"Digital Liturgies" by Samuel D. James. A Review

When I wrote "Our Heads on Straight" in 2020 and "Beyond Outrage" in 2023, I was deeply concerned with the way all aspects of news and social media were shaping us to be manic, anxious, and angry. Since then I have found a wide spectrum of folks, even people who are not Christians, like Jonathan Haidt, concerned as well. So I was interested when I stumbled across "Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age," a 208-page paperback written by Samuel D. James, associate acquisitions editor at Crossway and one-time communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. The author's aim in the book is to show that social media and the internet technologies are not neutral tools but "an epistemological environment - a spiritual and intellectual habitat - that creates in it's members particular ways of thinking, feeling, and believing" (9). The author does an expert job hitting his target!

James masterfully moves through various impacts of social media, from authenticity, to outrage, shame, consumption, and meaninglessness. He covers how the web fosters a moral, intellectual, perceptual habitat that trains it's users to think and act and react and respond in certain ways. For example, "the form of the web undermines moral reconciliation" (10). And though the internet has this capacity, and it would be easy to blame it all on "the Web," yet the author is very clear that "throughout Scripture and throughout human history, fallen, sinful people have used technology to try to invent an alternative reality for themselves, a reality meant to "liberate" them from the fear of the Lord and conformity to his revealed character" (24). Page after page, James shows the various damaging effects of this habitat and the habits it shapes, but he returns to this theme - the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). This is one reason he waits to address online pornography until he's almost finished with the book (Pages 129-147), because he shows how the consumptive, idolatrous, me-centeredness is already exhibited in so many other ways.

But the Gospel, and Christ's redemptive project are the remedial heart of the whole book. For example, instead of us falling into the techno-utopian trap of creating our own worth and image and meaning, Jesus has already given it to us. Thus, we "don't have to create meaning; we have to cling to the meaning we've already been given" (11). And part of Jesus' project is his church: "In many communities, churches are some of the only physical centers of human gathering left. This is neither accidental nor arbitrary. Christianity does not reduce the self to the screen-mediated mind. Our pursuit of truth must take us nearer to other people and physical life, not away from it" (110).

The author gives wholesome guidance for Christians on interacting with social media and the internet that I found to be spot-on. With regard to expressive individualism, James notes: "If the logic of the web shapes us in the image of expressive individualism, where does Christian wisdom take us? Christian wisdom tells me that I am not the final authority on myself. I am not self-created or self-sustaining, and therefore I cannot create my own meaning and purpose out of life," which he then takes further drawing us into the goodness of the good news (87-89). As another example, the author addresses our online actions, pointing out "one of the most important things Christians can do in the public square is to live and talk and post in such a way that demonstrates a calm confidence in the sovereignty of Jesus. Righteous people can become angry. Angry people have a very hard time being righteous" (104).

Since you are reading this review via the internet, then I can honestly say that "Digital Liturgies" is the book for you, right now, today. I am pondering grabbing multiple copies and leading a book discussion on it in my church. Pastors, elders, parents, teachers should all grab copies and pore over the book. I highly recommend the book!