Virtual Communion: Theology of the Internet and the Catholic Sacramental Imagination

Virtual Communion: Theology of the Internet and the Catholic Sacramental Imagination provides a theological account of the internet from a Catholic perspective. It engages digital culture by providing a context for media and mediation within the Catholic tradition, specifically focusing on the ecclesiology and sacramentality of the church. Katherine G. Schmidt argues that the Catholic imagination is inherently consonant with the idea of the “virtual,” understood as the creative space between presence and absence, bringing the fields of media studies, internet studies, sociology, history, and theology together in order to give a theological account of the social realities of American Catholicism in light of digital culture. Overall, Schmidt argues that the social possibilities of the internet afford the church great opportunity for building a social context that allows the living out of Eucharistic logic learned in properly liturgical moments.

Table of Contents:
Chapter One: Theological Concerns Chapter Two: Ecclesial Perspectives on Media and Communications Chapter Three: Incarnation, Virtuality, and the Church Chapter Four: Virtuality and Sacramentality Chapter Five: The Social Dynamics of Life Online Chapter Six: The Suburbanization of American Catholic Life Chapter Seven: Standards of Communion

About the Author :
Katherine G. Schmidt is assistant professor of theology and religious studies at Molloy College.

Review :
Schmidt acknowledges well-worn theological criticisms of the internet but proposes a "more productive and honest theological evaluation." A quick glance at Twitter or Facebook provides ample evidence for critics, but Schmidt looks deeper and discovers the central feature of the virtual…. The analysis here is...careful and sophisticated. Theologians and pastors should not dodge questions raised by increasing levels of online engagement in the life of the church, especially in the aftermath of 2020. This book will help them immeasurably and should find a home in graduate courses in sacramental and pastoral theology. Highly recommended. Is the internet nothing but a dystopian arena of trolls, bullying, and disinformation, or can digital communication also affirm life-giving community? Katherine Schmidt makes an ingenious (and possibly heroic) argument that aligns digital space with the church’s incarnational and sacramental imagination, and detects a shared assumption of mediation and symbolic exchange. Her claim that digital life and ecclesial life can positively influence each other is a novel and penetrating American Catholic insight that raises Pope Francis’ claim that “everything is connected” into a new and hopeful key. Virtual Communion offers a distinctively theological engagement with the internet. Drawing from diverse sources ranging from medieval pilgrimage literature to contemporary sacramental theology, Schmidt argues that Catholicism should embrace its own wisdom about mediation in debates about community and the internet. Critically engaging with idealized theologies of the Church, this book shows how the internet might function as a liminal space in which the Church’s claims to communion can be enacted in relationship with the world.