Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age

“What if the issue is not that we aren’t making the internet more humane; it’s that the internet is making us less so?” asks Digital Liturgies newsletter author James (Does It Matter What I Believe?) in this impassioned study of the ways technology undermines Christian values. Aside from its “spiritually dangerous” content, James contends that the “disembodied, fragmented” form of the web “shapes us in the image of the spirit of the age,” fostering an environment rife with “petty controversies, cheap outrage, and minute arguments.” The internet’s “knee-jerk judgments, emotivism, and fallacies” render “genuine wisdom difficult and unappealing” and undercut Christian values of truth and careful thought, according to James, who contends that digital technology “import[s] its values of immediacy and fleetingness into our souls,” spiking burnout rates and fostering a restlessness only curable through godly devotion. Acknowledging that a wholesale rejection of technology is impractical, James urges readers to turn to the Bible for wisdom; forge healthier tech habits (such as taking a device-free lunch hour); and find community in church, where believers “draw nearer together... to becoming fully human.” Eschewing alarmism, James makes a convincing case that technology is anything but a “neutral tool” and offers reasonable suggestions for change. Christian netizens looking to reform their habits will find plenty of insight. (Sept.)