Online Opportunities in Secularizing Societies? Clergy and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ireland
Why is this work in the frame?
A frame that forgets how it found something cannot be audited. These are the routes that admitted this work.
No Canadian affiliation. An affiliation-only frame — the usual design — would never have seen this work. It is one of the works that make the case for inverting the frame.
The three-model screen
all 1,000 screened works →All three models called this out of scope.
Survey of clergy adopting online ministry during COVID; sociology of religion.
The study examines clergy and online ministries during COVID-19 rather than research.
Sociology of religion on clergy online ministries during COVID in Ireland; not about research practice.
Abstract
This article explores how Christian clergy in Ireland have framed their adoption of online ministries during the COVID-19 pandemic as opportunities for the churches to retain some significance, even in secularizing societies. It is based on an island-wide survey of 439 faith leaders and 32 in-depth, follow-up interviews. The results of this study are analysed in light of scholarship in three areas: (1) secularization in Ireland, informed by Norris and Inglehart’s evolutionary modernization theory; (2) cross-national research that has found increasing interest in spirituality or religion during the pandemic (with the UK as the main point of comparison); and (3) wider pre-pandemic scholarship on digital religion. The article concludes by arguing that the clergy’s framing of online ministries as opportunities is important: if they regard online ministries as potential sites of religious revitalization, they are more likely to invest in them. There is some evidence that they may be assisted in this by lay volunteers. However, given the secularization already underway, it remains to be seen whether an embrace of blended online and in-person religion will have far-reaching impacts on Ireland’s religious landscape.
Stored with the screening record, where it is evidence for the labels above.
The record
- Venue
- Religions
- Topic
- Media, Religion, Digital Communication
- Field
- Arts and Humanities
- Canadian institutions
- —
- Funders
- Queen's UniversityQueen's University Belfast
- Keywords
- SecularizationScholarshipFaithPandemicFraming (construction)SpiritualityPolitical scienceCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)SociologyModernization theoryEnvironmental ethicsSocial scienceMedia studiesLawGeographyTheology
- Has abstract in OpenAlex
- yes