Abstract
“What God Gave to Us”: Digital habits and the shifting social imaginary of American evangelicalism
examines how “digital habitus” (following Bourdieu, 1977; Sterne, 2000) has shaped the social imaginary
(Taylor, 2004) of the American evangelical subculture. Using mixed qualitative methods including realworld ethnographic participant observation, interviews, and digital ethnography, the author presents four
case studies that spring from what the author conceives of as a “digital unconscious” (following from
Walter Benjamin’s (2010) notion of the “optical unconscious”) of evangelicalism. This study begins by
situating evangelical digital habitus in the context of the long history of media use in American
evangelicalism, a history that has often seen this subculture using media technologies means to prove
their fitness in the modern world. In my first case study I analyze how contemporary evangelical worship
spaces have become infused with technology and technological products. I take Life.Church in Edmond,
Oklahoma, which calls itself a “startup church” as the central example of how churches are adapting their
services and spaces to meet the needs of a suburban populace increasingly defined by digital habitus. My
second case study explores the world of faith tech. My interviews explore how these religious
entrepreneurs negotiate their place in the hierarchical culture of technology production centered in Silicon
Valley. I also discuss how many evangelicals see their work as having “redemptive” potential for both the
tech industry and American culture. In my third case study I analyze the motivations of a network of
Christian missionaries who are dedicated to incorporating new media technology into missions work. I
argue that these evangelicals are wary of corporate culture and instead identify with the early visionaries
of the internet especially with the Free and Open Source Software movement. Their experiments with
technology have run into problems in indigenous contexts and these issues have revealed the problems
inherent in the Western nature of technology production. Lastly, this study turns to users and takes a
network of female evangelicals on Twitter as examples of a new connective feminism in evangelical
culture brought about by the affordances of digital media.
examines how “digital habitus” (following Bourdieu, 1977; Sterne, 2000) has shaped the social imaginary
(Taylor, 2004) of the American evangelical subculture. Using mixed qualitative methods including realworld ethnographic participant observation, interviews, and digital ethnography, the author presents four
case studies that spring from what the author conceives of as a “digital unconscious” (following from
Walter Benjamin’s (2010) notion of the “optical unconscious”) of evangelicalism. This study begins by
situating evangelical digital habitus in the context of the long history of media use in American
evangelicalism, a history that has often seen this subculture using media technologies means to prove
their fitness in the modern world. In my first case study I analyze how contemporary evangelical worship
spaces have become infused with technology and technological products. I take Life.Church in Edmond,
Oklahoma, which calls itself a “startup church” as the central example of how churches are adapting their
services and spaces to meet the needs of a suburban populace increasingly defined by digital habitus. My
second case study explores the world of faith tech. My interviews explore how these religious
entrepreneurs negotiate their place in the hierarchical culture of technology production centered in Silicon
Valley. I also discuss how many evangelicals see their work as having “redemptive” potential for both the
tech industry and American culture. In my third case study I analyze the motivations of a network of
Christian missionaries who are dedicated to incorporating new media technology into missions work. I
argue that these evangelicals are wary of corporate culture and instead identify with the early visionaries
of the internet especially with the Free and Open Source Software movement. Their experiments with
technology have run into problems in indigenous contexts and these issues have revealed the problems
inherent in the Western nature of technology production. Lastly, this study turns to users and takes a
network of female evangelicals on Twitter as examples of a new connective feminism in evangelical
culture brought about by the affordances of digital media.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations |
| State | Published - 2018 |