COVID-19: the pandemic as a catalyst for videograce

ABSTRACT

Abstract This article seeks to answer what has happened to religion in the days of COVID-19. To give an answer, it seeks to attend to the religious reconfigurations caused by the policies of confinement and closing of temples during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, and more specifically in Guadalajara. This article highlights that despite the closure of all temples of all religions and congregations in Mexico Religious activities did not stop, as they implemented and adapted to mediating strategies and moved into the space of sociodigital networks. The first part of this article introduces the religious political context in which the closing of temples happened, the relevance that the religious acquires in times of crisis is described;the production of apocalyptic interpretations that generate non-institutional alternative versions to that of the State to interpret the pandemic.Two case studies were chosen the Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Tepeyac in Zapopan and the interdenominational Christian congregation “Más Vida” (More Life) to compare two different strategies of organizational and liturgical adaptation. The first case shows the way in which the COVID-19 promoted the mediatization of traditions, the second case accounts for the transition from a “religion online” to an “online religion” (Campbell, 2012).