Algorithmic Authority and the Rise of E-Believers: AI, Mediation, and Religious Transformation in the Majority World

• In Event: Sociology of Religion Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6. Religion and Authority

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is increasingly entering domains historically governed by embodied religious authority. While digital religion scholarship has shown how online platforms mediate religious community and communication, AI marks a distinct analytical shift: beyond mediation, it generates interpretations, curates devotional guidance, and participates in theological and pastoral decision-making. This paper examines how AI-mediated religious practice reshapes authority and religious subjectivity, particularly in Majority World contexts where religion remains publicly embedded. Drawing on a qualitative, thematic synthesis of existing scholarship and operational AI-enabled religious applications across India, Indonesia, Egypt, Myanmar, Thailand, Nigeria, and Iran, the analysis argues that these developments introduce a new layer of algorithmic authority within religious fields and contribute to the formation of e-believers—religious subjects whose habitus is recursively shaped through algorithmic mediation. Across cases ranging from scriptural chatbots and digital fatwa platforms to Buddhist AI assistants and state-regulated systems, three recurring dynamics emerge: the partial redistribution of interpretive authority, the hybridization of institutional and computational mediation, and tensions between expanded access and regulatory control. By centering Majority World experience, the paper advances international perspectives in the sociology of religion and outlines directions for empirical investigation of hybrid human–machine religious fields.

Authors

• Elif KIRAN, Tekirdag Namik Kemal University

• Avanlee Peterson