Right now I am proud that I am a student at Claremont School of Theology.  There has been lots of positive press lately, that makes me happy and glad to be studying at such a cool place.  But it was the front page of the LA Times that really captured my attention today. The story was not about Claremont per se, but it it connected with the class Theology After Google, that I took last semester and the theological project of engaging digital technology.

The story in the times is about how books and reading are changing.  The iPad, Kindle, and digital technology alone are changing the way people intake information.  This Blog, and website are a case in point.   So thank you Dr. Philip Clayton, Tripp Fuller, and Jeremy Fackenthal for spurring our theological imaginatino.  You must be prescient beings.

And now that the glad-handing and patting on the back is over let us get down to business.  There is much work to be done to engage the digital world.  But why?  Why is it so imortant to relevant?  Why must theology and the church ‘keep up’?  What is the point?  Surely business can easily justify adapting to new technologies, but is a church a business?  There is more at stake than just numbers.  If the church is trying to be relevant just to keep numbers up, to keep pews filled, and to keep budgets strong, then we are in a truly sad state of affairs.

Why does the artist paint? The musician compose?  The author write? Is it just to make money?  I don’t think so.  There is always the profit motive, and the starving artist wants to eat, but is their a deeper esthetic reason for creating?  Indeed there is.  I think that ministers and theologians believe that faith is important and essential to life.  In fact, I am inclined to think that religiosity is not fully a choice.  Some have argued, Tillich (?), that religions extend beyond the typical boundaries we put on them.  People who are against religion can be religious about that.  Sports fans are often devout.  The task of the religious leader, then, is not to convince people to be religious, but to be better at being religious.

New technologies change the way life is lived and understood, and so they will affect how people are religious.  The theologian, must think about and be proficient in these technologies to help people be religious in a positive way.