Symposium RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE Portorož - Portorose, May 29-30, 2023 PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS Symposium RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE Portorož / Portorose, St. Bernardin Resort May 29–30, 2023 PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS Koper 2023 Symposium RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE Programme and Abstracts Editors/Urednici: Nadja Furlan Štante, Karin Šmid Editor-in-Chief of the Publishing House/Glavni in odgovorni urednik založbe: Tilen Glavina Editor for Philosophy and Religious Studies/Urednik za področji filozofije in religiologije: Lenart Škof Technical Editor/Tehnična urednica: Alenka Obid Design/Oblikovanje: Alenka Obid Layout/Prelom: Alenka Obid, Barbara Pandev Cover photograph/Fotografija na naslovnici: Shutterstock Publisher/Izdajatelj: Science and Research Centre Koper, Annales ZRS/ Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče Koper, Annales ZRS For the publisher/Za izdajatelja: Rado Pišot Online edition, available at: http://www.zrs-kp.si/index.php/research-2/zalozba/ monografije/ This symposium has been financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS), through the project Constructive Theology in the Age of the Anthropocene and Digital Culture (P6-0434). Kataložni zapis o publikaciji (CIP) pripravili v Narodni in univerzitetni knjižnici v Ljubljani COBISS.SI-ID 153365507 ISBN 978-961-7195-15-6 (PDF) CONTENTS 5 ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM 9 PROGRAMME 13 ABSTRACTS 15 Gorazd Andrejč and Matej Mertik Pancomputationalism and the Relationship between Science and Religion 16 Victoria Dos Santos Reframing Ontologies in Digital Religion: An Exploration of Animistic Interactions in Online Neopagan Rituals 18 Nadja Furlan Štante Beyond Paternalistic and Patriarchal Conceptualization of Nature – Cohabitation with-in Nature and Digitality 19 Maja Gutman Mušič Mapping Dreams with Digital Technologies: Synergies between Close and Distant Reading 20 Noreen Herzfeld The Banality of Technological Evil 21 Victor J. Krebs Dreaming in the Digital Age – Posthuman Thoughts on the Technological Pharmakon 22 Blaž Lenarčič Wish you were here: Presence of Individuals in the ICT Mediated Society within the Context of Religious Practices RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE 23 Gašper Mithans Studying Religion and Slovenian Immigration to the U.S. Using Digital Interviewing 24 Lenart Škof Elemental Philosophical Theology: Meditations on an Age of the Post-Anthropocene 25 Karin Šmid Visual Presence of Religions in the Cityscape of Maribor 26 Luka Trebežnik The Textual Character of Religious Existence in the Digital Age 4 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE ABOUT THE SYPOSIUM The primary goal of the symposium is to analyse and establish links between theological and ethical perspectives on the environment, on the one hand, and digital technologies, on the other. The starting point is the increasing intertwinement of natural and digital environments for contemporary and future life on our planet. The development and increasing use of advanced digital technologies and artificial intelligence raise several challenging ethical questions. Understanding these challenges and formulating theologically reflective responses to them are important aspects of digital theology, as defined by Peter Phillips, Kyle Schiefelbein-Guerrero and John Kurlberg (2019). Digital culture is the context within which we increasingly do theology, thus, digital theology impacts both theology as a discipline and digital culture within which we live. This symposium draws upon, contributes to, and brings together the fields of theology, philosophy, sociology of religion, anthropology of religion, philosophy of technology, and digital humanities. More precisely it brings together methodologies and epistemologies from Creation theology, eco-theology, eco-feminism, theological anthropology, philosophical theology, post-metaphysical philosophy of religion, digital philosophy and cosmotheology, philosophy and ethics of AI, and human-machine relationships. It also addresses questions raised by digital theology through the lenses of the alternative theologies of pantheism, panentheism and panpsychism. In this context presentations can focus on a variety of topics including, but not limited to the main pillars of the research programme: • Cohabitation with-in nature and digitality – Mainstream (Christian) and Alternative (Christian Ecofeminist) Perspectives • Human Distinctiveness, Embodiment and Relationship in a Digital Age • Digital Philosophy and Religion – Perspectives from Christian Philosophical Theology 5 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE • Textuality and Transcendence in Digital Age from the Perspective of Postmodern Philosophy of Religion • Sociological and Anthropological (Re)interpretations of Practical Theology in a Networked Society • Seeking the Divine: from Virtual Realities to Humanoids – Anthropological, Societal, and Economic Implications 6 