Live together virtually Deeper understandings


W


hat is the scope of interest when you talk about “religion and media”?


It’s much more than simply a


practical matter of how churches use social media. There are sig- nificant theological and personal issues to consider. For example, if you ask people to draw a blueprint of their home and mark where they encounter media, there used to be a few specific places: near the TV set, radio or stereo. Now there’s hardly a space that isn’t pervaded by media, not least because we so often carry around devices like laptops and tab- lets, e-book readers and, most nota- bly, smartphones. On the other hand, ask people to


draw where they encounter God in their home and it often takes them awhile even to begin. If they are asked to mark the spaces that are sacred, their ideas flow a little more quickly— dining room tables, bedrooms, a rocking chair in front of a window, a kitchen counter, the nook where they talk on the phone. All of these have resonance. They are spaces that can invite a realization that something, someone, somewhere, is sacred. Religion and media, therefore,


is all about how, where, when and why that which we mark as transcen- dent—to put it more personally, the “Knower Who Knows Us”—becomes


Think of all the problems created in digital media when sarcasm, irony or humor is misunderstood.


known. These days most of the media we encounter can offer such glimpses of the holy.


So is this about becoming more aware of God in various media in our daily lives? Yes. We like to say that all theology


is contextual. All of creation exists in specific uniqueness, and because of that we must attend to place and time, i.e., to “context.” But a chal- lenge of digital media is that they can foster context collapse. Someone can grab a brief video of a person speaking or copy a comment from a blog and share it on the Internet. We don’t know clearly who authored it, what came before or after it, nor do we know to whom it was addressed. Much of its context has been lost and so has its proper meaning. Think also of all the problems created in digital media when sarcasm, irony or humor is misunderstood. Many examples exist of ways in


which context collapse is particularly hard for religious discourse. Are you confident that you will get a true and faithful answer to a religious ques- tion if you Google it? You surely want more context to assess its validity. Still, context collapse isn’t a new


Editor’s note: This series is intended to be a public conversation among theo- logians of the ELCA on various themes of our faith and the challenging issues of our day. It invites readers to engage in dialogue by posting comments online at the end of each article at www.thelutheran.org.


14 www.thelutheran.org


problem. Consider the challenge it has always posed to understanding the Bible. If we just pull out a verse or phrase, we experience context collapse and risk misinterpretation. One reason why the ELCA’s Book of Faith initiative is so useful is precisely because it has shared five lenses for engaging the Bible, and using them tends to mitigate against context col- lapse. They are law and gospel, show- ing forth Christ, Scripture interprets Scripture, the plain meaning of the text and public interpretation (what a passage means in various cultures).


It sounds as if you are hesitant about fully embracing new media. It’s foolish to ignore it, and no sin-


gle medium is without problems. Yet every form of medium can faithfully and fruitfully be used in religious practice. Christians from the outset have


been early adopters of new media. With the perspective that God’s word is living and dynamic, Chris- tians wrote using common, everyday Greek. They were among the first to use the codex (book) medium that was a cheaper and more efficient way of distributing text. The print- ing press was a new technology that helped promote Martin Luther’s ref- ormation. Christian groups that were pioneers in using radio and television have had a profound effect on Chris- tianity today. Now with the Internet, religion is one of the most popular topics.


Now with the Internet,


religion is one of the most popular topics.


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