Digital Spiritual Formation in Post-Christian Europe
A Framework for Spiritual Formation in Digital Culture. Adapted and abridged public edition by Tobias Treppmann, 2026.
Download the public edition (PDF)
This public edition retains the landscape analysis and missional product design framework. The product case study and development roadmap have been omitted; evaluation requirements and limitations have been retained in a shorter, general form. The original submitted paper is unchanged.
Abstract
English-speaking Bible apps pioneered digital access to Scripture, offering production quality and formats familiar from other media. YouVersion reported more than one billion cumulative installs across its family of apps in 2025. Other language communities have often received a more limited experience. Meanwhile, many spiritual apps have inherited Silicon Valley's engagement mechanics without adequately asking whether those mechanics serve formation. Growing content catalogues offer choice and recommendations, but receptive content remains largely generic.
This paper examines these problems through cognitive science, behavioral data, Christian formation tradition, and the European post-Christian context. It focuses on spiritually liminal audiences: Europeans who have walked away from institutions but have not stopped seeking. Its hypothesis is that AI could support more personally responsive spiritual formation and make richer resources available to less-resourced language communities. Whether it can do so without commodifying spiritual practice or displacing human community remains an open question.
The analysis develops a missional product design framework: seven principles and six diagnostic questions connecting theology to product development. Multimodal formation, resistance to spiritual commodification, grace-based mechanics, and a communal horizon constrain what responsible personalization could mean. A concluding evaluation section distinguishes business metrics from provisional formation indicators and signs of harm, and identifies findings that would count against the paper's hypotheses. The framework specifies requirements for future design and evaluation; it does not demonstrate that a particular product produces spiritual growth.
How this site builds on it
Missional by Design grew out of this paper. The principles and diagnostic questions develop its framework for product teams. The patterns apply it to concrete decisions, from progress and streaks to notifications, and the app library documents what faith apps actually do. The paper's account of how faith apps inherited the attention economy's design philosophy is the starting point for the site's work on discerning common technology practices.