Digitization in The Evangelical Church (Es) in Germany: Exemplary Insights

ecclesial practices 7 (2020) 83-100
brill.com/ep
Digitization in the Evangelical Church(es) in

Germany: Exemplary Insights
Ilona Nord
PhD, Professor of Theology, Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg,
Wuerzburg, Bavaria, Germany
ilona.nord@uni-wuerzburg.de
Katharina Alt
PhD, Head of the Department for Social Research and Statistics, on behalf
of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau| Kirchenverwaltung der
EKHN, Germany
dr.katharina.alt@ehkn.de
Thomas Zeilinger
Phd, Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria (ELKB),
Representative of the ELKB for Ethics in Dialogue with Technology and
Natural Science in Munich, Associate Professor for Christian Media Studies,
Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremboug| Friedrich-Alexander-
Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany
thomas.zeilinger@fau.de
Abstract
This article presents exemplary insights into the state of digitization and the corre-
sponding efforts of selected Evangelical Churches in Germany (the federal ekd and
three of its member churches) to address an array of challenges triggered by the digital
transformation. Three short reports on broader studies demonstrate how the church is
responding to these challenges as an actor within civil society, as well as an organiza-
tion and a community of faith. This preliminary assessment suggests that the ekd is
capable of both: taking part in the societal debate as well as designing and reinventing
itself anew in the digital realm. Nevertheless, it will do well to figure out more context-
sensitive solutions while stimulating both ethical and theological discussions.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/22144417-bja10006

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via Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
84 Nord, Alt and Zeilinger
Keywords
Evangelical Church in Germany – ethics – anthropology – algorithm – state of

digitization – media ethics – public theology
1 Introduction
The keyword digitization is used in the public context in Germany above all in
economic contexts. It is primarily a matter of supplying the federal territory
with a more efficient fiber-optic infrastructure. For the business sector, it
means that all sectors face the challenge of increasing computer capacities
and performance in order to be able to process larger amounts of data, for ex-
ample, in order to work with a broader spectrum of computer programs. Doro-
thea Bär (csu) has been the Minister of State for Digitization since 2018. She
underlines the opportunities of digitization for various areas of society. For the
health sector, increasing amounts of data would enable, for example, earlier
diagnoses and alternative forms of therapy. Medicine and nutrition would con-
verge more closely in the future. Internet security for the private sector and
public administrations are also on her agenda. In schools, digital teaching aids
are to be used from primary school onwards. Media literacy is cited as an excel-
lent educational goal.
At the same time, it can be observed that one sector is missing from the
public debate: The significance of digitization for the cultural sector and civil
society actors such as the churches is hardly discussed. The pressure that is be-
ing built up to realize digitization processes comes mainly from the business
sector. This, in turn, is one that many people regard as being relatively distant
from that of culture or religions. Could this be a reason why organized religious
cultures such as the Christian churches are quoted in public, if at all, with me-
dia-critical voices when it comes to digitization? The question also arises for
the education sector, especially in the field of religion/ethics: What are the
benefits of using digitized learning scenarios in primary school? Which reli-
gious competencies will depend on digitization strategies for their use in the
future? And principally: Is it at all desirable for religious communication to be
digitized?
We, the authors of this article, are of the opinion that within the last decade
in the Evangelical Church in Germany and its regional member churches, there
is a widely growing consciousness which considers digitization as, first of all,
not only a technological, but at the same time also a socially and culturally
ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100

Digitization in the Evangelical Church(es) in germany 85
relevant transformation process.1 Secondly, there is little doubt that the Evan-
gelical Church has to face this transformation process. The prevailing view is
that this process is irreversible, and harbors both opportunities and challeng-
es. Thirdly, one can find a fundamental attitude in the fact that parish leaders
all the way up to church leaders in the member churches as well as within the
Evangelical Church in Germany base their areas of responsibility within a po-
larity of criticism and design. Formulating the challenges of digitization for the
area of the Evangelical Church cannot therefore mean mastering technology
integration alone. At the same time, there is more at stake: working together
with other civil society players on the project of humanizing world society. As
Heidi Campbell and Stephen Garner formulated the goal for a Christian faith
practice in a digitizing world for the US-American and New Zealand context
respectively, we expect that many Evangelical church members in Germany
would also agree if they were asked: “(…) we seek to establish communities of
shalom that reflect true neighborliness through the recognition of others as
persons and through integrity in all our relationships.”2
At the center of ethical discussions, as well as those about the implementa-
tion of technology in the organization of the church, which are, however, on
the whole still on a manageable scale, is the question of the future of mankind.
Anthropology seems to become the core area of theology in times of
digitization.
This is not least the result of influential publications received by church
leaders and academic theology. On the one hand, this includes the contribu-
tion of the Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, who predicts a data religion. Its
key points:
a. “Science is converging on an all-encompassing dogma, which says that
organisms are algorithms and life is data processing;
b. intelligence is decoupling from consciousness; and
c. non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know us better
than we know ourselves.”3
On the other hand, the US-American IT scientist, entrepreneur and musician
Jaron Lanier is acknowledged: He calls for a comprehensive alternative billing
1 Speaking about ‚church‘ is done in reference to a threefold understanding as civil agency in-
cluding institutional meanings, organization and community of faith, see f.e. Jan Hermelink,
Kirchliche Organisation und das Jenseits des Glaubens, (Gütersloh 2011).
2 H. Campbell and S. Garner, Networked Theology. Negotiating faith in digital culture (Grand
Rapids 2016), at p. 147.
3 Y. N. Harari, Homo Deus. A brief history of tomorrow, (London 2015), at p. 397. Cf. the com-
mentary V. Jung, Digital Mensch bleiben (Munich 2018) as well as the report of the Church
ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100 Downloaded from Brill.com07/22/2020 05:17:28PM

