The Gnostic Pandemic: Virtual Worship and the Eclipse of Community in the Time of Covid-19

digital

Article

Magazine

RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI SCIENZE SOCIALI

Fascicle

RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI SCIENZE SOCIALI - 2022 - 1

Title

The Gnostic Pandemic: Virtual Worship and the Eclipse of Community in the Time of Covid-19

Authors

Luigino Bruni, Tommaso Reggiani, Paolo Santori, Alessandra Smerilli

Publisher

Vita e Pensiero

Format

Article |

Pdf

Online from

05-2022

Doi

10.26350/000518_000090

Issn

0035-676X (print) | 1827-7918 (digital)

€ 6.00

Ebook format Pdf readable on these devices:

Computer
with Software:
- Adobe PDF Reader
Android
iPhone/Ipad
with App:
- Adobe PDF Reader
E-Book Reader
Ibs Tolino
Kobo

Description

One of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic is the adoption of lockdown policies by national governments to contain the spread of the virus. The two more visible effects on societies are social distancing and the virtualization of social practices. This paper examines some impacts of these phenomena on people’s religious preferences. We investigated how the shift from in-person to online congregation was perceived by Catholic and Protestant believers. Our results show that the Protestant world felt the lack of community more than the Catholic. Within Catholicism, people who attended more religious services before the lockdown seemed to have less notice of the difference between online and in-person worship. The tendency to virtual congregation appears to bring back Catholics to Gnosticism, meaning a religion too focused on spirituality and knowledge to the detriment of corporality and community. Significantly, priests and nuns resisted this tendency within Catholicism.

keywords

Covid-19, Social Distancing, Virtual Worship

Authors biography

Luigino Bruni, Department of Law, Economics, Politics and Modern languages, LUMSA University. Email: l.bruni@lumsa.it.
Tommaso Reggiani, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. Email: reggianit@cardiff.ac.uk.
Paolo Santori, Department of Philosophy, University of Tilburg. Email: P.Santori@tilburguniversity.edu.
Alessandra Smerilli, Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences “Auxilium”. Email: asmerilli@pfse-auxilium.org.