The Vatican Library and Bodleian Library at Oxford University have announced that over the next four years they will be scanning and releasing online 1.5 million pages of ancient texts. Many of these documents are unavailable, even in person, as they are too frail to be touched. Now, these priceless pieces of human history will be preserved forever.
This is an awesome example of how rapidly increasing technological improvements can be used to preserve the past for future…eh who are we kidding? Who is going to read through these texts—written in ancient Greek and Hebrew, though the collection may be expanded to Latin and “ye olde” king’s English—besides historians, antiquarians, linguists, and a few other nerds? (If nothing else, Dan Brown might find fodder for a fourth Robert Langdon book.)
When Is There Too Much?
I’m not trying to be negative, but I’m just a bit afraid that we’re just adding more information to the Internet without increasing the average user’s ability to sort, analyze, and apply it. I’m also afraid that we’re doing the same thing in the Church as well.
I used to think that poor orthodoxy resulted from a lack of good teaching, but I’m beginning to realize that there is an abundance—even flood—of good teaching and a dearth of good application. I used to follow several “mega-church” blogs, but I found it overwhelming. There was too much good teaching and not enough time or energy for me to apply it all. In response, I stopped following most of the blogs and became far more selective in what I read from the few that made the cut.
As technology improves, good content on the Internet will increase, perhaps at a rate that we cannot now even begin to comprehend. How can we, as technologists, creatives, and Church leaders, help our people to learn, apply, and grow? I would hate for our people to be still catching up on their blog feeds and podcast subscriptions a millennia later, as we are with the Vatican and Oxford’s collections.
[via The Verge | Image via Thomas Hawk]
Brandon Vogt says
Well just like the rest of the Internet’s information, most people don’t sit and read methodically through it. It’s instead used for scanning and research and searching.
Nobody’s going to read a scanned, 1,500 page Latin tome but I know several scholars who will be giddy at the ability to search all of these topics for key words and references.
Phil Schneider says
You’re right, of course, so I guess I was using the story about the Vatican and Oxford to launch the greater discussing of flooding the Church with content via the web.
Eric Dye says
True story.
MGalloway says
In some ways, I think putting these resources online is a good thing. On the other hand, it does add to the growing list of things that take away from actually reading the Bible itself.
Here’s another way to look at it. I used to subscribe to writing magazines. The advice in them was great, but at some point it was too much of a good thing. Like you said, it was difficult to actually remember it all and apply a lot of it. In the end, I found out I learned a lot more by just sitting down and writing on my own instead of reading books or articles about writing.
I think the same concept applies to the Bible, prayer, and the Christian walk in general. There are indeed a great abundance of good books out there on faith, prayer, missions work, and numerous other practical and theological topics. Yet at some point I realized (maybe the hard way) I was getting more out of reading the Bible on my own time than reading books and articles about the Bible. I’ve since cut down considerably on the number of these types of books I read, while trying to increase my Bible study time. I’m not always successful at that, but it does make a difference.
Maybe it would help if more church-based Bible study time was spent on helping people work their way through their own Bibles, I don’t know. For instance, help people to realize that they don’t always have to start in Genesis, hit a brick wall in Leviticus, stop reading, etc. It is possible to start in a different book (like a Gospel or Acts, for example). Or help people to learn their way around their Bible’s footnotes or concordance. Or teach them how to research a particular topic that they are interested in. Just some thoughts…
Phil Schneider says
Those are great thoughts, MG. My church is looking at restructuring our Sunday School program in the next year or so, and one of the ideas that I have been pushing is for a Bible class that, a book at a time, helps people work their way through the Scripture. I think you’re dead right about putting more time into the Bible than anything else.
Eric Dye says
Great thoughts!