Edelman, J., 2026.

The Aesthetics of Digital Ritual

Since moving online during the pandemic, many European religious communities have refined the methods and form of online and hybrid worship, leading to new models of ritual and community. While most of these new rituals claim continuity with what has come before, their advancements in medium, construction and participation mean that they represent new aesthetic forms of ritual which demand academic analysis. Building on the methods of performance studies and data gathered from the project Religious Communities in the Virtual Age (Recovira), this paper offers an aesthetic analysis of some of these new forms of online worship, especially those of mainstream European churches. This includes attention to the affective work that ritual can do, the dynamics of authority and coordination, and the nature of community and participation. This article demonstrates the analytical utility of using tools developed for the aesthetic analysis of theatre and performance to understanding the work done by rituals through online platforms.