NJRCS Volume 6 Number 2 2026

THE EPISTEMIC IMPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL LITURGY IN CONTEMPORARY TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Ferdinand Chukwunwike Okigbo
Abstract

The growing integration of digital technologies into religious life has transformed the ways in which worship, religious instruction, and communal participation are conducted in contemporary society. While existing studies have examined digital religion from sociological, theological, and communication perspectives, relatively little attention has been devoted to the epistemological implications of digitally mediated worship. This work therefore examines the epistemic implications of digital liturgy in contemporary technological society. Adopting the critical-analytic method, the study draws on insights from philosophy of technology, religious epistemology, and digital religion studies to evaluate how technological mediation influences the formation, transmission, interpretation, and justification of religious knowledge. The central argument of the article is that digital liturgy should not be understood merely as a technological extension of traditional worship but as a distinct epistemic mode through which religious understanding is increasingly formed and sustained. The analysis shows that digital liturgy expands access to religious participation and knowledge, fosters new forms of communal interaction, and broadens opportunities for spiritual formation. At the same time, it reconfigures traditional structures of authority, participation, presence, and religious knowing. The article contributes to scholarship by proposing the concept of the Digital Liturgical Episteme, a framework that explains how technological mediation becomes an active component in the production and interpretation of religious knowledge. It concludes that digital worship represents a significant epistemological development in contemporary religious life and recommends that religious communities engage digital technologies critically and responsibly while preserving the communal, theological, and formative dimensions essential to authentic religious understanding.

Keywords: Digital Liturgy, Religious Epistemology, Digital Religion, Religious Knowledge, Digital Liturgical Episteme
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