Digital Liturgies

Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age

Samuel D. James

WHEATON, ILLINOIS

Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age

Copyright © 2023 by Samuel D. James

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover Design: Jordan Singer

First printing 2023

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8713-9

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8716-0

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8714-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: James, Samuel, 1988– author.

Title: Digital liturgies : rediscovering Christian wisdom in an online age / Samuel D. James.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022050804 (print) | LCCN 2022050805 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433587139 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433587146 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433587160 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Technology—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Social media—Religious aspects—Christianity.

Classification: LCC BR115.T42 J36 2023 (print) | LCC BR115.T42 (ebook) | DDC 261.5/6—dc23/eng/20230512

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022050804

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022050805

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

For

Mom and Dad

Contents

Introduction: What the Web Means for Our Spiritual Lives

PART 1: TRUTH AND TECHNOLOGY

1 Embodied Wisdom in a Faceless Age

2 How Technology Shapes Us

3 Drowning in the Shallows

PART 2: ENGAGING THE DIGITAL LITURGIES

4 “My Story, My Truth”

Digital Liturgy #1: Authenticity

5 The Abolition of Thought

Digital Liturgy #2: Outrage

6 Shame on You

Digital Liturgy #3: Shame

7 Naked in the Dark

Digital Liturgy #4: Consumption

8 Death by Minutiae

Digital Liturgy #5: Meaninglessness

Conclusion: Habits of Wisdom and Resistance

Acknowledgments

General Index

Scripture Index

Introduction

What the Web Means for Our Spiritual Lives

I registered for my first Facebook account the summer after graduating high school. Like so many others, I started using the site because friends were already there, and the last thing you want to do in high school is miss what everyone else is doing. I signed ...