Jana Marguerite Bennett’s “Aquinas on the Web?”: A Review

Jana Marguerite Bennett, Aquinas on the Web? Doing Theology in an Internet Age, New York: T&T Clark, 2012, 200 pages, $37.20. Like Jesus’ critics who wondered, “Can anything good come out of Galilee?” I often wonder, “Can anything good come out of Ohio?”  But a recent book, Aquinas on the Web? Doing Theology in an […]

Andrew Byers’ “TheoMedia: The Media of God in a Digital Age”: A Review

Andrew Byers, TheoMedia: The Media of God in a Digital Age, Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013, 252 pages, $25.20. Andrew Byers serves as the Chaplain at St. Mary’s College, Durham University, England. As a Theological Consultant for Codec Institute at St. John’s College, Durham University, he has explored many of the issues addressed in TheoMedia: The […]

How the Christian Media Industry Made “Bible” into a Category Instead of a Proper Name

Tonight, after dinner, baths, and a lot of screaming, my wife and I will settle down next to our toddlers and attempt to inculcate them into the Christian mythos telling them the stories of Abraham, Rahab, Paul, Silas, and the rest. Sometimes we read from our own leather-bound Bibles, but most nights we use books […]

Lance Strate’s “Amazing Ourselves to Death”: A Review

Years ago at NBC News, Gene Shalit told me a story about the difficulties of being an arts critic on television. In 1974 he delivered a less than appreciative review of the sentimental Joe Camp movie “Benji,” about a lovable, stray and cloyingly cute mixed-breed dog and his unlikely adventures. As he always did at […]

McLuhan and Lent

This is a very special week for us. Here’s the tweet that started it all: Press Release: Introducing the new online journal, Second Nature http://t.co/90KXk629Jq #newmedia #christian #tech — SecondNature Journal (@SecondNatureJrn) April 1, 2013 We launched with five articles and a vision to become a place to encourage critical thinking about technology and new […]

Arcade Fire: On Reflektion

It’s a music video, but it only works on your computer. Scratch that, it only works in your web browser–that is, if you are using Google Chrome and have a web cam AND have a smart phone handy. https://www.justareflektor.com/ This is Arcade Fire’s latest ‘Chrome Experiment,’ which they are promoting in advance of their new album, […]

Modern Reformation and Media Ecology

Modern Reformation, the flagship magazine of the White Horse Inn with Michael Horton, devotes most of its current issue (May-June, 2013) to media ecological content. Ryan Glomsrud, executive editor of the magazine, introduces the confessional-Protestant publication by saying “we have to think carefully, not only about how we use technology but about how technologies are […]

The Wrong Way to Discuss New Technologies

Over at Slate, Evgeny Morozov gives us another way to think about technological determinism–he calls it technological defeatism. Technological defeatism—a belief that, since a given technology is here to stay, there’s nothing we can do about it other than get on with it and simply adjust our norms—is a persistent feature of social thought about […]

Plato’s New Media Cave

A new take on Plato’s Cave from artist Joan Steacy:

Press Release: Introducing the new online journal, Second Nature

April 1st, 2013 – The new online journal Second Nature officially launches today and plans to be the definitive place for critical thinking about technology and new media in light of the Christian tradition, with written articles, images, videos, poetry, and links. The journal’s co-founders are Benjamin Robertson, Brantly Millegan, and Read Mercer Schuchardt. Robertson and Millegan both […]

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