system for data usage and vehemently opposes the idea that Big Data, and in
particular artificial intelligence, are areas of technology that can no longer be
controlled by and through human intervention. Those who embrace this atti-
tude sacrifice ordinary people, who are entitled to a decent living, on the altar
of belief in progress. “In my opinion, the majority of the population could live
above the poverty line in ten or twenty years because they earn enough with
their personal data.”4
Ultimately, it is the issues of data management and data sovereignty that
seem to serve as an anchor within the economy of the Federal Republic of
Germany as to how a European path to digitization can be shaped. The Euro-
pean way is often contrasted within the debate with the Chinese and the US-
American way. While the Chinese way is described as a totalitarian model in
which the state wants to control and steer people’s behavior with the help of
digitization, the US model from Silicon Valley basically pursues the same goal
by predicting and steering people’s behavior through a neoliberal and capital-
ist model. In both cases, humans are seen as objects in which interest exists on
the basis of the data and algorithms they produce, because humans are mea-
sured, predicted and optimized by technology. Such an automated optimiza-
tion of people, which is carried out by an elite according to non-transparent
criteria, is regarded by companies in the IT sector in Germany as inhuman and
totalitarian. For example, a far-reaching separation of data, program code
and cloud services is proposed. The principle must be that every individual
and every organization can manage its own data and make its own decisions.
Such a system would make more data available overall, and the development
of AI processes could be organized less centrally than is currently the case
with the large platform operators.5
In the European humanities, and included in them, especially also in Prot-
estant theology, one can find a strong reference to such an argumentation,
which respects the individual and seeks to protect and promote his or her
rights. In this sense, the interests of those initiatives of business enterprises
and church organizations as well as Protestant theologies follow a similar path.
President before the Synod in spring 2018, online: https://www.ekhn.de/fileadmin/content/

ekhn.de/download/ekhn_jahresbericht/kp_berichte/kp_bericht_18.pdf. (last viewed on 11.2.
2019).
4 Jaron Lanier, Wem gehört die ZukunftI (Hamburg 2014) – English original: Who owns the
Future? (New York 2013).
5 So says Carsten Knop in his report on a lecture by the German IT entrepreneur Peter Ganten,
online: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/diginomics/digitale-souveraenitaet-statt
-digitalem-mittelalter-16021367.html (last viewed on 10.2.2019).

But up until now, the Protestant churches have hardly been able to communi-
cate their interests publicly in such a way that they could effectively pursue
these goals in a network with others. But this is to be expected in the near
future.
The past five years can be seen as important preparatory work in this re-
spect. Above all, internal developments were carried out for a tailor-made digi-
tization strategy. The following section outlines this strategy. In Section 3 be-
low, an exemplary survey about the state of digitization and the resulting
challenges in the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (ekhn) with re-
gard to the church organization is discussed. In Section 4, two insights into
ongoing projects on the digitization of religious communication shed light on
the fields of practical theology and religious education cooperating with re-
gional state churches and the ekd in research-projects. In Section 5, a contri-
bution of the Bavarian Lutheran Church (elkb) is presented as an effort to
look for a reflective and critical ethical contribution of the church as a public
actor in the civil society. Finally, in Section 6, a conclusion puts forward some
suggestions for the future of the church with regard to its interior organiza-
tion, its religious communication, and its ethical reflection as an actor in civil
society.
2 Recent developments in the ekd from 2014 to 2018
On a federal level, the phenomenon of digitization was first officially addressed

by the Synod of the ekd, the Evangelical Church in Germany, in 2014. At its
annual gathering, it issued a manifestation with the title “The communication
of the gospel in the digital society”.6 The statement comprises ten points. It
begins with stating that the church is actively taking part in shaping the digital
transformation. To do that, it first needs to listen and attempt to comprehend
the process of digitization and its ambivalences. The sheer abundance of infor-
mation challenges the abilities of users who are no longer simply recipients of
a message, but senders/generators as well. The paper emphasizes the opportu-
nities for the communication of the gospel within the communal settings of
the network society. The formulations of the statement follow two different
threads. One perceives the digital society as an object and a missionary
6 ekd (2014): Proclamation of the 11th Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany at its 7th
Conference on Communicating the Gospel in the Digital Society. Perceptions and Conclusions,
online: https://www.bayern-evangelisch.de/downloads/ekd_kundgebung_schwerpunktthe-
ma_14-11-12.pdf (last viewed on 19.1.2019).

