Christian Digital Citizenship Formation: Integrating Liturgical Formation, Public Ecclesiology, and Christian Religious Education
Keywords:
Christian Religious Education, digital popular culture, liturgical formation, public ecclesiology, digital religionAbstract
Digital popular culture has become a significant formative environment in which learners encounter values, identities, relationships, practices, and competing visions of the good life. Social media, entertainment platforms, communication applications, streaming services, and participatory media do not merely communicate information but also shape attention, desire, habits, and patterns of participation. This condition raises a significant concern for Christian Religious Education because faith formation increasingly occurs within digitally mediated environments beyond formal educational and ecclesial settings. This study aims to formulate a model of Christian digital citizenship formation by integrating insights from liturgical formation, public ecclesiology, and Christian Religious Education. The study employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) with thematic synthesis, following the PRISMA 2020 stages of identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. The literature search used Scopus and Google Scholar, with Crossref as a supplementary source, and focused on scholarship concerning digital culture, digital religion, Christian formation, faith formation, digital church, liturgical formation, digital ecclesiology, public theology, and related concepts. The synthesis identifies five interconnected dimensions: digital-theological literacy, desire formation, digital-liturgical practices, ecclesial community, and public witness. The originality of the model does not lie in presenting these dimensions as entirely new constructs, but in their conceptual integration into an educational framework for Christian digital citizenship. The model contributes to Christian Religious Education by connecting critical digital learning with formation of desire, habitus, community, ethical participation, and public Christian witness. It positions religious educators, church-based educational communities, and Christian educational institutions as agents who intentionally form learners to inhabit digital culture critically, ethically, communally, and faithfully.
Downloads
References
Campbell, H. A. (2012). Understanding the relationship between religion online and offline in a networked society. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 80(1), 64–93. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfr074
Campbell, H. A. (Ed.). (2013). Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds. Routledge.
Campbell, H. A., & Tsuria, R. (Eds.). (2022). Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in digital media (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429295683
Cheong, P. H., Fischer-Nielsen, P., Gelfgren, S., & Ess, C. (Eds.). (2012). Digital religion, social media and culture: Perspectives, practices and futures. Peter Lang.
Crosby, M. (2019). So everyone can hear: Communicating church in a digital culture. SPCK.
de Kock, A. J. (2025). Christian digital faith formation among young adults: A literature review. Religious Education, 120(5), 438–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2025.2546240
Díaz, I. (2021). Considering the efficacy of digital technology as a means of evangelization in Christian religious education. Religious Education, 116(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2021.1872001
Ess, C., & Cheong, P. H. (2012). Introduction: Religion 2.0? Relational and hybridizing pathways in religion, social media, and culture. In P. H. Cheong, P. Fischer-Nielsen, S. Gelfgren, & C. Ess (Eds.), Digital religion, social media and culture: Perspectives, practices and futures (pp. 1–21). Peter Lang.
Heymann, B. L. (2026). The public character of church in the digital age. International Journal of Systematic Theology, 28(1), 75–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijst.12775
Hjarvard, S. (2011). The mediatisation of religion: Theorising religion, media and social change. Culture and Religion, 12(2), 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2011.579719
Helland, C. (2005). Online religion as lived religion: Methodological issues in the study of religious participation on the Internet. Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.11588/rel.2005.1.380
Hutchings, T. (2012). Considering religious community through online churches. In H. A. Campbell (Ed.), Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds (pp. 223–238). Routledge.
Lindemann, R., & Schultz, K. G. (2024). A framework for the heart-orientation dimension of worldview. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 33(1–2), 19–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/10656219.2024.2345630
Lövheim, M. (2016). The mediated construction of gender and religion in digital media. Information, Communication & Society, 19(1), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1092000
Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J. M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M. M., Li, T., Loder, E. W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., … Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ, 372, n71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71
Shin, J. J. (2023). Casting a vision of communal and public life of the church for the post-pandemic Korean-American churches: Focusing on Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s communion and public ecclesiology. International Journal of Practical Theology, 27(3), 341–359. https://doi.org/10.1177/23969393221139456
Smith, J. K. A. (2009). Desiring the kingdom: Worship, worldview, and cultural formation. Baker Academic.
Smith, J. K. A. (2013). Imagining the kingdom: How worship works. Baker Academic.
Smith, J. K. A. (2016). You are what you love: The spiritual power of habit. Brazos Press.
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039
Soukup, P. A., & Glader, P. (2020). A debate between Paul Soukup, SJ and Paul Glader on how digital culture is affecting media education on religion. Church, Communication and Culture, 5(2), 279–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/23753234.2020.1765698
van Oorschot, F., & Höhne, F. (2026). Public theology and digitality. In The Oxford handbook of digital theology (pp. 64–78). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191980114.001.0001
Wise, J. (2014). The social church: A theology of digital communication. Moody Publishers.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Andries Yosua

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
