“If we think of technology as using science and engineering to solve problems and of religion as belief in all powerful supernatural forces, there is ample historical evidence of religion and technology being inseparable.” Through evangelising and proselytising, religion has used media technologies, employing the best sculptors, architects, painters and musicians to produce spectacles that captivate the masses, he says. Hugh Davies, a researcher of technological history at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, says organised religion has long embraced technology. In September, Pope Francis addressed a conference at the Vatican on the “Common Good in the Digital Age”, saying that “a better world is possible thanks to technological progress, if this is accompanied by an ethic inspired by a vision of the common good”. Religious education, relationships, habits and knowledge are being transformed as social media allows laypeople to network with clerics and other religious figures. Some organised religions, however, are using technology to interact with communities in an attempt to forge connections between devotees and fuel engagement.

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