o pportunity for the church, which has the gospel “at hand”.7 The other eccle-
siological thread understands the church as an organization which is itself af-
fected by the cultural changes, and thus has to learn and understand as a player
in the field of change rather than as an independent bystander.
The statement of the ekd underlined the ethical challenges implied in digi-
tization. A year later, the elkb explored that aspect further. In the context of
the so called Reformation Decade leading to the 500th anniversary of the Ref-
ormation, it convened an informal Media Council in the city of Nuremberg
and published the paper “The Net as a Social Space” to stimulate the discussion
on a “civilization” of the digital society at large.8 The impulses of the paper
for – as its subtitle says – “Communication and Community in the Digital Age”
will be examined further in Section 3.
Initiatives and the quest for strategies for the church in the digital transfor-
mation have grown in the last years in the regional churches within Germany.9
It is interesting to note, however, that on the federal level of the ekd, it was the
youth delegates who not only brought the topic to the floor of the synod of the
ekd in 2014, but also urged the ekd to revisit the topic in 2017.10 Thus the gov-
erning council of the ekd reported that year to the synod about the state of
digital affairs in protestant Germany since 2014.11 The report to the synod is
much less optimistic in terms of the use of digital media for the church than
the synod itself was in 2014. It places more emphasis on the challenges which
are put forward by recent developments in the digital field (e.g. artificial intel-
ligence), not only for the society at large, but also for the organization of the
church itself (in terms of its own administrative processes).12 The report sees
the following tasks for the church in relation to the unfolding digitization:
7 See G. Kretzschmar, Mehr als nur Leuchttürme, online: www.zeitzeichen.net/religion-

kirche/digitalstrategien-der-kirche/zeitzeichen.net (last viewed on 11.2.2019).
8 elkb (2015): Das Netz als sozialer Raum: Kommunikation und Gemeinschaft im digitalen
Zeitalter – ein Impuls. Ed. by the Regional Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Bavaria (elkb), online: www.bayern-evangelisch.de/epaper/das-netz-als-sozi
aler-raum/ (last viewed on 19.1.2019).
9 For example, in the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, where some (non-) admin-
istrative teams were established to deal with health topics on digitization or local types of
digital communication strategies.
10 See Attachment 3 of: ekd (2017): Bericht über den Prozess der ‚Kommunikation des Evange-
liums in der digitalen Gesellschaft“, online: www.ekd.de/ekd_de/ds_doc/s17-12-1-bericht
-prozess-der-kommunikation-des-evangeliums-in-der-digitalen-gesellschaft.pdf (last
viewed on 19.1.2019).
11 ekd (2017), see previous annotation.
12 For this and the following see the address of the “Media Bishop” of the ekd, Volker Jung
from the Evangelical Church of Hesse-Nassau, in which he introduced the report to the
plenary of the synod in Bonn in 2017: Einbringung über den Prozess der “Kommunikation

a) impact and implication for the organization of the church (its own struc-
tures and processes); b) the digital communication with members and persons
interested in the church; c) the reflection of the ethical and theological chal-
lenges. The third task also implies the question of how to deal with the collec-
tion and processing of data in particular.
The presentation of the report was followed by a request from the synod to
the governing council to prepare a strategic proposal to the synod a year later.
Therefore, in November 2018, the synod of the ekd established a new structure
for dealing with the digital transformation by creating new positions for a chief
digital officer and for ethical reflection, as well as for optimizing administra-
tive processes. In addition to these new positions, the synod paved the way for
new funding for digital innovation, as well as for two new projects.13
The ekd therefore did not quite achieve the idea of the “strategic roadmap”
it had in mind a year earlier. One of the regional churches, however, did suggest
such a roadmap in 2018: the church of Wuerttemberg. For the years up through
2021, the church of Wuerttemberg defined ten strategic steps for becoming a
so-called networking church. Ethical considerations, the communication and
the organization of the church are all dealt with.14 These three areas will now
be given exemplary attention in the following sections of this article.
3 Church Organization: Survey on the State of Digitization a

Regional Church Body (ekhn)
Between August 8 and September 14, 2018, the department for Social Research
and Statistics, on behalf of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau
(ekhn), started an online survey on the state of digitization at the workplaces
of pastors, staff and volunteers working in parishes, deaconates, centers and
administrative institutions. The aim of the study was to show the state of digi-
tization in the ekhn in order to develop a strategy for future methods of com-
munication that combine physical, analogous conversation with secure digital
conversation.
des Evangeliums in der digitalen Gesellschaft”; online: www.ekd.de/ekd_de/ds_doc/s17-

12-2-Einbringung-Jung-digitale-Gesellschaft.pdf (last viewed on 19.1.2019).
13 ekd (2018), Beschluss der 12. Synode der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland auf ihrer 5.
Tagung zu „Kirche im digitalen Wandel“; online: www.ekd.de/ekd_de/ds_doc/10-3-Be-
schluss-Kirche-im-digitalen-Wandel-.pdf (last viewed on 19.1.2019).
14 See the online available materials under: https://www.elk-wue.de/leben/digitalisier-
ungsprojekt/ (last viewed on 19.01.2019).