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE SYMPOSIUM ORGANISED BY Science and Research Centre Koper Members of the Research Programme “Constructive Theology in the Age of Digital Culture and Anthropocene” ORGANISING AND PROGRAM COMMITTEE Dr Nadja Furlan Štante Karin Šmid Dr Gorazd Andrejč Dr Matej Mertik 7 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE PROGRAMME Symposium RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE St. Bernardin Resort Portorož - Portorose, Hotel Histrion, May 29–30, 2023 Address: Obala 2b, 6320 Portorož MONDAY, MAY 29, 2023 9.00–9.45 CEST Registration 10.00–10.15 CEST Welcome address Panel 1 Chair: Nadja Furlan Štante 10:15–11:00 Gorazd Andrejč and Matej Mertik: Pancomputationalism and the Relationship between Science and Religion 11:00–11:35 Noreen Herzfeld: The Banality of Technological Evil 11:35–12:10 Lenart Škof: Elemental Philosophical Theology: Meditations on an Age of the Post-Anthropocene 12:10–12:45 Victoria Dos Santos: Reframing Ontologies in Digital Religion: An Exploration of Animistic Interactions in Online Neopagan Rituals 9 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE 13.00–15.00 CEST LUNCH BREAK Panel 2 Chair: Gorazd Andrejč 15:00–15:35 Luka Trebežnik: The Textual Character of Religious Existence in the Digital Age 15:35–16:10 Nadja Furlan Štante: Beyond Paternalistic and Patriarchal Conceptualization of Nature – Cohabitation with-in Nature and Digitality 16:10–16:45 Blaž Lenarčič: Wish you were here: Presence of Individuals in the ICT Mediated Society within the Context of Religious Practices 16:45–17:20 Maja Gutman: Mapping Dreams with Digital Technologies: Synergies between Close and Distant Reading 17.20–18.00 CEST COFFEE BREAK 18.00–19.00 CEST KEYNOTE LECTURE: Victor J. Krebs: Dreaming in the Digital Age – Posthuman Thoughts on the Technological Pharmakon 19.00 CEST SYMPOSIUM DINNER 10 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE TUESDAY, May 30, 2023 Panel 3 Chair: Maja Gutman 10:00–10:45 Gašper Mithans: Studying Religion and Slovenian Immigration to the U.S. Using Digital Interviewing 10:45–11:20 Karin Šmid: Visual Presence of Religions in the Cityscape of Maribor 11.20–12.00 CEST COFFEE BREAK 12:00–13:00 CET Closing Remarks – Future Plans of the Research Programme Group 13:30–15:30 CET LUNCH and Meeting of Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies ZRS Koper 11 ABSTRACTS RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE PANCOMPUTATIONALISM AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION Gorazd ANDREJČ Science and Research Centre Koper and University of Groningen Matej MERTIK Science and Research Centre Koper and ECM AlmaMater Pancomputationalism is the position that all physical systems, i.e. physical reality as such at a fundamental level performs computations and hence it is, in a sense, a ‘giant computer’. In this paper, we examine pancomputationalism from the perspective of the ongoing philosophical debate about the most appropriate way to understand the relationship between science and religion. In particular, we will analyze the ontic type of pancomputationalism in the light of an Nonoverlapping Magisteria (NOMA) view on science and religion. NOMA claims that scientific and religious claims, reasonings and justifications, are two distinct intellectual magisteria that, if done appropriately, do not overlap or encroach into each other’s territories (Gould 2002). The ontic pancomputationalism is ‘the most metaphysical’ among pancomputationalist perspectives, claiming that computation is the fundamental or ultimate reality underlying the physical reality (and not the other way around). Since ontic pancomputationalists make both empirical and metaphysical claims and do not always clearly distinguished between them (c.f. Piccinini and Maley 2021), such pancomputationalism is very problematic from the NOMA perspective. However, it could also be argued - the other way around - that ontic pancomputationalism makes possible a particular and new critique of the NOMA model of science and religion. In our talk, we will explore what is at stake for philosophy of science and religion in this ‘clash’ between NOMA and ontic pancomputationalism. Keywords: Pancomputationalism, digital universe, nonoverlapping magisteria, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, science and religion 15 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE REFRAMING ONTOLOGIES IN DIGITAL RELIGION: AN EXPLORATION OF ANIMISTIC INTERACTIONS IN ONLINE NEOPAGAN RITUALS Victoria DOS SANTOS Science and Research Centre Koper In our high-tech milieu, digital religious practices have been growing globally, challenging the conception that lived religion cannot be experienced online. As happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual platforms were the only available option for many religious traditions, showing how – besides religious textual contents – ritual practices of an embodied nature can also take place online. Therefore, what appears to be a decisive question is not if religion can coexist with digital media but, instead, how this interrelation can offer new ways of