirituality.

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