This raises the question about the courage and the flexibility of the ekhn,
as well as the willingness to change processes in its own core administration
and on the periphery of its own organization and to make – if necessary –
radical decisions, cognizant thereby of the chances of gaining new members
and of the risk of losing others. In his latest publication, the so-called “Media
Bishop” Volker Jung asked: How do we stay human, since digital transforma-
tion processes have already taken place? How do we find a balance between
digital transformation and the lasting need for face-to-face communication
and physical presence?15 With regard to those questions, this study examines
the necessity for a change of communication channels, work routines and
technical infrastructure. Does the ekhn have the required flexibility, infra-
structure und digital ability to start such changes? And what kinds of changes
are desired?
The online survey was conducted with the free and open source online sta-
tistical survey web app “lime survey”,16 which was hosted on the church’s own
servers for security and privacy reasons. Survey participants were informed
about the survey via official church e-mail accounts. Though the url link to
the survey was sent by e-mail, no names, e-mail addresses or personal details
were recorded in the final data, so that anonymity standards were complied
with. The survey comprised 31 standardized questions; seven of them con-
tained qualitative components. Those open-ended questions focused on ideas
and feelings about experiences of the participants with digital working and
communication processes.
The topics of the survey were technical infrastructure, equipment in the
workplace, possibilities of mobile working and digital communication with
church members and other institutions, the use of social media, and the need
for digital workflows and further education. Within the framework of several
half-open questions, opinions on ethical challenges, estimations on the need
for actions by the administration of the ekhn, prioritization of the next steps,
etc., were sought. Within a period of five weeks, the response rate of the survey
was about 20%.
The following discusses the three most important points of the survey:
1. the infrastructure and the quality of the internet connection,
2. the unitary strategy of communication with members and co-workers,
and
3. the gap between generations relating to further education.
15 V. Jung, Digital Mensch bleiben (Munich 2018).

16 www.lime-survey.org.

3.1 First of all, most of the participants were very grateful for being asked
about their points of view. The progress of digitization has come very far, and
it seems that many of them feel unprepared or insufficiently prepared; this ap-
plies to their technical equipment, their own ideas for new ways of communi-
cation, their own knowledge in using those new ways of communication, and
the formats of working progress.
Basically, there are imbalances in the technical level of the equipment used,
which is additionally regionally unbalanced. The area of the ekhn is about
13,400 km2, with 1132 church parishes and around 1.5 million members (current
stand as of January 2019). The most populous cities (Frankfurt/Main, Wies-
baden, Mainz), which are the economic centers of the whole area, are geo-
graphically located in the middle of the ekhn. The internet speed there is very
fast, as opposed to various rural regions where some villages experience a delay
in receiving their e-mails or aren’t able to use certain web-based applications.
28% of the respondents speak of a moderate to unsatisfying internet connec-
tion in their working region.
In addition to the regional imbalance, different or incompatible hardware
and software solutions impede the collaboration between some church par-
ishes and the community staff. Because of a lack of infrastructural standards
(for example, operating systems, e-mail-providers and the church’s own cloud
solutions), in some parts of the ekhn digital communication is limited or un-
necessarily difficult. In addition to this, a solution seems difficult due to the
different user groups (pastors, employees, or volunteers) who all need custom-
ized approaches for their individual communication and workflows. While
pastors have a continued interest in standardized ways of checking e-mails
from a private setup, volunteers have an urgent demand for (social) platforms
or cloud systems which provide a mechanism for the secure and uncompli-
cated transfer of sensitive documents. Employees, on the other hand, need one
uniform, administrative, and secure solution for communicating with mem-
bers, pastors, volunteers, and others, instead of being forced to use many
different – and sometimes private – channels.
On the question of the necessity of digital communication between church
parishes, deaconates, regional direction, and church administration (on a scale
from 1 = very necessary to 5 = not necessary at all), 94 % of the respondents
advocate cheap and stable high-speed internet connections, 83 % have a need
for a secure contact database, 78% suggest a secure platform to transfer docu-
ments with volunteers and the administration, and 67% expect a one-channel-
solution for the multiple ways of communication with the administration and
volunteers. In the winter of 2018, the ekhn started a test period for one secure
and modular platform which allows the implementation of all the suggestions,

