Today's "thought" comes to you from
a section of Shane Hipps book "Flickering Pixels,"
entitled, "The Disappearing Bible." It's a critique of the dangers of the digital age and the growing aversion to right-brain learning (seeking by linear deductive reasoning to solve complex ideas by in-depth study, in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of a topic), in favor of left-brain learning (seeking through art, photos, intuition, emotional stimulation, subliminal impressions, and a short not-so-comprehensive, "throw out a personal opinion and see how people respond" approach to topics).
The second, as Hipps points out, is an approach to learning that has made in-depth study of the Bible (to know it well) a thing that is avoided, or even seen as obsolete, in many areas of present-day church culture. He is not opposed to visual or intuitive learning, but simply advocates what he calls "brain balance" -- seeing the need to retain our ability to reason through complex ideas, while taking advantage of digital technology and all that it has to offer.
To use a common phrase, the growing popularity of the short, non-comprehensive, opinion-based blog, should not cause us to "throw the baby out with the bathwater." Believers need both, lest they lose their grip on the truth and fall prey to whatever tweaks their emotions or happens to sit well with their current (but soon passing) preferences. To help you as you read: right brain = intuitive/artistic/emotive, and left brain = reasoning/logic/science. Enjoy.
The Disappearing Bible
"Most
books present an extensive, in-depth monologue, a thorough argument carefully
crafted in linear, successive paragraphs and pages. This is true of both novels
and non-fiction. The left brain is heavily engaged by such activity. But
Internet text presents a nonlinear web of interconnected pages and a vast
mosaic of hyperlinks with no fundamental beginning, middle or end. We are
immersed in a boundless, endless, data space. These are conditions specially
suited to the right-brain... The power of intuition, emotion, holistic
perception, and pattern recognition are all gifts of the right-brain. The
right-brain is the hemisphere that allows us entry into spiritual practices
like contemplation, centering prayer and silence. The left-brain is allergic to
such practices; it is the dogmatic theologian rather than the intuitive
mystic...
The
Internet is stunningly effective at enticing us to open a Pandora's Box of
perpetual links, sights, sound, people, places, feelings, and ideas. Our
intellects are spread a mile wide and an inch deep. Consider blogs. Their great
wonder is their dynamic speed. We are exposed to many more ideas than
previously possible and given a chance to dialogue in near real time. Yet
because of their brevity and the constant evolution of content, blogs are
forced to stay on the surface. Blogs are ill-suited for deep-level analysis and
thoughtful reasoning. The Internet makes a flat stone of the mind and skips it
across the surface of the world's information ocean. A book, by contrast, is a
sturdy submarine, diving the mind deep into the sea..
The
emerging right-brain culture presents other challenges as well. Protestant
Christianity is a by-product of a single medium -- the printed Bible. Without
printing, no one could have challenged the authority of the pope. How
disconcerting to have a faith yoked so closely to a medium that is now in the
dusk of its life, at least as we currently know it. Our culture has a shrinking
preference for reading books, especially complex ones, and if the Bible is
anything, it is complex. So it should not surprise us to see a growing biblical
illiteracy in the electronic age.
The
Bible is an extraordinarily demanding library of books. The stories, letters,
and laws are shrouded by the fog of time. The thick dusty languages of ancient
Greek and Hebrew convey the message through cumbersome translations. The books
were born in civilizations and cultures alien to us, and the assumptions and
attitudes of the original authors often escape us entirely. In many
cases, excavating the meaning [of texts] requires the fortitude, patience, and
discipline of an archaeological dig.
In
other words, bulging left-brain muscles are an essential tool for understanding
the Bible. Unfortunately, our digital diet sedates the left-brain, leaving it
in a state of hypnotic stupor. The left-brain begins acting like our
great Uncle Jerry, nodding off in his recliner after Thanksgiving dinner. Large
portions of the Bible are growing faint and becoming inaccessible to the
lethargic left-brain."
Hipps goes on to say
these two forms of learning must find a way to co-exist.
We must never allow
the tensions and disagreements (and at times contrary purposes of the one as
opposed to the other) prevent us from availing ourselves of the benefits of
both. Each has its place, and it is always a danger to, "tear asunder
what God has joined together." If we are to "Love the Lord our God with all our... mind,"
we must seek to avoid anything that would disparage either the right-brain or
left brain approach to truth.
The Church suffers when
the faith is made into something only the scholar and grasp, but it also
suffers when people embrace ideas foreign to Scripture, or contrary to
Scripture, simply because it came to them in a moment of earnest contemplation
or artistic creativity. The two forms of learning balance each other off. After
all, God could have created us without dividing the brain into left and right
lobes. He could have created the lobes so they functioned identically. But He
didn't. And therefore, to disregard one, simply because we have a
preference for the other, is to insult the Creator, and call His all-knowing
wisdom into question.
To the end that we
may love the Lord our God as we should -- with ALL our mind -- Pastor
Jeff