understanding and relating to both ‘the digital’ and religion. This situation calls not only for a reconceptualization of how ‘material religion’ (Morgan 2009) can take place in the online context but, in particular, stresses the importance of integrating other ontologies to better appreciate the growing cohabitation of humans and the digital otherness. As argued by Achille Mbembe, other cosmological engagements can help to refrain the human/non-human relationships in the techno-scientific age (Newell and Pype 2021). In this presentation, I propose animism as an "ontological strategy" (Marenko and van Allen 2016) to think about interaction with the digital otherness, especially in a world of ubiquitous computing. By exploring so-called neopagan online rituals, I shall examine and illustrate how religious material culture may be articulated online and how other ontological considerations, such as animism, allow neopagans to feel an actual sense of presence in virtual environments and to interact with them from a non-instrumentalizing perspective. I will particularly focus on ritual practices taking place on social virtual platforms, which, together with digital games, are the media where one can better observe online sensuous interactions. Finally, I will also show how this new conception of animism connects to what Mikhail Bakhtin calls ‘dialogism’, a condition that recognizes the multiplicity of perspectives and voices. Dialogue challenges the self-sufficiency posture 16 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE of being the only 'subject' among 'objects' and denies the possibility of not getting involved with the otherness. For such reasons, approaching the digital through an animistic ontology can help us acknowledge the convergence of humans with the techno-digital otherness and explore, on deeper levels, contemporary posthuman experiences taking place in the religious context. Keywords: digital religion, animism, embodiment, posthumanism, dialogis 17 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE BEYOND PATERNALISTIC AND PATRIARCHAL CONCEPTUALISATION OF NATURE - COHABITATION WITH-IN NATURE AND DIGITALITY Nadja FURLAN ŠTANTE Science and Research Centre Koper This presentation explores the intersections that connect environmental concerns and ethical issues related to digital technologies from the perspective of theological ecofeminism. Ecofeminism assumes that the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature stem from the same constellation of phenomena: patriarchal domination, dualistic anthropologies, and (today) global hypercapitalism. Ecofeminism experiences patriarchy as a conflictual system built on an exploitative hierarchical relationship that displaces equality, unity, and the interconnectedness of all living beings in the web of life. It sees creation as one body encompassing diverse ecosystems (Radford Ruether, Sally McFague). From this perspective, contrary to some recent ecofeminist theological interpretations (e.g., E. Graham, 2019 and J. Thweatt-Bates, 2012), the development of human-like AI and cyborgs could also be understood as products of global capitalism and a form of "power over" inextricably linked to the oppressive force of the patriarchal system. We will critically examine the philosophy of human-like AI from this perspective, asking whether the Strong AI programme and the pursuit of human-like AI robots depend on a mechanistic worldview that is largely responsible for domination and destruction. On the other hand, we will also consider that any biocentric view must take into account the fact that the technology of genetic engineering (and even the ancient technology of selective breeding) already contains elements of human agency or "interference" with nature. From this perspective we will rethink human entanglements with the-more-than-human natural world. Key words: ecofeminist theology, nature, digitality, metanoia. 18 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE MAPPING DREAMS WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES: SYNERGIES BETWEEN CLOSE AND DISTANT READING Maja GUTMAN MUŠIČ Science and Research Centre Koper The 2020 Dreams is a born-digital monograph that examines the impact of epochal events in 2020 on individual and collective dreaming. The project's methodological objective was to computationally compare over 2,000 dream reports to approximately 35,000 Associated Press news articles using Natural Language Processing tools and human close reading. Over 22 million pairwise comparisons were calculated and mapped in order to identify the semantic relationships between the dream report and the reality as experienced through coverage in the media. In addition to empirical analysis, one of the primary goals of the project was to analyze and reconsider our position in the context of expanding digital data repositories and computer processing power and to gain a better understanding of how, why, and to what extent we can use Artificial Intelligence tools, as well as how these tools impact our reasoning. In addition to addressing platformization, datafication of cultural