and also features a calendar, a chat function, and other cross-group functions.
The rollout period is expected in the second half of 2019.
3.2 The many ways of communication – partly official, partly private – on the
one hand, and the fragmented technical infrastructure on the other hand,
show the struggle between theologically justified freedom of communication
strategies in the church parishes, and the demand for a standardized but cus-
tomable strategy of communication, especially with church members, but also
with non-church institutions such as schools, administrative offices, or em-
ployees. 41 % of the respondents do have an in-house practice of digital coop-
eration with non-church institutions by sharing calendars or platforms. In
comparison, the digital services of parishes for their members are lower. 35%
of the church parishes do have digital services, which help people to connect
with the community: They share their upcoming church services and events
online, distribute an online community letter on their homepage, or offer an
online network for the neighborhood. Very few parishes record their church
services and offer them as video or audio files for downloading. And there are
still a few church parishes without any website or online services. 65% of the
respondents don’t know about or don’t have any digital services to ensure a
connection between the parishes and members with physical handicaps or
other restrictions such as geographical distances. Therefore, 88% of the re-
spondents are calling for immediate action on finding a practical and easy way
to inform and to communicate with other members.
The most common social media services of the respondents are Facebook
(32%) and WhatsApp (45 %), both for official and private use. Compared to
this, other popular social media services such as Instagram, Twitter, or Snap-
chat are barely used (between 2% and 3%). The private use of social media
services on Facebook is about 24 %, while 32 % use WhatsApp and 16 % use
Instagram for private reasons. This demonstrates that personal contact still is
the common practice of membership communication in parishes, church insti-
tutions, and voluntary areas. In this context, it is important to know that those
channels and functions are forbidden for official use due to legal requirements
on security and data protection.17 But until members find another method for
cross-group communication, their use will continue. Currently, the Evangelical
17 On May 2018, the European General Data Protection Regulation (eudatap) came into
force and sharpened European (partly pre-existing) basic principles for data processing
and data storage relating to natural persons. Any data processing and data storage of
natural persons is forbidden until the person gives his or her express consent.

Lutheran Church in Germany and all its member churches are in the process of
finding responsible and sensible solutions to deal with this situation.
3.3 The above aspects on regional and infrastructural imbalances are affect-
ed by an aging staff, membership, and society. 66 % of the respondents are old-
er than 50 years. This age structure roughly corresponds with that of the staff.
Large groups of so-called baby-boomers (born in the 1950s and 1960s) will retire
by 2025. The following generations are significantly fewer in number, and both
administration and parishes will be forced to develop strategies for social sus-
tainability in the long run. This includes further education in technical skills,
handling computer programs and web-based applications that are used at the
(mobile) workplace, and, almost more importantly, in those areas which play
a role in further methods of communication. Asked about a practical measure
to support digitization in the ekhn, 77 % call for further education to com-
plete and consolidate existing knowledge. Yet respondents feel unprepared in
many different ways, especially the older staff, in contrast to younger people,
also known as digital natives. Beyond that, 69% expect an increased request for
digital media in religious education in schools and confirmation classes.
Today the ekhn is facing the manifold challenges of digitization. It needs a

clear prioritization, so as not to miss the connection to the advanced social
situation. Above all, it is important to develop and strengthen technical struc-
tures and digital skills. Rural regions should be increasingly included. Current-
ly the ekhn is preparing to implement a digital office in order to map out
possible directions for future action in support of parishes, administration,
and volunteers In the meantime, the ekhn also started an education program
(see 4 below) that includes some of the above-mentioned issues, such as ethi-
cal and technical aspects.
4 Religious Communication and Education: Insights into Two

Projects by Regional Churches
The following projects are supported by the ekhn and the elkb, acting also
for ekd: both of them try to gain a deeper understanding of the impact which
digitization has on the church, its scope of duties, and on religious communi-
cation in general, and both can only be described in their project frameworks;
results cannot be delivered yet. The projects are presented here in a preparato-
ry stage, because there are, up to now, no fully completed comparable studies
in this area. What they can already do is circulating the information on an in-
terest in the analysis of transformation processes of religious c ommunication

and education in digital worlds. In addition, it is only provisionally, but never-

theless already orienting, how the question of the cultural change of religious
communication and education is to be dealt with in research.
4.1 Religious Communication through Technology: Effectiveness, Design,

Provocation
In 2017, at the World Exhibition Reformation in Wittenberg, the ekhn/ekd
presented the robot priest BlessU2. The robot pronounced blessings on more
than 10,000 people and received widely polarized reactions from believers and
non-believers. Afterwards, an interdisciplinary research group from Würzburg
University (the Chair of Religious Education in cooperation with the Chair of
Psychological Ergonomics Human Computer Interaction) analyzed the writ-
ten comments left by 1,923 visitors in an attempt to understand more about the
implications of robotics in religious practice. Overall, most of the comments
were positive (51%), though many were neutral (29%), and some were even
negative (20%). Four preferable scenarios for religious robots were derived: to
demonstrate human creativity, to increase the reach of religious institutions
and personnel, to offer services when there is no alternative, and to enhance
services with unique robot capabilities. In a second study, the appearance, be-
havior, and functionality of the blessing robot were varied, but virtually no dif-
ferences in quantitative measures on emotions and users’ perceptions of the
robots were found. The qualitative interview data, however, revealed strong
preferences towards a specific set of characteristics.
So, the BlessU2 project could already raise important questions on cross-
cutting key themes describing transformation processes of religion(s) in digi-
tal societies: religious identity (e.g., Which existential needs of people are met
when experiencing a blessing?), religious authority (e.g., Who is authorized to
pronounce blessings on others – and why?), religious truth (e.g., Can God bless
through technology?), religious authenticity (e.g., What are the roles digital
technology can and should assume in religious communication? What can
these roles be designed for?), and religious community (e.g., What about par-
ish members giving and receiving blessings together and with each other? Can
the giving and receiving of blessings be extended to non-believers?). Blessings
are practiced by the followers of every world religion;18 they were shaped long
before religions were organized in specific (church) communities. Hence,
there is a tradition of non-liturgical and non-institutional blessing practices;
18 Feldkeller, Segen, M. Leuenberger (eds), Segen. Religionswissenschaftlich (Tübingen 2015),

