Seven whole days

I contributed an article for the Fall 2011 issue of Reflections, the journal of Yale Divinity School. It’s a whole issue on new media, and I was humbled to join some pretty great company among the contributing authors. Here’s my article, and you can see the table of contents for the whole issue here. At some point, I believe, the entire issue will be posted as a PDF. Meanwhile, you can request a printed copy for free or even get a free subscription.

Not long ago, I begin a new ministry leading Forward Movement, a publishing ministry of the Episcopal Church that dates back to 1935. Like all publishers, we face the challenge of moving into digital publishing and adapting to new reading preferences. You can layer all these challenges onto the church, which is facing its own struggles to discover how we should be the church for the twenty-first century.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about social media. It is too early to say for sure, but it looks like social media might be a disruptive technology that changes how we do church at a fundamental level. Other technologies have made only slight changes in our common life. The electric light, for example, was a major technological disruptor in society at large, but it didn’t fundamentally alter how we engage in our mission as a church.

But several questions confront us as we look at social media and consider the many complex issues about our religious identity and place in the world. Exploring these questions could help us think about how to embrace (notice I did not say whether to embrace) social media – and help us see whether Facebook will resemble movable type as a revolutionary force in shaping church history.

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This posts accomplishes two things. First, it is part of my effort to clear up my backlog in the blog hopper. Lots of stuff here that I’d never get around to blogging. Second, it should provide some good procrastination for Saturday night sermonators. Without further delay, I present the October 2011 edition of Sundries on 7WD.

Non-churchy sundries first.

• Isao Hashimoto has created multimedia art depicting every nuclear explosion from 1945-1998. It’s staggering to watch. Don’t complain about the slow pace. Instead, think about the enormity of what you’re seeing.
• If QWERTY were a city, this is what it would look like. I dare you to reply to this post without using the letter E.
• Listverse has compiled the Top 10 Misused English Words. I’d like to add compose/comprise to the list. Really, we ought to require a permit to use the word “comprise.” It’s almost always used incorrectly.
• I love maps. If you do too, go download FOR FREE the first two volumes of The History of Cartography from the University of Chicago Press.
• Speaking of maps, here’s a map of US stereotypes. Apparently, I live in Horses, with a view of Fried Chicken.

Now, for those of you who are reading this when you should be finishing up your sermons or getting ready to teach Sunday School, these churchy sundries will get you back in the groove.

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