repositories, and AI ethics, the study poses deeper issues regarding our present and future treatment of digital technologies. The presentation will comprise a visual and navigational exploration of the beta version of the project to demonstrate how linear or non-hierarchical (rhizomatic) digital work can be explored. In the fall of this year, the 2020 Dreams will be published digitally by Stanford University Press. Key words: dreams, NLP tools, continuities, human-machine anthropology 19 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE THE BANALITY OF TECHNOLOGICAL EVIL Noreen HERZFELD Science and Research Centre Koper and St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict Computer technology, as opposed to traditional manufacturing, has long been labeled a “clean” technology. However, computing actually consumes a vast amount of resources and is ecologically destructive in multiple ways. We will take a brief look at the ecological costs of social media, cybercurrency, and recent advances in AI and note how this ecological footprint is hidden behind banal terminology, metaphorical thinking, and business plans that promote addictive and unnecessary usage. Keywords: climate change, social media, cybercurrency, AI, ecological footprint, Arendt 20 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE DREAMING IN THE DIGITAL AGE: POSTHUMAN THOUGHTS ON THE TECHNOLOGICAL PHARMAKON Victor J. KREBS Pontifical Catholic University of Peru Technology possesses us with the unconscious recklessness and irreverence of the titan, but it also inspires us to poetic reverie, to dream beyond our limits, providing thus the creative impetus that has sustained the passage of human being through time, our engagement in the universal chorus and the vital flow of the cosmos. The Greeks called this paradoxical condition -of being both destructive and creative, a remedy as well as a poison- a pharmakon. At the very heart of human being lies the technological pharmakon: We evolve not only endosomatically but also exosomatically (Stiegler), not only biologically but also culturally, not just through genes, but through memes as well. In every technological extension we are literally projecting our dreams in the modulations that it makes possible and making them real according to the new resources it provides. Digital algorithms are the latest form of that modulation. I want to ask how human experience and culture are affected by our increasing reliance on algorithms? What are the spiritual costs of displacing human thinking with artificial intelligence? I assume what we might call an existential-phenomenological attitude towards our technological experience and sharpen the psychoanalytic eye, to claim that dreams function psychically to define the boundary between reality and fantasy, and that the digital is intervening at the boundary; with what we may call its virtual dreams, it is affecting - both positively and negatively-our ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. I explore the epistemological and existential consequences of this digital perturbation in light of the pharmacological nature of technology. Keywords: philosophy, psychoanalysis, digital technology, dreaming, artificial intelligence, algorithms, reality, fantasy, virtuality, digital life, posthuman, anthropocene. 21 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE WISH YOU WERE HERE: PRESENCE OF INDIVIDUALS IN THE ICT MEDIATED SOCIETY WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF RELIGIOUS PRACTICES Blaž LENARČIČ Science and Research Centre Koper Explaining familiar social phenomena and placing them in new social contexts is not exactly new to sociology. In fact, one of its fundamental tasks is to (re)interpret phenomena under new conditions of social action. In this sense, contemporary society is characterized by constant change, which poses a serious challenge to the already established and/or traditional social forms and concepts. Since the first half of the 1990s, we have been witnessing a (re)interpretation of social dynamics and entities that we already know from physical space, but which have been extended or transferred to cyberspace through the increasingly massive use of information and communication technologies (ICT). One such example is the presence of individuals in social interactions, which is (still) based on the premise that physical presence and unmediated (face-to-face) interaction are the most authentic and only true manifestation of the communication process, hierarchically supreme, and that other forms (i.e., ICT-mediated) are subordinate to them. Especially during the pandemic COVID-19, among others also religious rituals and meetings started to be mediated by ICT due to the restrictions on physical proximity to limit spread of the virus. Thus, the aim of the contribution is to present the concept of individual’s presence in the ICT mediated society within the context of religion. Namely, how religious communities negotiate demands for physical distance in accord with their religious and spiritual aspirations to establish presence and togetherness. Keywords: information-communication technology, religion, presence, contemporary society, network societyonsive to Islam, esp. Christology, theology of the Trinity, and Mariology. 