pp 25–48.

blessings may thus cater to fundamental, or existential, human needs.19 When

focusing on basic human needs, particularly the emotional dimension of digi-
tal religious practices, the project also explores the ethical relevance of digital
religion(s). It asks how religions and religious individuals shape their use of
technologies, and how technologies can be developed – by combining ap-
proaches to a psychology of user experience20 with media studies on digital
religion(s).
It was a provocative and irritating project which was launched by the
ekhn/ekd in the Reformation Jubilee Year 2017.21 When the researchers at
Würzburg University followed up with this project, church leaders were hesi-
tant and curious at the same time. The project team within the ekhn supports
and participates in the ongoing academic work. It is clear that artificial intelli-
gence and robotics itself will not ignore the topic of religion; in fact, there are
still ict professionals who are in the process of creating digitized prototypes of
religious communication. The manner in which the ekd and its regional
churches will take part in this further process has not yet been determined. But
in his report, the bishop of the ekhn announced the support of experiments
with ict in the field of religious communication.22
4.2 Religious Education Laboratory (RElabdigital): Working on Digital

Competencies
In RELab digital, the potentials and challenges of integrating digital media for-
mats into religious education are examined on the empirical basis of media
world-oriented religious didactics.23 The project is embedded in a cooperation
between the ekhn, the elkb, the Chair of Religious Education at the Univer-
sity of Würzburg, and the Würzburg Professional School of Education (pse). It
19 D. Löffler, J. Hurtienne and I. Nord (2018), Robot Priest BlessU2: A discursive design study to
understand the implications of automation in religious contexts, International Journal of
Social Robotics 11 (2019).
20 M. Hassenzahl, S. Diefenbach and A. Göritz, Needs, affects, and interactive products –
Facets of userexperience, Interacting with Computers 22 (2010), pp. 353–362, https://doi
.org/10.1016/j.intcom.2010.04.002.
21 It became already visible that theoretical approaches within and beyond a fourth wave of
research on digital religions are extended: the BlessU2 project provides empirical re-
search on the human and design aspects of digitalized religious practices, and constructs
concepts and prototypes of new ict within that field. See H. A. Campbell, Religious com-
munication and technology, Annals of the International Communication Associatio
(2017), 41 (3/4), 228–234.
22 See footnote 3, p. 13.
23 I. Nord and J. Palkowitsch-Kühl, RELab digital – A project about religious education in a
mediatized world, Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 12 (2017), pp. 60–92,
online: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.rel.2017.0.23770.

meets the church’s interest in supporting teachers and pastors to use more
digital media in and for religious communication in general, and specifically in
religious education (see part 3). The apparent necessity of using digital tools,
which has been raised through political debates on the future of German eco-
nomics (see part 1), often irritates teachers as well as pastors in their work; they
feel pressured to adopt a technologically shaped lifestyle without being con-
vinced of its ultimate purpose. Based on the Will-Skill-Tool model for technol-
ogy integration,24 the aim of the project is to explore the condition factor skill,
the knowledge of didactic, technical, and pedagogical knowledge25 when us-
ing and thematizing digital media formats. Thus, the project fits in with profes-
sional research in particular: What media and religious education skills do
teachers need in order to enable learning about religious communications and
religious practices in digitally networked media, as well as learning with digi-
tally interactive media?
In the first part of the study (06/2017 – 09/2018), interactive and multimodal
teaching and learning sequences were developed in interreligious teams.26 The
design of the test units is based on existing preparatory work,27 and focuses on
both premises, learning with and via digitally networked media in religious
contexts. In the second part (10/2018 – 03/2020), the developed units are being
implemented in middle and secondary schools, as well as in grammar schools,
and in an iterative process, the actions of the teachers will be analyzed and
reflected on. A cycle consisting of (1) pre-coaching of the teacher with the
material/tools, (2) their application in school lessons, and (3) an evaluation
and theory-building based on the Grounded Theory (Strauss/Corbin 1997) is to
be completed several times. The application of the units in religious education
will be observed and accompanied by individual interviews and group discus-
sions. Furthermore, there is an option to create audio or video recordings of
the lessons as a supplement to the written notes of the observer. The survey
period is circular, so that the units are repeated in the school years 18/19 and
19/20. Meanwhile, the feedback of the religion teachers flows into the material
24 G. Knezek and R.R. Christensen, Impact of New Information Technologies on Teachers and
Students, Education and Information Technologies7(2001), pp. 169–178; https://doi
.org/10.1023/a:1020921807131.
25 M. Koehler, P. Mishra et al., The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework,
J. M. Spector et.al. (eds) Handbook of research on educational communications and tech-
nology, 4rd edition pp.101–111; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_9.
26 I. Nord and J. Palkowitsch-Kühl, Nicht die app steht im Mittelpunkt, sondern der Kompeten-
zerwerb, rpi-Impulse. Beiträge zur Religionspädagogik aus ekkw und ekhn 3(2018),
pp. 5–9.
27 I. Nord and H. Zipernovszky (eds), Religious Education in a mediatized World (Stuttgart
2017).

