Concordia TheoBLOGical Seminary

As I opened the enviable gift of a GPS system this Christmas, I thought to myself, “Wow, I’ll never get lost again!” You just punch in the address, and this pint-sized screen with automated voice-via-satellite will guide you to your destination, right? Well, that’s the concept. However, I’ve found that since I’ve used it, there have been [and I assume, will continue to be] some glitches in the system. The satellites are not always accurate, the maps can be misleading, and the driver should have a backup, like the destination’s phone number to call in case he is off by a block. Otherwise it is a useful contraption, but one that takes time to learn how to use…in order that we do not have to learn where we are going.

An interesting parallelism developed as I thought on about the“Information Age” we claim to live in. As if technology is any sort of answer to the intrinsic problems of man. Perhaps trite, but worth noting, that with the technological boom in the last century, the literacy levels have also steadily dropped. This may sound surprising, what with all of the rage of trying to increase America’s literacy rate in the last 20 years.

But this article, actually a scholarly blog post by Micheal Martine, sheds light on exactly what I am talking about, by making the distinction that literacy does not simply mean the ability to read. If this were the case, we might say that America is doing “a’ight” in that department. No, but the ability to read and actually developing one’s mind by slashing and rehashing old and constructing new paradigms through literature and language is not just for consumer purposes. Our economy does not depend on us to read, it depends on our ability to spend. The fact that we can ascertain “Have it your way” with a picture of a hamburger next to it, is just a bonus.

But an ability to discern cultural movements and fundamental truths to build a steady developing and inevitably changing world view throughout our lives is a concept that seems to be lost in our culture. It then becomes increasingly more understandable why churches are lost, that Christians want little to do with reading their bibles, and clergy are inept to teach, when they themselves do not know where to go for answers. Certainly Scripture is our primary source, however, teaching comes from various sources as well; from well-read, literate theologians, philosophers, scholars and the like who discuss man’s struggle to understand and contend with truth and wisdom, and ultimately proclaim it in view of Scripture. So, now, I look to technology as a resource and ask the question: How can it develop man’s literacy? Martine writes, “As Michael Polanyi tried to teach us, knowledge is personal — possessed in a true form only by persons. Even technical knowledge becomes true knowledge only when it is personal. One of his examples, one he knew well, is the training of a surgeon. When a student finds himself becoming a true surgeon, he no longer acts of thinks — during the operation — as if the scalpel were a tool he is holding. The scalpel has become an extension of his hand.”

Do our laptops and other means of technology become personal to us, an extension of ourselves…thereby manifesting well roundedness? And, is the information transmitted through these means beneficial to our lives as a whole? Or, are we just punching information into a theoretical tracker so we can get from point A to point B with as little effort as possible, and perhaps missing out on some major pedagogical and beneficial blessings?