What is Emerging? – Media (3)
- Posted by scott on January 17th, 2007 filed in emerging, mcknight, conversation, theology of web 2.0
So far, we’ve looked at Scot McKnight’s definition of emerging in terms of clarifications and distinctions – that is, learning to understand “what is emerging” and how it differs from “what is already there.” But we’ve yet to consider the form of his essay.
First, we need to remember that “What is the Emerging Church?” was originally delivered as a speech at Westminster Theological Seminary’s “Fall Contemporary Issues Conference.”
That said, the talk has taken on a life of its own. It’s now available for free as a PDF (here). This PDF is also text-only and searchable (in fact, Google has indexed it; search for “exegete my ilk” and it will pop right up). It’s also available as a downloadable audio file (here) and has been blogged left and right.
I would suggest (and Andrew Jones has beat me to this) that blogs, PDFs, MP3s, and the like are quintessentially emerging media. But what are these media, how do they work, and why?
Consider this bit from TSK in Nov. 2005:
“Emerging Church 2.0 might be those emerging churches that are shaped by new media values rather than old media. They write blog posts rather than articles, PDFs rather than books, start churches without buildings, and lack a vertically hierarchical leadership structure.”
The speed at which emerging Christian communities are developing renders publication via traditional print media untenable. Books can take a year to publish. By the time they hit the shelves, there’s a good chance their content is already irrelevant. Perhaps more importantly (or more insidiously), books assume a hierarchical structure dividing the author from the reader. This is a necessary fact of monologic discourse. One cannot speak with a book - only about one.
But as we’ve seen, emerging media and emerging Christians have a penchant for participation and conversation. Blogs are the new public squares, and PDFs are the new treatises. One can construct and distribute an argument without the aid of a publisher or peer review. Today, writers can immediately release their work to a vast network of bloggers who can tear it apart, eat it up, or ignore it entirely.
As I mentioned previously, Doug Pagitt unleashed his public conversation / debate with Bob Dewaay upon the world as a podcast, pushing the file out to any of his subscribers and (presumably) drawing in some new ones. Anyone interested could take part in the back-and-forth while walking, riding the Metro, or battling traffic on the 405. And then blog about it.
These are the media in which this collaborative intellectual culture is taking shape. But how are these media shaping emerging Christianities and emerging Christians? McLuhan is knocking at the door.
Anyone with a Mac or PC can download a PDF or read an RSS feed while sipping a latté and enjoying free wi-fi. Then, they can comment on it, suggest it to others, or engage it themselves. You might be doing this right now.
Some have suggested that media such as blogs, forums, and more broadly, the Internet, do not lend themselves to thoughtful discourse. It’s true that a myriad of unhelpful or unproductive comments and comment spam flood the web each day. But we can’t write off the ‘net entirely - consider, for instance, Peter Wilkinson’s comment and the back-and-forth that follows concerning a passage from Luke 2 at Open Source Theology. These questions aren’t the “a/s/l” and “how r u” of the mid-late 90s. We’re looking at real people engaging in deep conversations about complex issues.
What fellowship has DSL with devotion? Soteriology with social networking? Monergism with mashup?
These are the questions of the Theology of Web 2.0.
What is Emerging? – Media (3)
- Posted by scott on January 17th, 2007 filed in emerging, mcknight, conversation, theology of web 2.0
So far, we’ve looked at Scot McKnight’s definition of emerging in terms of clarifications and distinctions – that is, learning to understand “what is emerging” and how it differs from “what is already there.” But we’ve yet to consider the form of his essay.
First, we need to remember that “What is the Emerging Church?” was originally delivered as a speech at Westminster Theological Seminary’s “Fall Contemporary Issues Conference.”
That said, the talk has taken on a life of its own. It’s now available for free as a PDF (here). This PDF is also text-only and searchable (in fact, Google has indexed it; search for “exegete my ilk” and it will pop right up). It’s also available as a downloadable audio file (here) and has been blogged left and right.
I would suggest (and Andrew Jones has beat me to this) that blogs, PDFs, MP3s, and the like are quintessentially emerging media. But what are these media, how do they work, and why?
Consider this bit from TSK in Nov. 2005:
“Emerging Church 2.0 might be those emerging churches that are shaped by new media values rather than old media. They write blog posts rather than articles, PDFs rather than books, start churches without buildings, and lack a vertically hierarchical leadership structure.”
The speed at which emerging Christian communities are developing renders publication via traditional print media untenable. Books can take a year to publish. By the time they hit the shelves, there’s a good chance their content is already irrelevant. Perhaps more importantly (or more insidiously), books assume a hierarchical structure dividing the author from the reader. This is a necessary fact of monologic discourse. One cannot speak with a book - only about one.
But as we’ve seen, emerging media and emerging Christians have a penchant for participation and conversation. Blogs are the new public squares, and PDFs are the new treatises. One can construct and distribute an argument without the aid of a publisher or peer review. Today, writers can immediately release their work to a vast network of bloggers who can tear it apart, eat it up, or ignore it entirely.
As I mentioned previously, Doug Pagitt unleashed his public conversation / debate with Bob Dewaay upon the world as a podcast, pushing the file out to any of his subscribers and (presumably) drawing in some new ones. Anyone interested could take part in the back-and-forth while walking, riding the Metro, or battling traffic on the 405. And then blog about it.
These are the media in which this collaborative intellectual culture is taking shape. But how are these media shaping emerging Christianities and emerging Christians? McLuhan is knocking at the door.
Anyone with a Mac or PC can download a PDF or read an RSS feed while sipping a latté and enjoying free wi-fi. Then, they can comment on it, suggest it to others, or engage it themselves. You might be doing this right now.
Some have suggested that media such as blogs, forums, and more broadly, the Internet, do not lend themselves to thoughtful discourse. It’s true that a myriad of unhelpful or unproductive comments and comment spam flood the web each day. But we can’t write off the ‘net entirely - consider, for instance, Peter Wilkinson’s comment and the back-and-forth that follows concerning a passage from Luke 2 at Open Source Theology. These questions aren’t the “a/s/l” and “how r u” of the mid-late 90s. We’re looking at real people engaging in deep conversations about complex issues.
What fellowship has DSL with devotion? Soteriology with social networking? Monergism with mashup?
These are the questions of the Theology of Web 2.0.
Leave a Comment