produced in part one and is constantly being adapted. The study itself helps to
thematize digitization in religious education, and it gives concrete insight into
the development and evaluation of individual learning scenarios. This encour-
ages people to get involved in further experiments with regard to their own
teaching. Thirdly, this project gives church leadership the opportunity to re-
flect on digitized religious education, which opens up new interests regarding
broader questions on educational policy.
5 Ethical Reflection: “The Net as a Social Space” – A Regional Church

as an Actor in Civil Society
The aforementioned contribution of the elkb to the Reformation decade, the

paper “The Net as a Social Space. Communication and Community in the Digi-
tal Age”, was explicitly meant as a plea towards the civilization of the digital
realm. In his preface, the Bavarian bishop and head of the federal ekd, Hein-
rich Bedford-Strohm, expresses the conviction that the churches as “global
players” can provide orientation for society in midst of the digital transforma-
tion.28 Therefore, it is interesting to look at what kind of impulses the paper
suggests:
5.1 The introduction puts the process of digitization in the larger context of
media change or media revolution, and thus connects it with the Reformation
era, where the invention of the letterpress fostered Luther’s ideas of the priest-
hood of all believers by enabling the participation of the people in the discus-
sion on scripture and its meaning. The key idea the paper derives from the
history of the Reformation is the notion that the media function (i.e., should
function) as instruments of freedom. A statistical word count of the paper
shows that “freedom” appears 59 times, and thus ranks among the most-used
keywords. It is accompanied by the keyword “literacy” [Bildung], which is used
50 times. A strong connection is made between freedom and responsibility
(used 16x), which leads to the idea of communication rights (these terms ap-
pear individually 76x and 54x). “Participation” (14x) and “empowerment” (8x)
are therefore critical criteria for the realization of justice.
5.2 The first chapter of the paper spells out the consequences of these cri-
teria for the quality of media and the media system. In view of the increasing
28 elkb (2015): Das Netz als sozialer Raum: Kommunikation und Gemeinschaft im digitalen
Zeitalter – ein Impuls, p. 4. (see footnote 7).

discussion around fake news and alternative truths, it therefore advocates the
necessity of public support for journalists and professional media. The paper
makes a critical stance towards the ideas, that a deregulated publishing market
would put forward freedom by itself.
5.3 Another theological term lies at the heart of chapter two: the notion of
salvation by grace is put in antithesis to ideas and concepts of self-optimization
and self-marketing as they are seen in history (see the critique of the Reforma-
tion time), as well as in the digital culture.
5.4 The value of privacy is even more stressed in the following chapter. The
key term here is “secret” (overall 14x). The intimacy of the relation between
God and the believer, as well as the intimacy of pastoral counseling, forms a
strong barrier against the interests of companies as well as state agencies in the
transparency of data: “God is the one and only authority, in front of whom a
human being should be voluntarily transparent.”29 Therefore, in human affairs,
there should be a “right to forget,” which must be valid in the internet as well.
5.5 Finally, the field of childhood, youth, and education is touched on in the
paper by looking at the opportunities and risks of cyber games and media cul-
ture for the process of adolescence.
The plea for the civilization of the digital world(s) goes along with commit-
ments of the eklb and requests towards the political realm. Each chapter
closes with two distinct paragraphs addressing two to five self-commitments
and three to four political claims. The critique of recent developments in and
through digital media (cf. the ongoing discussions around “hate-speech”, “fake-
news” and “surveillance-industry”) thus goes along with an obligation of the
church to find appropriate designs and expressions of digital literacy itself.
The brief examination and overview of the Bavarian paper shows the ap-
proach of utilizing theological topoi from the Lutheran tradition to provide
impulses towards challenges perceived in the process of digitization. As such,
it is a rare example from the Protestant side of the German discussion between
the years 2014 and 2018 which not only asks what the digital transformation
means for the life of the church, but also spells out specific suggestions regard-
ing what the church can contribute towards the development of a digital cul-
ture in society at large. Thus the paper – and the accompanying Media Council
event in Nuremberg – can be seen as an exemplary piece of public theology,
29 Ibid, at p. 34.

