A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
A topic deserving of careful thought by every Christian, doubly so for parents.
The rapid advance of digital technology is reshaping our world and warping our minds. The onslaught of social media and smartphones has brought an appetite for distraction, an epidemic of loneliness, and increased rates of mental unhealth. For Christians, the digital revolution has profound implications for spiritual formation and mission. How should believers respond to the theological and discipleship challenges of scrolling life?
On the 40th anniversary of Neil Postman’s prophetic book Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), Scrolling Ourselves to Death gathers today’s most incisive writers to think critically about the shaping power of contemporary technology. This book explores Postman’s insights, connects them to the challenges facing Christians today, and turns difficult challenges into life-giving opportunities for the church. Stepping back from their screens, readers will be equipped to live faithfully, and grow spiritually, in a “scrolling ourselves to death” world.
Selected Quotes
- For much of human history, he [Postman] observed, we suffered from information scarcity. But now we have the opposite problem: information satiation (p. 7).
- For our own spiritual health, and to maintain a prophetic power and witness in a world being changed faster than it can even recognize, Christians in this cultural moment should slow down and think wisely about the ever-changing technologies swirling around us (p. 10).
- It is possible that in our quest for relevance and reach, we’ve unwittingly altered the very plausibility structures that undergird Christian conviction (p. 34).
- Expressive Individualism survives in isolation—and withers in healthy communities, there is no credible version of Christianity apart from Christ’s church, and we’re called out of the world and into local embodied community (p. 57).
- …We are whole people, not brains on sticks. Our actions and choices are not solely based on careful, solitary deliberation (p. 74).
- The online world bundles thinking and belonging so tightly together that we are not sure where one ends and the other begins. Comments are presented right alongside content, so we often see what people are saying before we even see what they are saying about (p. 82).
- The time we spend scrolling and wandering down algorithmic rabbit trails is often time taken directly away from nobler, if harder, tasks God has given us to do (p. 86).
- Today we’re living through the early days of a revolution at least as dramatic as the Protestant Reformation and printing press. And we don’t know the outcome (p. 95).
- Postman wrote, “Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether” (p. 96).
- No technology is simply a neutral tool to be used for whatever utilitarian purpose we deem appropriate (p. 135).
- Go touch grass. Put down the phone, give up the screen, and initiate: no matter your age, stop scrolling and start your life (p. 187).
Table of Contents
Introduction: Back to the Future: How a 1985 Book Predicted Our Present 1 (Brett McCracken)
Part 1: Postman’s Insights, Then and Now
1 From Amusement to Addiction: Introducing Dopamine Media (Patrick Miller)
2 From the Clock to the Smartphone: A Brief History of Belief-Changing Technologies (Joe Carter)
3 From the Age of Exposition to the Age of Expression (Jen Pollock Michel)
4 The Origins and Implications of a Post-Truth World (Hans Madueme)
5 Striving for Seasonableness in a “Now . . . This” World (Samuel D. James)
Part 2: Practical Challenges Facing Christian Communicators
6 How the Medium Shapes the Message for Preachers (Collin Hansen)
7 Apologetics in a Post-Logic World (Keith Plummer)
8 Telling the Truth about Jesus in an Age of Incoherence (Thaddeus Williams)
9 “Unfit to Remember”: The Theological Crisis of Digital-Age Memory Loss (Nathan A. Finn)
Part 3: How the Church Can Be Life in a “Scrolling to Death” World
10 Use New Media Creatively but Cautiously: Video as Case Study (G. Shane Morris)
11 Reconnect Information and Action: How to Stay Sane in an Overstimulated Age (Brett McCracken)
12 Embrace Your Mission: Tangible Participation, Not Digital Spectating (Read Mercer Schuchardt)
13 Cling to Embodiment in a Virtual World (Jay Y. Kim)
14 Heed Huxley’s Warning (Andrew Spencer)
Epilogue (Ivan Mesa)
Endorsement
John Perrit
There are books that are enjoyable and books that are important; Scrolling Ourselves to Death is both. Although some of the content is sobering―disturbing at times―the contributors never leave the reader hopeless. This is a vitally important book that will help the church clearly communicate the gospel to a world bombarded by distraction.