CFP: Lessico di Etica Pubblica - The Divine and the Digital (2/2026)

Lessico di Etica Pubblica 

Special Issue - The Divine and the Digital

(XVII, n. 2, 2026)

Edited by Gemma Serrano (Collège des Bernardins, Paris).

The relationship between technology and culture is an increasingly discussed topic in the humanities. The analysis of the consequences of the so-called digital turn, sometimes regarded as an unprecedented cultural transformation, has developed within an interdisciplinary field encompassing philosophy, history, anthropology, and sociology, as well as theology and religious studies. Like any technological transformation, the social implementation of digital technologies has had an impact on religious and spiritual practices on a global scale. For years, the study of religions has examined how the spread of digital media has influenced our experience of transcendence, rituals, communal life, and belief. At the same time, theology and religion can offer cultural and theoretical tools to deepen our understanding of technology and can also provide an original perspective on the meaning of transformations in contemporary society.

Beyond analysing the fate of theology and religion in the digital age, it is crucial to recognize that the field of digital technologies opens up horizons of meaning and reflection that are closely intertwined with the domain of spirituality. Our relationship with technology, more broadly, is permeated by religion: a wide range of metaphors and notions—either explicitly theological or rooted in religious language and practices—are pervasively present in public and academic debates on the meaning of technology. In this sense, many philosophers of technology—including, to name just a few, Günther Anders, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Ellul, Martin Heidegger, Ivan Illich, Emanuele Severino, and Norbert Wiener—have grounded their reflections in terms imbued with a theological resonance, and have assigned a central role to the sphere of the divine in their interpretations of technology, even when working from a secular perspective. A critical engagement with our religious tradition can help us develop analytical models for understanding our relationship with technology, as well as for analysing our desires, our fears, and the socio-technical imaginaries that structure the social space.

This task, of course, also entails theoretical and methodological challenges. First, thinking about the relationship between technology and religion means recognizing the need for an intercultural study of different models for understanding the technical phenomenon. If the European interpretation of technology is rooted in Christian culture, it becomes crucial to consider other traditions and other frameworks of reference.

At the same time, reference to digital technologies requires us to address the problem of technology from a historical perspective. The advent of artificial intelligence has made it even clearer that what we call the “digital turn” is in fact a layered and complex phenomenon, and that digital technologies already have a long history, which prevents us from thinking of “the digital” as a unified dimension. What, then, are the specific features of the so-called “digital age”? How can the analysis of the imaginaries and narratives associated with digital technologies help us shed light on our present?

Issue 2/2026 of Lessico di Etica Pubblica will address these themes from an interdisciplinary perspective, with contributions from philosophy, theology, cultural and technological history, sociology, and media theory. The following are some of the topics that will be explored:

• The digital turn as a socio-technical imaginary;
• The religious and theological origins of the vocabulary we use to speak about digital technologies;
• The relationship between technology and religion in contemporary thought;
• Ethical and eschatological perspectives related to digital culture;
• Critical reflections on the history of digital technologies;
• Digital technologies as an intercultural and interreligious issue;
• Social imaginaries and Artificial Intelligence.

Submission Guidelines for Article Proposals

Papers must be submitted by October 31, 2026 to the following address:[email protected].

Contributions in Italian, English and French are accepted. Maximum length: 35,000 characters, including spaces and notes. Authors are also required to include an abstract of no more than 150 words in both Italian and English. The article file must be prepared in anonymous form to comply with the blind peer review process. In a separate file attached to the same email, authors should provide their full name, email address, the title of the article, and its abstract.

Submissions must conform to the editorial guidelines available at the following link:
https://www.eticapubblica.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/LEP_Norme_redazionali.pdf.
Authors are also invited to use the journal’s style sheet available here:
https://www.eticapubblica.it/norme-editoriali/.