representing an understanding of the church as an actor in civil society with

the responsibility, richness, and outreach in and for the societal debate about
the necessary attitudes, as well as the structures needed for media communi-
cation in the digital age.30 Nevertheless, although this was laid out in the paper
and at the event, in retrospect it must be noted that the intended ongoing
public discussion of the impulses presented reached an impasse, and the re-
ception on the political floor in Berlin and other places did not bear fruit as the
initiative had originally hoped for.
6 Conclusion
All three areas of interior organization, religious communication, and ethical

reflection are present in the strategic activities shown within the Evangelical
churches in Germany in recent years. As the many and various approaches and
materials indicate, the church in its threefold dimension as actor within civil
society, an organization and a community of faith, is facing specific challenges
brought about by digitization. Its cultural and economic changes affect not
only the environment of the church, but also the church itself – in the way it
structures and organizes its work, in the way it goes about religious communi-
cation, and in the manner it addresses society on moral ground. Yet the sense
of urgency and necessity to react is perceivably accompanied by skepticism
and reluctance. Therefore, it seems necessary to provide good examples and
attractive images as to how digitization can contribute towards the humaniza-
tion of society – at the individual workplace as well as for a just and sustain-
able culture. In this regard these exemplary studies show that different parts of
the churches in Germany are on their way, but there is more to be done in all
three surveyed areas of religious communication, church organization and
public advocacy. All three are in need of criticism and design:
a. There are individual projects and initiatives in every regional state church
dealing with digitization in all three dimensions, actor within civil soci-
ety, organisation and as a community of faith; the establishment of a na-
tionwide coordination, which allows synergy effects in all of them and
beneath them, is just beginning.
b. Basic technical structures, as well as the knowledge about dealing with
them, must be created end expanded. In order to realize this, the organi-
zation church must be able to react much faster and more agile to the
30 Cf. T. Meireis and R. Schieder (eds): Religion and Democracy. Studies in Public Theology
(Wiesbaden 2017).

demands of its members and employees as well as to the changing condi-

tions of society. Standing at the beginning, there is an urgent need to
move.
c. The churches and theologies have spent a lot of time radically criticiz-
ing digitization processes, repeatedly pointing out that face-to-face en-
counters are a top priority for church communications. Now it is clear
that life in digitized cultures has become part of everyday life. Now, in
all three dimensions of its existence, the Church must show that she is
engaged in shaping a vibrant digital culture which allows to participate in
the gospel by common digital structures and cultural tools of digitalized
communication.
The brief field study also indicates that there is no single recipe, i.e., strategy,
for the digitization of the Evangelical church in Germany. Instead of waiting
for a country-wide masterplan, it seems more appropriate based on our find-
ings to suggest a strategy which is context-sensitive and oriented towards the
practical side: identifying the traits of the theological tradition which seem
promising and bringing them into the discourse on digital developments,
whether in regard to blessings and robotics or to the relation between salvation
by grace and digital self-optimization.


Digitization in The Evangelical Church (Es) in Germany: Exemplary Insights

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ecclesial practices 7 (2020) 83-100

Digitization in the Evangelical Church(es) in

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/22144417-bja10006

Evangelical Church in Germany – ethics – anthropology – algorithm – state of

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President before the Synod in spring 2018, online: https://www.ekhn.de/fileadmin/content/

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2 Recent developments in the ekd from 2014 to 2018

On a federal level, the phenomenon of digitization was first officially addressed

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7 See G. Kretzschmar, Mehr als nur Leuchttürme, online: www.zeitzeichen.net/religion-

ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100

3 Church Organization: Survey on the State of Digitization a

des Evangeliums in der digitalen Gesellschaft”; online: www.ekd.de/ekd_de/ds_doc/s17-

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15 V. Jung, Digital Mensch bleiben (Munich 2018).

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ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100

Today the ekhn is facing the manifold challenges of digitization. It needs a

4 Religious Communication and Education: Insights into Two

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and education in digital worlds. In addition, it is only provisionally, but never-

4.1 Religious Communication through Technology: Effectiveness, Design,

18 Feldkeller, Segen, M. Leuenberger (eds), Segen. Religionswissenschaftlich (Tübingen 2015),

ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100

blessings may thus cater to fundamental, or existential, human needs.19 When

4.2 Religious Education Laboratory (RElabdigital): Working on Digital

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ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100

5 Ethical Reflection: “The Net as a Social Space” – A Regional Church

The aforementioned contribution of the elkb to the Reformation decade, the

ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100 Downloaded from Brill.com07/22/2020 05:17:28PM

ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100

representing an understanding of the church as an actor in civil society with

All three areas of interior organization, religious communication, and ethical

ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100 Downloaded from Brill.com07/22/2020 05:17:28PM

demands of its members and employees as well as to the changing condi-

ECCLESIAL PRACTICES 7 (2020) 83-100

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