Presence and pixels: Some impacts of electronically mediated communication on Christian living

Abstract

The cultural changes we are experiencing as progressively more of our lives are digitally mediated provoke strong hopes and fears. Among many potentially striking impacts, new technologies offer new possibilities in mission. In particular, past difficulties in making good culturally appropriate Christian teaching available in developing contexts may be overcome. Yet we have hardly begun to adapt our thinking and Christian practice to this new world. The public reading of Scripture from tablets instead of print books has recently begun to provoke discussion. As well as practical concerns, the symbolism of such actions needs consideration. Christians understand these issues in the context of faith in God incarnate in Christ. Yet digital mediation raises questions about the incarnation of human contact. For all conversation is mediated, often by technologies. Some of these are familiar and so “invisible” as technology, like the acoustics of a church building, or writing on paper. Different media communicate a sense of the person communicating in different ways (sound, vision, directly, or with a time delay), and different people respond differently to these media. Our understanding of real presence needs to accommodate not only differing degrees of presence, but also different media preferences.