Digitally Divided

This book offers a critical exploration of how digital technologies are reshaping religious belief, ethical frameworks, and social cohesion. As faith and ideology migrate to online platforms, the book examines how algorithm-driven content, echo chambers, and decentralized authority structures influence discourse and sometimes deepen divides. Drawing from perspectives in religious studies, sociology, philosophy, and digital humanities, this volume interrogates how rituals, spaces, and narratives are transformed in the digital age. Amid rising concerns over misinformation and polarization, it challenges the assumption that technology must inevitably fragment communities. Instead, it explores how digital spaces might also foster new dialogue and meaning. From online religious practices to surveillance ethics and the reshaping of authority, Digitally Divided maps risks and possibilities at the intersection of belief and technology.

Massimo Leone is Director of ISR-FBK, the Center for Religious Studies at the “Bruno Kessler Foundation” in Trento; Full Professor of Philosophy of Communication, Cultural Semiotics, and Visual Semiotics at the University of Turin; Professor of Semiotics at Shanghai University; Associate Member of Cambridge Digital Humanities; Adjunct Professor at UCAB University in Caracas and at Korea University in Seoul. A member of the Academia Europaea, he has been a visiting professor on five continents. He is the author of seventeen books, has edited more than seventy volumes, and has published over seven hundred articles. Recipient of an ERC Consolidator Grant (2018) and an ERC Proof of Concept Grant (2022), he serves as Editor-in-Chief of journals Lexia and Semiotica and of three international book series (including “Religion and Technology”, Springer).

Steven Umbrello is currently the Managing Director at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and a research fellow at the University of Turin. He is the editor of several international academic journals, such as the International Journal of Technoethics, the Journal of Responsible Technology, and the Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies. He is the author of several books, including Technology Ethics: Responsible Innovation and Design Strategies (Polity, 2024).