Mobile technology is playing an increasingly important role in religious practice in a society in which almost everyone has a phone in their pocket, purse, or attached to their belt. (Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press)

The relationship between technology and religion goes back a long way, with spiritual leaders throughout history consistently employing or controlling technology as part of their role in society.

Indeed, the great Canadian scholar Harold Innis wrote extensively about the use of technology by and for religious purposes in his book Empire and Communications. And in our present day, mobile technology is playing an increasingly important role in religious practice in a society in which almost everyone has a phone in their pocket, purse, or attached to their belt.

These mobile devices play different roles for people, depending both on their religion, as well as the extent to which they practice or observe the rituals and laws of their faiths.

For some, the mobile device extends the ability to worship, acting as an aid by calling the faithful to prayer or allowing for the study of scripture anywhere and at any time. For others, wireless technology on its own can be seen as a threat to a conservative sect. And in the right hands, can also be transformed into a means of protecting a community from outside influences.

Perhaps the most widespread use of mobile technology for spiritual purposes is mobile daily devotionals, a service that allows Christian and other faiths to receive regular information through their cellphones to feed the observance and practice of their faith.

Primarily informational, these services take advantage of the mobile device as an extension of the internet, making available a steady stream of inspirational and liturgical texts. These prayers, uplifting messages and scripture for study are delivered daily, usually via the web browser on a mobile device. Newer handsets can run more advanced applications that make it easier for the user to have their devotionals updated automatically.

Perfect for a little devout downtime in the workday, or a distraction during the long commutes that many people face each day, these mobile daily devotionals extend the observance from the confines of a church on Sunday to everyday activities. Instead of exploring one's relationship with God one day out of seven, people are able to think outside of the institution and take their faith with them wherever they go — which for many is precisely the point of being devout.

While some daily devotional services are free, others have revenue models that charge the user, the ministry, or both.

One such example is faithonmobile.com, which has a broad range of Christian content for mobile devices. From ring tones to sermons, the site targets religious leaders by providing them with a service that packages their ministry online for their local congregation and followers around the world. The site has quite a few famous American religious ministers among its customers, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow Coalition.

In addition to daily devotionals, mobile Bible and mobile Qur’an applications allow people to engage in Bible study. As more social applications find their way to mobile platforms, collaborative Bible study applications will surely emerge, too. Podcasting applications also exist for mobile devices that allow access to 'Godcasting' services — audio recordings of religious lectures, sermons, discussions and talk shows.

Other faiths have also created similar mobile-oriented offerings, including a Sikh service that delivers daily text messages with passages from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scriptures, as well as ones aimed at Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish mobile users.

Mobile technology is used to help alert devout Muslims to their daily commitments to Allah, for example. In Islamic societies, the Adhan is broadcast or sung from the top of Mosques and is easy to hear. However in non-Islamic societies, the call to prayer is usually not heard in public, and thus arises the role and opportunity for mobile devices to sound the call, which itself is a kind of prayer. Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer that is performed five times a day summoning the devout to bow to Mecca, is often programmed into a phone so that it will play the voice of a muezzin making the call at the appropriate daily times.

Other Adhan applications will send text messages to a user's friends imploring them to also heed the call and bow to Mecca. Mobile Qibla applications exist that inform the user of the proper compass directions so as to properly align oneself with the location of Mecca.

Txt msgs to G-d

While these mobile applications allow and encourage personal prayer and the study of scripture, the devices can also allow for religious observance across the confines of space, accessing holy sites that are otherwise difficult to reach.

The Western Wall, for example, is a holy site for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. However, not only is Jerusalem far away for most people, but the contentious nature of this shared holy site makes it difficult for large numbers of people to visit and pray.

Many websites exist that allow people to submit messages that will be printed and placed at the wall, and you can do the same via text message. Websites such as sms2wall.com charge $1 per text message to print up these messages and place them in the cracks of the wall.

This makes it easier for people to feel their prayers will be received, and allows them to reach the Western Wall regardless of where they may be physically located. Imagine an expecting father worried about his wife in labour, or a family gathered around an ill relative hoping they will recover, typing out a text message on their phone in hopes that via the Western Wall the prayer will reach its destination quickly and merit the action of divine forces.

Religious rejection

Not all religious communities see mobile devices as being inherently helpful to the practice of their faith and the maintenance of their religion.

Ultra-orthodox Jews, for example, tend to reject modernity as a whole, and are suspect of new technologies that may expose their members to the corrupting influences of the outside world and culture.

Yet mobile devices have reached a level of ubiquity in society that today even the ultra-Orthodox communities have trouble resisting their use. So an Israeli firm named MIRS Communication has brought to market a mobile phone tailored to the roughly one million Israelis who are ultra-Orthodox. Marketed as Kosher phones, the devices have obtained approval from local rabbinical authorities by disabling all the advanced features that would allow the user to surf the web or use the multimedia capabilities of the device. The usage rates are much lower for calls within the Kosher phone network (i.e. to other members of the ultra-Orthodox sect), and are much higher for calls made during the Sabbath, a time in which use of work-related devices is prohibited.

In this example, the phone is used to contain and control a religious community instead of the mobile device being used to expand and open religious activity. While on the one hand this offers a model for other conservative and fundamentalist religious movements around the world to follow, it also demonstrates that the technology in question is just a tool that can be used within a particular religious context in order to achieve a broad range of spiritual goals.

So the religious role of mobile devices is not necessarily deterministic, but instead has become a new type of religious symbol and expression of spiritual identity. Our phones are more than just tools or fashion accessories. They have become an integral part of our expressed identity, which for many includes a spiritual or religious component.

It can even be argued that many secular or agnostic people employ their mobile devices as a spiritual expression of identity. Have you ever noticed that BlackBerry users share an affliction that fosters a culture and behaviour that makes it seem as if they were all part of a cult? If the cult of BlackBerry users isn't convincing, what about iPhone devotees? Are they not the most devout members of the church of Apple?

Similar to wearing a cross around the neck, the mobile phone has become a device to extend the practice of religion into the personal everyday space of the busy lives we now lead, no matter who or what we worship.