The Internet and the Soul

      Even in this quick-turn-around digital age, in which I spend so much time reading blogs or books about the joys of decluttering, I find that magazines (especially the free ones) pile up everywhere in our home. Every month I get further and further behind, with must-read articles marked on front covers but otherwise unexplored.

      What's comforting is that the really good publications don’t have expiry dates. Six months later you can pick them up and be almost as well informed, and sometimes inspired, as if they had plopped through your mail-slot only yesterday.

      This happens for me with such publications as The Christian Science Monitor Weekly, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and two religious periodicals, The Christian Century and Christianity Today—whose May issue sparked this Post.

      In an article under the title Bridging the Digital Divide: Internet or Incarnation? business and sales strategist Rachael Horner Starke shared her thoughts on the intersection of the Christian faith with technology, business, and gender.

      She observed that the digital revolution is disrupting the structures and rhythms of every industry and institution—including education. Today, she said, the Internet can help anyone with a laptop and Wi-fi connection learn to tune an F-150 engine, speak French, or prepare for a career in cosmetology. 
      Then she asked pointedly: “But can the Internet teach someone how to care for a human soul?’’

      I offer an unhesitating Yes, though I readily admit that we might first have to remove some cyber clutter.

      Starke pointed out that seminaries and Bible colleges have in varying degrees and formats embraced “distance learning” to further the spread of the Gospel.
     She said that when we consider the character of God and how He has revealed himself to us through words, it’s not hard to see how programs in these formats can be effective. She added that any method of communication that mirrors the way God reveals Himself to us will have particular, transformative power. 

      But if the Internet has taught us anything, Starke said, it’s that we require far more than mere strings of letters on a page or screen for the meaning of words to be fully conveyed. “We need to hear them, with all the variances of tone and inflection our voices can offer.”

      This observation reminds me of several theater ventures more than 40 years ago in the form of one-man shows in which British actors (among them, Alec McGowan) brought books of the Bible to life by memorizing and acting out their texts verbatim.

      More recently, in the US, this was done by actor Alex Cavalli, who suggested in an interview for the Christian Science Sentinel that the Bible, when delivered as drama, frequently makes for very good theater, because, for the most part, Bible stories started as oral history and are meant to be told and not read.

      Cavalli's stage renderings of The Gospel According to St. John and Paul, Face to Face were taken straight from the King James Version, which he described as "simply beautiful.”

      Cavalli told me that the people who came to see his shows were young and old, and culturally varied, sometimes including the clergy.

      He recalled one performance of John when a minister quietly commented afterwards, “That was worth a hundred sermons!” And after a rendering of Paul, a man waited behind to say, “I have to tell you that I felt the Holy Spirit was in this room today.”

      So we might say that there are many ways of reaching people and teaching them how to “care for a human soul”—including the Internet. 

      And how reassuring it is to have Starke conclude: “Regardless of the route someone decides to pursue, we can take comfort in the promise that His Word will never return void, and that is true if the lessons are learned in the classroom under the privilege of mentorship or in the blue light of a screen while a fussy newborn finally drifts off to sleep as dawn approaches.” 

      To which I would add a hearty, “Hear, hear!”