Regular attendees to a Sunday School class I have led will know of my concern that contemporary Christians need to consider more deeply the underlying assumptions of our culture’s high value on notions of "progress." What is "progress" exactly? How does western society tend to define it?
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A recurring theme on this website is reflection on how computer technology and electronic communication affects creativity, the way we process information, reading patterns, personal relationships and sustained deep thought. Increasingly, scientists and social observers acknowledge that such effects are hardly always benign. I am certainly not alone in my wonderment about these critical matters. A very recent article in the business section of The New York Times entitled "Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price" was insightful: "Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information."
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So far I have only read snippets of this newly released work by University of Virginia Professor of Religion, Culture and Social Theory, James Davison Hunter. It is high atop my summer reading list, however. I do not think I have critical praise of a book on Christianity and Culture in the past several years. Though not every critical review has been entirely positive, this is an important contribution to the larger church's discernment on what faithful cultural engagement for the 21st century looks like, and I have a sense that others will be joining me in reading it in the weeks to come.
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