E-Bibles, Church and the Future

[Rey Reynoso]

Tim Challies has a couple of posts about leaving your iPod at home. He follows Piper who was saying something about don't twitter in Church and follows Postman on what he says in his books.

So, what do you think: do electronic Bibles diminish the worth of the Bible and reading in general? Is there some sort of Christian merit in pushing away technology? Is a real Christian one who relies on index-cards and leather bound Bibles? Are these questions all skewed wrong?!?!

(Note, I'm including Kindles, iPhone, Treos, Tablet PC's, Laptops, Computer Paper, Quantum Visual computers and everything else)

[Laura Springer]

Now, I use and appreciate my paper bible, but the set of translations, commentaries, dictionaries, and devotionals on my Treo make it possible for me to read and study Scripture almost anywhere and anytime.

I try to keep in mind that there was a time when the machine-printed bible was new-fangled technology. :-)

(As a side note, if I had a data plan on the Treo, I'd Twitter during the sermon for sure. After all, it's just a tech version of whispering thoughts to your neighbor in the pew.)

[Jason]

The true issue should be whether or not technology distracts us during our worship.
Technology is inherently neutral. What we do with it makes the difference.

[James Gibbons]

A device that makes it just as easy to look at information out of context as to look at it in context leads to the de-contextualization (ah, de-civilization) of society. Software is great for study tools. But it is dangerous for its capacity to destroy context (let alone thought flow).

There are already few enough Christians who understand that 1 Chron, 2 Chron, and Ezra are a continuous narrative. Why encourage them to avail themselves of a tool that allows them to look at every reference to “sovereignty” (hey, query that one, by the way), without even knowing there is a book of Ezra?

The text is the text. Whatever form it comes in. But it does not stretch our minds to devolve into a race of tweet twits. Just saying.

And now this! (to quote postman)

[James Gibbons]

Technology is not inherently neutral. For example, if a technology allows you to do something fast, then it increases the value (currency value) of doing it fast, leading to the devaluation of other attributes (like doing it with accurate color in the case of digital printing technology). Spreadsheet software made it possible to compare variables ad infinitum. Within a generation, business management stopped being about people, processes, relationships, and products, and started to be about data. Not saying if that is good. But it is definitely NOT neutral.

Jason said:

The true issue should be whether or not technology distracts us during our worship.
Technology is inherently neutral. What we do with it makes the difference.

[Kevin]

Maybe if you're Amish. I'm pretty sure they didn't have index cards in the first century not to mention leather bound bibles, and I think they were "real" Christians. I can't imagine anyone bringing an iPod, cell phone or anything else that distracts from the service to church. I do cross word puzzles ...

[Harry]

I Love technology and I have Bible software on all our computers along with Luther's Works. I have a Kindle, but there is something about a physical Bible with a commentary or a hymnal. The same goes about a regular book. The computer with the software is good for Bible study at home but not at church. I am very much against screens of any sort in the church service, Sunday School, yes.

[Rey Reynoso]

I wonder if there were people in the early centuries complaining about these gosh-darned new scrolls. Imagine, rolling up a scroll and carrying it with you instead of laboring by putting the Word in stone!

[joanne guarnieri]

Man, I am SO plagiarizing "tweet twits"!!! YOW! That was a rolling-on-the-floor-laughing moment. I relish those, thank you James :o)

If people are tweeting and IPoding and crossword puzzling during the worship service, it might be worth wondering why. If one isn't fully engaged with what's going on...but actually, with tweeting (which I don't do, by the way, but only becasue I don't get it), from what I do understand, that's being fully engaged in the moment here, and in the moment with one'sother people who are not here. One is sharing the moment with them. This is sort of a new level in communing, made possible by technology. Maybe we will have people bringing in their laptops with skype, so the bedridden can be as "in" the worship service as one possibly could get....Or transfer a great worship song, or sermon clip, via one's phone.

I know people who go to ball games and bring their mini t.v. or radio so they can get the running commentary too. But also to watch t.v. during the dull bits (I dunno, don't ask me, I'm rarely fully engaged at a football game, but basketball is one leap of adrenalin from first step to last second).

It was weird at first to be in a Bible study and have people consult their Blackberries, but I think it was more cultural than anything. I will say this, though. My paper-pages Bible works whether or not the battery's been recharged, whether or not the power's been knocked out, and I am glad I have a general ability to find stuff in it. It's kind of like math. Calculators are a great time saver, but... it's nice to have it in one's head, too.

[Harry]

I always thought that stone tablets worked just fine, but people wanted all these new fangle things such as scrolls and then they wanted codices.

Rey Reynoso said:

I wonder if there were people in the early centuries complaining about these gosh-darned new scrolls. Imagine, rolling up a scroll and carrying it with you instead of laboring by putting the Word in stone!

[Rey Reynoso]

LOL

Harry said:

I always thought that stone tablets worked just fine, but people wanted all these new fangle things such as scrolls and then they wanted codices.

Rey Reynoso said:

I wonder if there were people in the early centuries complaining about these gosh-darned new scrolls. Imagine, rolling up a scroll and carrying it with you instead of laboring by putting the Word in stone!

[James Gibbons]

joanne guarnieri said:

Man, I am SO plagiarizing "tweet twits"!!! YOW! That was a rolling-on-the-floor-laughing moment. I relish those, thank you James :o)

If people are tweeting and IPoding and crossword puzzling during the worship service, it might be worth wondering why. If one isn't fully engaged with what's going on...but actually, with tweeting (which I don't do, by the way, but only becasue I don't get it), from what I do understand, that's being fully engaged in the moment here, and in the moment with one'sother people who are not here. One is sharing the moment with them. This is sort of a new level in communing, made possible by technology. Maybe we will have people bringing in their laptops with skype, so the bedridden can be as "in" the worship service as one possibly could get....Or transfer a great worship song, or sermon clip, via one's phone.

I know people who go to ball games and bring their mini t.v. or radio so they can get the running commentary too. But also to watch t.v. during the dull bits (I dunno, don't ask me, I'm rarely fully engaged at a football game, but basketball is one leap of adrenalin from first step to last second).

It was weird at first to be in a Bible study and have people consult their Blackberries, but I think it was more cultural than anything. I will say this, though. My paper-pages Bible works whether or not the battery's been recharged, whether or not the power's been knocked out, and I am glad I have a general ability to find stuff in it. It's kind of like math. Calculators are a great time saver, but... it's nice to have it in one's head, too.

Tweet twits is all yours, sister.

I actually go to an annual Bible study with about 20 guys, who sit around a huge oval, with laptops open, combing through study helps verse by verse. It is very helpful. But what’s really helpful is 20 guys, fully engaged in the text. I worry about folks confusing having access to resources with being engaged in the text. For me, software is good. But it is not a substitute.

Also, because I am a 98 pound weakling, I was happy when we went from stone tablets to scrolls. Since then, I’ve been wary. But that’s just me.

By the way, have you ever thought about how exhausted Moses must have been, after a 40-day fast, schlepping two stone tablets down a MOUNTAIN! And then, busting them up and starting over. Dude must have been totally wiped out. And I thought I was having a tough week.

[Rey Reynoso]

Why is software being imbued with properties it doesn't have? If it's software Of The Text, it is still The Text.