bible tech2009 john dyer how bible technology shapes our faith
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How Bible Technology Shapes Our Faith
Before you skewer me :)
Director of Web Development at Dallas Seminary
http://bible.johndyer.name/
• Technology and Society• Mediums and Messages• Bible and Technology
GoodBad
Neutral
“It’s just how you use it”
Phone = neutral
Call your friend = GoodCall in bomb threat = Bad
How many phone numbers do you know by memory?
Phone = morally neutralPhone ≠ effectively neutral
• Know fewer numbers– Effect on the mind
• Constantly accessible– Effects on relationships
Cars = neutral
Drive to church = GoodDrive over a person = Bad
Car ≠ neutral
• Blacksmiths• Requires roads & laws• Connects/separates
It’s just how you use it
Actually, it’s that we use it
Technology is not neutral
Every medium has the capacity to communicate regardless of its content.
I am awesum at PowerPoint
Really and truly awesome
Humble yourself before the Lord and don’t bring attention to yourself.
• Genre– Poetry, Narrative, Apocalypse, etc.
• Medium– Talking Donkey– Burning Bush– God in the Flesh
• What does __ extend?• What does __ make obsolete?• What does __ retrieve?• What does __ reverse into?
2000 B.C. to A.D. 2000 in 25 minutes
OralAdam‐1500BC
Written1500BC‐AD1500
PrintedAD1500‐AD1980
DigitizedAD1980‐present
The community is the device
Oral
• More consistent• Costly
– Communal
Written
Written
manwoman
男
女
Written
• From 1500B.C. to A.D.1500– Preaching– Hearing– Memorizing
• Images and Icons
Written
• Exactness• Mass Distribution• Reference/Footnotes• Chapter and Verse Numbers
• Extends: communication, storage
• Obsoletes: communal/written knowledge, church authority
• Retrieves: access to truth• Reverses Into: individualism
• Authority shifted from the Church to the individual
• Personal Bible study, individual faith
• Faith is logical, not emotional• Think in verses, not books
Print Digital
• Photograph• Computer/Internet
The boys are hungry
Print Digital
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinajoebrianwillie/851443071/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramdiboy/3299674549/
• Fast• Passive• Trivial/Entertaining• Story vs. logic
• Information/Scanning• Multi‐tasking• Decontextual Language
Digital
I worry that the level of interrupt, the sort of overwhelming rapidity of information — and especially of stressful information — is in fact affecting cognition. It is in fact affecting deeper thinking. I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is the best way to really learn something. And I worry that we’re losing that.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Digital
• Increased Access• Cheap/Free• Links to other information
Digital
• Bible as information• Bible as search
– John 3:16 – Romans 5:8
• Tools can reverse into crutches, stifle learning
Digital
• Reject “The mediums change, but the message is the same.”
• Read scripture aloud, in community, without PowerPoint
• Reduce information, read and memorize large chunks
• Reduce multi‐tasking• Create alternate experiences of the Bible
• Offer recommendations, not data dumps
• Minimize helps
Email: [email protected]: johndyer.nameTheo/Tech: donteatthefruit.com