22 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE STUDYING RELIGION AND SLOVENIAN IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S. USING DIGITAL INTERVIEWING Gašper MITHANS Science and Research Centre Koper The paper aims to open a discussion into what became a widely used practice during the pandemic, addressing the questions, among others, how we understand the ‘field’ and the role of digitally-mediated methods in qualitative and ethnographic research. Furthermore, is this approach – which has been especially by anthropologists often designated as an unsatisfactory substitute during the state of exception – an equally valid research practice, drawing on the experiences of interviewing Slovene Americans in California in 2020 via Zoom and Skype. The advantages and disadvantages of digital interviewing will be considered, and, in particular, the question in which circumstances this approach continues to be useful today taking into account the methodology, most of which has been developed very recently. To that end, a necessary distinction has to be made between the rather vague field of ‘virtual ethnography’ and already well-established ‘netnography’. Keywords: Slovenian emigration to the U.S., history, ethnic parish, ethnography, digital interviewing 23 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE ELEMENTAL PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY: MEDITATIONS ON AN AGE OF THE POST-ANTHROPOCENE Lenart ŠKOF Science and Research Centre Koper and ISH AlmaMater The first part of our meditations will focus on selected topics from our most recent book God in Post-Christianity: An Elemental Philosophical Theology (forthcoming in 2023) – especially as related to the topics of deep incarnation, elemental (and quantum) entanglement of our co-being, and the materially-energetic conspiracy of human beings with the elements of nature. Based on this constellation, in the second part, we will discuss a recent theological work of Ilia Delio on technology and AI. The main focus of our elaborations will be on a possibility to see technology (in particular the AI and computers) as being integral to the evolution of conscious life on the Earth. Finally, we will conclude our contribution with reflection on the possibilities of a future transformation of our inner (cosmico-spiritual) energy towards more-than-human or even divine layers of Being. Keywords: philosophical theology, elemental philosophy, cosmic energy, quantum entanglement, Ilia Delio, divinization, post-Anthropocene 24 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE VISUAL PRESENCE OF RELIGIONS IN THE CITYSCAPE OF MARIBOR Karin ŠMID Science and Research Centre Koper The presence of religion in space is most tangible in its material existence in the form of architectural and sculptural objects. Despite the relative longevity of architectural monuments, their surroundings, use, and meaning are changing in the longue durée. Thus, the spaces take on a polysemic and often dissonant character. They co-create society through their presence and function while being redefined in return. This paper focuses on the manifestation of religious identity in the public space of Maribor; how the town square with the main church has been redefined, how (in)visible are the monuments of the various Christian communities in the town, which meanings holds the Minorite Monastery, which has been deconsecrated at the end of 18th century. The questions will be addressed with methods of digital humanities, to visualize and understand the causes, consequences, and circumstances of changes over the long 20th century to the present day. Keywords: visual identity; public space; dissonant heritage 25 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE THE TEXTUAL CHARACTER OF RELIGIOUS EXISTENCE IN THE DIGITAL AGE Luka TREBEŽNIK Science and Research Centre Koper In an age when it seems that the tools based on the large language models will once again turn completely all dimensions of modern existence upside down, theological reflection must look back at its own textual character. The paper will be based on Jacques Derrida's thesis that "there is no outside-text" and will offer reflections on the theological consequences of this statement. Some commentators rightly claim that it is a statement that heralds the end of theological references to truth, for them Derrida's reading strategy, which has come to be known as deconstruction, appears as a "hermeneutic of the death of God". On the other hand, there are also thinkers who understand this pantextual dimension, "the end of the book and the beginning of the writing" as good news for theology, which, of course, must shake off the old predicates of absolute possession of knowledge and affirm its own textual and contextual character. Key words: textuality, deconstruction, hermeneutics, radical theology, logocentrism 26 RELIGION IN ANTHROPOCENE AND DIGITAL CULTURE NOTES 27 ISBN 978-961-7195-15-6