Random Musings on Reading 8.18.2022

    My name is Bob, and my blog has been idle for a few weeks. First, I spent an awesome week at Oil Belt Christian Service Camp. We had a great group of Jr. High students and I kid you not, it was simply one of the best weeks of camp I’ve ever worked. The second reason I have not blogged during August is that Mrs. Beckman and I had a bout with COVID-19. (It seems a bit odd to put that -19 on the end of the title of the disease, it is 2022 and all. But I digress.) Even after we were able to get beyond the symptoms, infectious period, and prescription side effects it took a while for me to get back into the swing of things. 

    So, here is my first blog post dropping mid-month. The stuff I had planned to write does not seem to be all that interesting right now, so I return to one of my favorite topics: reading. Some of you, who regularly follow this blog may be asking, “Is reading all that you think about?” The answer is “no” but it is high on the list. 

    The first few days back from the ‘VID I was working through 1 John material. I’d lean back in my chair and kind of look at the shelves. I’ve got a couple of shelves where reside “perennials”. Books I read every other year or so. They are crucial texts which have helped me to understand the complexities of early-mid 21st-century life. 

    School is starting at all levels. Whilst praying today I was in awe of all the teachers and school administrators I was praying for at the start of the school year. These individuals give me hope for public education and the example of Jesus in the classrooms of my fair state. Teaching, like preaching, requires an ongoing engagement with literature in general and domain-specific reading in particular. Today let’s think about general engagement with the world in which we live. 

    We read for several reasons. We read for information. We read to strengthen our understanding of the world. We read to disabuse ourselves of the notion that we have all (or most, or even some) of the answers. If our program of regular and planned reading is to be impactful there needs to be a baseline; Firm ground upon which we can base our understanding and analysis of the world. This of course assumes you are well-grounded in reading scripture and engaging in regular and focused exegesis; you are a preacher, after all. Here is a bit of a baseline for what I would consider a good, basic, healthy, 21st Century cross-disciplinary bibliography. 

• Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death.

• Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

• William Manchester: A World Lit Only by Fire.

• Leslie Newbigin: The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.

• Jacques Ellul: The Humiliation of the Word.

• Max DePree: Leading Without Power. 

• Douglass Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. 

• Michael A. Hiltzik: Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the dawn of the Computer Age. 

• John A. Byrne: The Whiz Kids: The Founding Fathers of American Business and the Legacy, They         Left Us. 

    Each of these books is readable. They are also accessible, with the author/title you can do an Amazon search and find them easily. They are available in either digital or analog form depending on your general reading preference. 

    

    For the most part, they are not theological. These books trace a broad arc through the mid-twentieth century which helps us to understand the intellectual, economic, social, and cultural materials which form the basis for twenty-first Century culture. Ours is a culture that is increasingly marked by pluralism(s) of all kinds, technology, information and data-driven analysis of all disciplines, and renewed discussions about the underlying religious motivations of social structures. There are many solutions to the problems arising in each of these areas. These books are helpful because they do not directly address the problems we face or offer solutions. Instead, they provide a cross-disciplinary, high-altitude way of understanding how our world got to be the way it is. 

    

    Everyone thinks that their era is unique. This group of works gives some indication of what makes the twenty-first Century unique and what kind of Christian response might be needed, but you need to make the connections. As a preacher/theologian (or teacher) it is your job to make those connections and provide that response. These books:

• Help us understand the rise of information culture.

• Remind us of the complexity of our data-driven analytical culture.

• Identify how quantification and information shape the Post-Modern world. (This can also be described as “the rise of the quants.” If you don’t know what a “quant” is, then this reading will help you to muck out a definition.)

• Show us that issues which seemed old-fashioned are still germane in a high-density information culture. 

• Approach pluralism as an opportunity more than an obstacle. 

    As Christians, we look at humanity through a collection of common attributes. Humans are made in God’s image. Humans are fallen. Humans have great gifts. Humans have horrible weaknesses. Humans do evil things. Humans are redeemable. Each of us who works in the “information space” should have some workable understanding of how we apply Biblical descriptions to a world that seems far removed from a time when Christian categories were broadly understood, debated, and respected. Complaining about biases and prejudices does little good unless we have an underlying conception about how our culture has evolved. 

    These books help us to situate this theological conception of human nature within the actual, ever-evolving bounds of the “real world.” To address the fallen condition of humanity we need to function like zoologists who carefully evaluate the environmental conditions in which species live so that we might understand the synergy between habitat and adaptation. Trying to apply biblical principles and theological strategies without a basic grasp of culture is like trying to study animal species without a basic appreciation for geography, diet, weather, and ecosystem. You can do it, of course. Much of your data will be so wrong that your conclusions will be off base. 

    I sit here in my study composing these words with a computer, on a continent, filled with diverse human cultures, at a particular time in history. My mission is to make disciples. Presuming a knowledge of Scripture and the leadership of the Holy Spirit one of the best preparations for making disciples is field and academic study of the people we are trying to reach. This reading list gives you a pretty good start towards understanding what has made twenty-first-century man.