Loving The Lord With Your Whole Brain: Reflections on Theology, Church History, Neuroscience and Media Ecology

by Michael Giobbe Abstract: We are told in Matthew’s Gospel that the two greatest commandments are these: “You shall love the Lord with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Marshall McLuhan details in his Cambridge dissertation, and in The Gutenberg Galaxy, The Global Village and The […]

The Faith of McLuhan vs. The McLuhan of Faith: Understanding His Holy Ground

Written by Michael Giobbe. From the early 19th century to the present, there has been an enterprise called “The Quest for The Historical Jesus” [Allen, 1998]. It was – and continues to be – an attempt to differentiate the actual, situated “Jesus of history” from the Jesus of religious teaching and worship, the “Jesus of faith.” […]

The Bible and Media Theory

Everyone in media studies reveres Marshall McLuhan, whose coinage “the medium is the message” is a foundational axiom of the field. Most of his followers in that thoroughly secular discipline, however, probably don’t know that McLuhan was a devout Catholic. Another giant in Media Studies, French philosopher and sociologist Jacques Ellul, was a passionate Christian. Professors […]

Technologies of Narcissism: The Printing Press to Facebook

Written by Rachel Armamentos. In a 2005 commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, a story of only two sentences in length was told. Although concise and simple, this story and the speech that followed made an impact on the audience in attendance, as well as to audiences today. […]

The Technological Church

A version of this paper was published by the Moody Media Lab. Graphics by Ben Neary.   Dear church leader, Please allow me to introduce myself. I’ve never studied Greek or Hebrew, I’ve never preached a sermon or even taught a youth group, and I’ve never led worship. I’ve never had to make difficult decisions […]

From Wittenberg to WikiLeaks: The Parallel Paths of Martin Luther and Edward Snowden

On the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, scholars, theologians, and laymen alike yearn to understand and perceive the drama of Martin Luther’s mallet on the Wittenberg Church door. A common temptation in seeking contemporary moments analogous to the dynamics of 16th Century Germany consists of limiting the range of observed events to the pews […]

The Reformation as Media Event

A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of a talk given in 2016 at the Wheaton Theology Conference. The book can be purchased here and an alternate version of the video can be viewed here.  If historians are to attempt to write […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 5)- The Reach of the Printing Press

The following excerpt is the fifth portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the Printing Press produced a multitude of other changes in religious and cultural life in Europe, and many other things independently of the Reformation, but part and parcel of its mindset and formal […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 4)- The Cure of the Reformation

The following excerpt is the fourth portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the printing press produced the cure of the Reformation. A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of a […]

The Reformation as Media Event (Part 2)- Indulgences

The following excerpt is the second portion of Read Mercer Schuchardt’s piece, The Reformation as Media Event. This excerpt explores the ways in which the printing press produced the cause of the Reformation. A version of this paper was published in The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible in April 2017, which was itself a print version of a talk […]

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