Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age
There are books you may be drawn to, but probably do not actually need to read. (Seriously, at some point you need to stop reading books about methods of prayer and just pray!) Then there are other books you may not be particularly drawn to but probably ought to read. Among these are books on technology, and especially the new digital technologies that have come to dominate our lives. I’d wager that your phone is in your hand at least several hours every day; I’d wager that you are on social media at least every few hours, often without even thinking about it; I’d wager that you communicate with others through your devices on a near-constant basis. Would it not be important to do some reading about these technologies, about how they are functioning in society and the church, and about how they may be quietly transforming you? What else could form such an important part of our lives yet receive so little attention?
Samuel James’ Digital Liturgies is meant to help you think about these technologies and the social internet they enable. For these are not harmless or inconsequential tools. Neither can they be exactly compared to any tools that we have previously experienced in human history, for they alone provide a “disembodied electronic environment that we enter through connected devices for the purpose of accessing information, relationships, and media that are not available to us in a physical format.” Our use of these technologies and our increasing immersion in them essentially brings us into a whole new kind of world in which we leave aside so much of what makes us who we are.
“Rather than being a neutral tool, the internet (particularly the social internet) is an epistemological environment—a spiritual and intellectual habitat—that creates in its members particular ways of thinking, feeling, and believing. It’s true in one sense that the web is a tool that responds to its users’ desires. But the web is not a tool in the way that a screwdriver or wrench is a tool. The web speaks to us. We talk to the web, and the web talks back, and this dialogue constitutes an ever-growing aspect of life in the digital age.”
What James means to show is that these new technologies teach a kind of liturgy, a series of practices, habits, beliefs, and desires that form us and shape us in particular ways. Just as Christians maintain a vision of the life they want to lead before the Lord and institute practices meant to foster it, these technologies hold out a vision of the good life and then promote practices that will further it. His burden is to identify and evaluate these liturgies to see where they may be opposed to the Christian faith and the Christian life. This is not a book that is anti-technology or promoting the way of the Luddite, but a book that takes seriously our responsibility to live with deliberateness, with care, and with a kind of biblically-inspired prudence.
In the first three chapters, James does some foundation-building by focusing on the Bible’s demand that we live with wisdom. He means to convince us that Christians are called to a way of life that is transcendent but also intensely practical. We are to live according to a liturgy that far surpasses anything the world can offer—a liturgy that the social internet and digital technologies can never come close to matching (but will do their utmost to displace).
The heart of the book is comprised of five chapters that each address a different digital liturgy. Here James means to help us understand both the content our technologies are preaching to us and the ideologies they are fostering within us. “The question is not, Is this technology shaping me right now? The question is, How is this technology shaping me right now?” And so he writes at some length about authenticity, outrage, shame, consumption, and meaninglessness—each of them a readily identifiable aspect of life online. He relies on a wide variety of Christian and nonChristian sources to prove and bolster his arguments. Each of them is concerning and compelling.
In the end, he really means to convince Christians that God calls us to live according to divine wisdom and that the internet is an epistemological and moral context that makes such wisdom look like foolishness. If we are to thrive as Christians who take advantage of these technologies instead of eschewing them altogether, we will need to know how they are leading us to adopt and practice liturgies that are directly opposed to a Christian life of godliness, wisdom, and significance. Though I have studied these issues deeply in the past, I still benefited a lot from James’ insights and am grateful I read them. I’d highly encourage you to do the same.
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A La Carte (February 13)
Grace and peace to you today.
Theres’s a good number of Kindle deals today.
(Yesterday on the blog: Hoping For Heaven or Wallowing in This World)
On twirling spears
What is spear twirling? “You know how it is: that argument you have as you look in the mirror brushing your teeth, or shaving… the argument where you are rehearsing just what you would like to say to that person at work, or at church, or in the next room!… the argument you always win, but actually will never say.”
Just Listen
“After a few years of reaching out to these younger women, it finally dawned on me that they weren’t interested in my wisdom or advice. They weren’t even all that interested in getting to know me. What they wanted instead was just someone to listen to them.” And that can be its own gift.
The Gray Havens – “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery” (Official Audio)
This is a lovely rendition of “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery” by The Gray Havens. They are about to begin a new tour. If you plan to go, use coupon code Challies5 to save $5 per ticket.
Some Thoughts on the Asbury Revival
“Perhaps you have heard or read by now reports about a revival taking place on the campus of Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. A campus chapel service on Wednesday did not end at its appointed time but rather carried on for days on end. Students lingered and prayed and repented and worshipped.” Denny Burk offers some thoughts on it.
And a Soft Tongue Will Break a Bone
Here is a good example of a time when a soft tongue made all the difference.
Sinners or Saints — How Should We Speak of Christians?
