Spring 2022, Volume 49
Features
The Impact of Cyberspace on a Variety of Religious Traditions and Practices
Revolutionary communication technologies play a pivotal role in contemporary society, uniting the world into a single entity by interconnecting every aspect of our lives online. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic of the past year and a half, this technology has become more salient than ever before. As necessity forced us to be physically socially distant, much of the world compensated by shifting work and social life to virtual meeting places in cyberspace.
What have been the repercussions, both positive and negative, of shifting so much of our lives to cyberspace? How has it impacted our relationships, our physical and emotional health, our education, and our religious faith in particular? Even before the pandemic, religious life had been increasingly moving onto the Internet, but unable to gather in person, followers of many religions have scrambled to adapt their lives of faith to virtual forums. After over a year of this social experiment, we have a wealth of experience allowing us to reflect on the opportunities that the online world offers to religions, as well as the challenges presented by practicing faith in cyberspace.
For traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, what has been the experience of undertaking ritual practices and communal worship through the disembodied, two-dimensional screens of computers, tablets, and smart phones? Can God be met in cyberspace? Have Christians been able to share the trials of others through LCD screens to be one with the suffering Christ on the cross? Has reliance on this technology facilitated or hindered the communitarian life of Islamic mosques and Jewish synagogues? Can the Buddhist monastic experience be reproduced in any meaningful way online, and how have engaged Buddhists pursued the bodhisattva practice of liberating oneself by helping others to attain liberation without meeting others in person?
Some commentators and even governments have identified our technology-interconnected world as the source of trouble, such as the spread of disinformation. Have we lost something of our humanity by interacting through screens instead of through fully embodied communication in person?
As countries move out of the pandemic, how should we proceed into the future? Should we live more of our lives through cyberspace, or should we try to “roll back the clock” and go back to the way things were before? Can we even go back to the way things were before?
In the Spring 2022 issue of Dharma World, we hope to explore the impact of living in cyberspace on humanity’s religious traditions and spiritual practices.
The Digital Transition to New Forms of Dharma Sharing
by Yasuhiro Agatsuma
Rhinoceros Dharma
by David Loy
“Although Gautama Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed all realized something profound when they dared to go alone into the wilderness, they did not just disappear into the natural world. Instead, they returned to human society, bringing a new vision that eventually flowered into a new way of life.”
Logging On While Locking Down: Reflections on Religious Life during the Pandemic
by Daniel Veidlinger
Has the move to online worship caused by the pandemic been beneficial or detrimental to the spiritual life of humanity?
The Spiritual Pings of Digital Religion
by Christopher Helland and Gregory Price Grieve
Digital religion has caused a massive readjustment in the practice of spirituality. This had been both a blessing and a curse.
Adapting Interfaith Collaboration to an Internet Reality
by Renata Katalin Nelson
After two years it is clear that there are many opportunities for developing constructive interfaith collaboration in the online space and the experience, meaning, and depth of an encounter are not always lost online.
The Creative Challenges of Religious Practice Today: Remoteness Generates Collective Effervescence
by Masaki Matsubara
Learners from all over the globe have found online classes helpful, convenient, and more comfortable as online classes have become the dominant way of carrying on educational, religious, and spiritual activities.
Niwano Peace Prize
The Thirty-ninth Niwano Peace Prize Awarded to Father Michael Lapsley of South Africa
The Niwano Peace Foundation has announced that it has chosen Anglican Father Michael Lapsley, SSM, of South Africa to be the 2022 recipient of the Niwano Peace Prize for his relentless struggle against apartheid and social discrimination, his support for the liberation movement in South Africa, and his peace-building activities. The reason for selection issued by Dr. Ranjana Mukhopadhyaya, chair of the Niwano Peace Prize Committee, and the recipient’s acceptance letter follow.
Essay
The Bodhisattva and the Christ
by Peter Feldmeier
I am not saying that the bodhisattva path and the path of Christ are exactly the same. There are disanalogies along with . . . analogies.
Reflections
Living Together, Here and Now
by Nichiko Niwano
Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhism
“Practicing” The Religious Myth and Metaphor of the Lotus Sutra
by Dominick Scarangello
If dismissive interpretation can break religious myth and metaphor, rendering it incapable of carrying us over to transcendence in daily life, and if we people of the postmythological vision cannot or will not read the text literally, what are we to do? Is the power of religious myth and metaphor to create meaning and put us in touch with transcendence utterly lost?
