Sharing the Word of Life: New Technology in the Church

From the Sounds of St. Francis, September, 2017

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life.”  Revelation 20:12

The Book of Revelation is perhaps the Bible’s most dramatic and mysterious section.  Revelation 20 recounts the climax of the story, the great Day of Judgement, when our Lord will return to speak the truth upon all humanity and make all things new.  It’s easy to miss the fact that the author is also noting a significant change in communications technology.  The Lamb, that is Christ, has a book, a book of life—a book, and not a scroll.

Books—codices is the technical name-were new-wave technology in the first century.  The first mention of a codex in literature is by the Roman poet Martial, who was born a few years after the death of Christ.  Before codices there had been tablets of wax and clay, as well as scrolls.  The codex was a handy technology.  Its covers protected the contents and it was easy to find one’s place.  The paper could be written on both sides, so it was more economical as well.

It took the codex a few centuries to surpass the scroll.  Religious officials were inevitably among the holdouts, with their preferences for the venerable, the beautiful, and the familiar.  In synagogues today, they still read the Torah from scrolls. 

But Christians were different. 

Ponder: A Half-Life for Grief?

"For four hours, then five, then six, they trended Twitter hashtags like #Porte-Ouverte and #PrayforParish.  They laid French flags over their Facebook photos and shared images by artists like Jean Jullien.  And just as quickly, their posts reverted: back to quips about sports teams, viral videos, pictures with friends--now posted by little avatars striped in the French blue, white and red.

These posts feel somehow inappropriate--indecorous, somehow.  As if their very posters were telling jokes at a very somber funeral.  The world must move on, of course; no one's saying it shouldn't...Still it makes one wonder; Is there a half-life to grief?  And has the Internet shortened it, as it has all other things...

Maybe this "works," quote-unquote, in daily life: There's nothing inherently life-or-death in the Internet's weird time compressions, nothing wrong with 15 minutes of fame shrinking to something much smaller.  But after a tragedy like the one in Paris, we need time for sustained, contemplative thought.  And there is no time for anything, ever - the Internet moves on."

Caitlin Dewey, "Is Our Passage Through Grief Just One More Thing the Internet has Shortened?"  The Washington Post 21 Nov. 2015, E2