Ritual Form and Virtual Reality

Abstract

The central claim of this study is that virtual reality (VR) is not a suitable medium for ensuring the validity of liturgical rites. While this conclusion is not in itself novel, the reasoning offered in support of it is. The article examines two dominant ways of conceptualizing VR: as a space and as an interface. When understood as a space, VR fails to meet the requirements of sacramental ontology and cannot enable the ontological transformation through which divine presence constitutes space as sacred. When reconceived as an interface, the ontological objection can be set aside, but a more fundamental difficulty remains: the impossibility of sustaining ritual form. Ritual form presupposes a unified, embodied, and ecclesial enactment of a received rite, whereas VR structures participation as mediated and parallel experiences rather than as a single liturgical action. Thus, the article concludes that, whether conceived as space or interface, VR cannot provide the conditions required for the valid enactment of liturgical rites.