“I was recently challenged about my use of the word sinner to collectively speak of God’s people. Can we who are saved by grace through faith still be called sinners, or is it more biblical to use the word saint?” John Piper answers the question.
Flashback: Biographies for People Who Have Never Read a Biography
Today I want to offer just a few suggestions and recommendations for people who are approaching biography for the first time, or for the first time in a long while.We must have cast our sins on Him before we can cast our cares. We must be at peace with God through the work of our Saviour before we can have the peace of God through faith in His gracious interposition on our behalf. —F.B. Meyer
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A La Carte (December 7)
May the God of love and peace be with you on this fine day.
At Westminster Books this week you can get a deal on Richard Gamble’s massive three-volume series on the whole counsel of God.
(Yesterday on the blog: What Matters Is Not the Size of Your Faith)
Stop Binding Consciences And Marking Spirituality By Christmas Celebrations
This is a good and necessary reminder. “Christmas is not in the Bible. You don’t have to do it and you don’t have to avoid it either. We are entirely free. Your spiritual temperature is not determined by whether you celebrate Christmas or not. Neither does your love for Jesus depend on whether you manage to make Jesus the absolute epicentre of your celebration, with every bauble reflecting gospel truth, or you just enjoy having a nice time and give thanks to God for it like you would any other enjoyable thing. None of it, really, tells you very much about your love for Christ.”
The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife Fiasco
If you’ve never read about the fiasco related to Jesus’ supposed wife, this article may be of interest. (Also consider reading the book Veritas which offers far more detail).
Bethlehem’s Supernatural Star
This is a helpful thought from John Piper: “I risk a generalization to warn you: people who are exercised and preoccupied with such things, as how the star worked and how the Red Sea split and how the manna fell and how Jonah survived the fish and how the moon turns to blood, are generally people who have what I call a mentality for the marginal.”
The Most Miserable Time of the Year
Sticking with the Christmas theme, here’s Al Gooderham on getting Christmas wrong. “Yes our world so often loses Jesus in the suffocating press of the tinsel and gifts and experiences and meals. But what if we had too? What if instead of haranguing society and preaching a gospel that seems to be dead against joy we showed them what they were missing?”
Who Wrote Hebrews? Exploring a New Testament Mystery
Here’s a fairly lengthy look at one of those age-old mysteries.
The Life of Naomi and How Adversity Disguises God at Work
Deborah McQuilkin: “My life as a Christian is not what I expected. In fact, at one point I said to God, ‘Is this worth it? Thirty years I have followed you as closely as possible, and this is how it turns out? Should I just leave you now? What is the point?’ Shock and disappointment filled my heart and I wondered what my life meant.”
Flashback: Sexual Revolution, Same Old Revolution
Today we are watching people all around us revolt away from justice, away from truth, away from common sense, away from the common good. The revolution rages around us and sometimes within us.Shaky preaching tends to make shaky Christians. —Theodore Cuyler
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A La Carte (December 28)
May the Lord be with you and bless you on this fine day.
When the City of Man Creaks
I think many of us are noticing the straining and breaking down of systems and wondering what it means. “Progress in the systems we rely on for life necessities or conveniences has been assumed. The pandemic and its aftermath have challenged this assumption and, whether temporary or long-term, the systems around us are showing their weakness.”
Six Questions You Should Ask at the Beginning of 2023
“What I started doing a couple of years ago was to abandon the idea of New Year’s resolutions and instead start thinking about what I wanted to focus on for the next year in early December. Then I started implementing changes that would make progress on my goals before the new year begins. What this allowed me to do was to get out of the habit of thinking the new year would magically change me into a new person.”
A Unique Plan for Reading through the Greek New Testament in 2023
If you know (or knew) Greek, this reading plan exists to help you keep and improve it.
King Charles’s Christmas Message Reflects a Post-Christian United Kingdom
Year after year the Queen gave a Christmas message. But this year, “due to her death in September, it was delivered by King Charles III. His message was akin to the first sermon preached by a new pastor who has succeed a long-serving and much loved predecessor. Charles’s message shed light on the spiritual state of contemporary Britain and on the faith of the King himself.”
Excuse me, may I have six seconds of your time?
“Have you ever considered that six seconds of your life could alter someone’s eternity? A message so simple that a child could understand it is also the power of God for salvation to all who believe.”
“Amazing Grace” at 250 Years Old
Lisa writes about a very noteworthy anniversary—the 250th anniversary of the first singing of “Amazing Grace.”
Flashback: The Half-Trained Dog
We train ourselves for a while, but then grow weary when those last vestiges of the sin refuse to die, or when we realize that sin has much deeper and stronger roots than we had expected, or when we realize that we actually kind of like our sin. We end up half-trained, good enough Christians.Don’t be easy or simplistic in labeling what a person’s heart is worshipping. You are not on an idol hunt, as if these things could be easily labeled. —Jeremy Pierre & Deepak Reju
