Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

You’ll Have an iPad in Your House

Steve Jobs’ latest innovation is pioneering a new space for human use of technology.  Last week’s unveiling of the iPad came after many months of speculation, hype, and hope; yet the initial response was far less impressive than either the hype or the thing itself merited.  The first remarks...
February 18th, 2010 | Technology | Read More

You Are What You Eat…And Not Who You Sleep With

Food and sex have shifted roles over the past fifty or so years, argues Mary Eberstadt in a fascinating essay at Policy Review. Once, social stigma condemned extra-marital philandering. Sex was a serious ethical issue, with serious personal and social consequences. Food, however, was something with few,...
November 16th, 2009 | Culture, Technology, Worldviews | Read More

A Word from our Higher Powers: The MLA Seventh Edition

There is hardly a student in the United States whose work remains wholly untouched by the influence of the Modern Language Association. Whether a fledgling upstart or a seasoned scholar, anyone doing academic work in the humanities has been guided through the massive collaborative effort of the MLA....
November 5th, 2009 | Art & Literature, Blogging, Education, Media, Technology | Read More

Whitewashing Cultural Sepulchers

She’s only three, but our differing taste in music is already a source of conflict. When I turn on Johnny Cash or Regina Spektor, she is adamant: “No.  Songs ’bout Jesus.”  In other words, the local contemporary Christian music station. At first this seemed OK.   Like many...
October 28th, 2009 | Culture, Education, Media, Music, Other, Technology | Read More

In Defense of Darkness

It is no real surprise that one of the primary metaphors in Scripture for the dominion of sin and evil ruled over by Satan is that of Darkness. We are diurnal creatures, light-loving and day-inhabiting. We have colloquially marked the development of culture by harnessing fire, defining anthropological...
October 6th, 2009 | Creation Care, Culture, Technology | Read More

The Christian Web Conference: Incarnating Digital Relationships

Last weekend’s Christian Web Conference put flesh on the disembodied personas of several well-known online Christians.  While internet technologies continue to help people form increasingly complex relationships online, nothing has yet replaced the richly unique dynamic of face-to-face meetings...
September 17th, 2009 | Blogging, Media, Technology | Read More

Flickering Pixels: Reuniting Medium and Message

Do you control the ways in which you communicate, or do they control you?  As Shane Hipps, the Porsche advertising executive turned Mennonite pastor, writes, “Christianity is fundamentally a communication event.”  Hipps’ newest book,  Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your...
September 10th, 2009 | Book Reviews, Media, Technology | Read More

Emot-iconoclasm: Deconstruction and the Devolution of Language

I suppose this begins with my mother. She has recently tasked herself with learning how to more effectively communicate via text messaging. A recent advance in her acumen is the adept manipulation of those quirky combinations of punctuation marks known as emoticons. The advent of these symbols coincides...
August 28th, 2009 | Art & Literature, Culture, Media, Pop Semiotics, Technology | Read More

Twitter: Coming to a church near you?

Is the Holy Spirit at work on twitter?  According to a recent Time magazine article, it might be. Time recently highlighted a congregation in Michigan that has hosted about a dozen “Twitter Sundays”, complete with increased bandwith in the church sanctuary and training sessions for those...
June 8th, 2009 | Evangelicals, Media, Technology | Read More

Twitter: Narcissism Meets Networking

Is twitter the next best marketing and networking tool, or merely another way for that annoying guy at work to brag about his mundane life? It’s really up to you. Dustin’s post about the iphone-skype marriage reminded me of what Os Guinness had to say at a recent conference on Francis Schaeffer....
April 2nd, 2009 | Blogging, Technology | Read More