Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Networked Theology
WORK NOTES: with Heidi A. Campbell
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Auckland
STATE:
COUNTRY: New Zealand
NATIONALITY: New Zealander
http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/authors/stephen-garner/2472 * https://www.laidlaw.ac.nz/staff/stephen-garner/ * http://readingreligion.org/books/networked-theology * https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/book-reviews-networked-theology
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married Kim; children: four.
EDUCATION:University of Auckland, Ph.D.; also holds an M.Sc. and a B.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and educator. Laidlaw College, Auckland, New Zealand, head of School of Theology, 2014–. Member of Interchurch Bioethics Council; co-convenor of leadership subcommittee of Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.
RELIGION: Presbyterian.WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Stephen Garner is a writer and educator from New Zealand. He is the head of the School of Theology at Laidlaw College, in Auckland. Garner earned his Ph.D. from the University of Auckland. He is the editor of the 2011 book Theology and the Body: Reflections on Being Flesh and Blood.
Garner collaborated with Heidi A. Campbell to write Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture. In the book, they synthesize their respective research on religion and technology.
Referring to Campbell and Garner, a writer in Publishers Weekly suggested: “They offer dry summaries of scholarship on digital culture and religion, which is unlikely to be of interest to readers.” However, a critic on the Gospel Coalition Web site remarked: “Cambell and Garner offer a fine example of how to remain grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ while also taking a careful, systematic look at how people and cultures use, appropriate, and navigate technology.” Annalee Ward, reviewer on the Christian and Communication Studies Network Web site, commented: “Campbell and Garner’s work makes a significant contribution to both media studies and theology, but their task was not easy. They encountered the challenge of attempting to extract themselves from their environment, examine it, and comment on its effects even as they are still a part of it.” Ward added: “This book makes the much needed argument for Christian communities to humbly and confidently question and engage with digital culture. Campbell and Garner’s research is thorough, pulling from multiple disciplines and gathering in this one textbook earlier scholars’ investigations and insights with the topic, extending that research in valuable ways using biblical norms.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, June 13, 2016, review of Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture, p. 95.
ONLINE
Christian and Communication Studies Network, http://www.theccsn.com/ (January 9, 2017), Annalee Ward, review of Networked Theology.
Gospel Coalition, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/ (October 26, 2016), review of Networked Theology.
Laidlaw College Web site, https://www.laidlaw.ac.nz/ (March 10, 2017), author faculty profile.
Panorama of a Book Saint, http://booksaint.blogspot.com/ (December 7, 2016), review of Networked Theology.
Stephen Garner (PhD, University of Auckland) is head of school in the School of Theology at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand. He holds an MSc in computer science and worked in a number of fields in the information technology sector before entering theological studies. Garner has written various book chapters and journal articles on theology, technology, media, and popular culture. He speaks frequently on technology and new media.
Dr Stephen GarnerHead of School – Theology
MSc (Hons), BD, PhD
+64 9 836 7800 or 0800 999 777
sgarner@laidlaw.ac.nz
Stephen joined Laidlaw as Head of School - Theology at the start of 2014. With a background in computer science and theology, his research focuses upon theology in dialogue with science, technology and new media, as well religion, media and popular culture. A central theme to Stephen’s research and teaching is that theology must engage with the everyday communities we find ourselves in, seeking to offer something distinctly gospel to church and world. He recently served for four years on the Interchurch Bioethics Council and is currently co-convenor of the PCANZ Leadership Subcommittee. Stephen is married to Kim with four children and they worship at Massey Presbyterian Church.
QUOTED: "They offer dry summaries of scholarship on digital culture and religion, which is unlikely to be of interest to readers."
Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture
263.24 (June 13, 2016): p95.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture
Heidi A. Campbell and Stephen Garner. Baker Academic, $22.99 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-0-8010-4914-9
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Campbell and Garner, both professors studying the intersection of digital culture and religion, collaborate in this addition to Baker's "Engaging Culture" series, which aims to "help Christians respond with theological discernment" to issues in contemporary culture. Who the authors imagine this volume's intended audience to be, however, is less than clear: even as they provide definitions of common words such as "theology"--for which few if any Christian readers need explanation--they offer dry summaries of scholarship on digital culture and religion, which is unlikely to be of interest to readers looking to think theologically about their own use of technology. Perhaps most salient is this book's lack of specific examples: in a discussion of how the Internet has enabled laypeople to challenge the authority of more official theological gatekeepers, the authors cite the abstract studies of other scholars rather than including mainstream examples--for instance, Rachel Held Evans being named to a President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships for her role as a blogger. At its core, the book seeks to explore "what it means to love God and love your neighbor" in a digitally networked world, but it seems unlikely to be helpful in that regard, loaded with far more citations and unnecessary definitions than original insights. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture." Publishers Weekly, 13 June 2016, p. 95. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA458871783&it=r&asid=77c251055b44710e63baf4649039f553. Accessed 26 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A458871783
QUOTED: "Cambell and Garner offer a fine example of how to remain grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ while also taking a careful, systematic look at how people and cultures use, appropriate, and navigate technology."
How to Live Your Faith in a Digital Age
October 26, 2016
0 Comments
32
Discussing issues of technology and faith—how Facebook shapes our marriages, how Instagram and Snapchat influence youth, what that theologian said on Twitter—can be fun. Laying out a clear, systematic, theologically and theoretically grounded approach to technology that has practical value is much harder.
In Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture, American sociology of religion scholar Heidi Campbell and Australian theologian Stephen Garner have made great strides in modeling the latter approach.
Framing the Question
Before getting into specifics, it’s important to understand where this book fits among the various ways others have approached the subject. Some readers are likely to have had exposure to communication theory in a field called “media ecology”—popularized by Marshall McLuhan and his students Walter Ong and Neil Postman, who became cultural critics—that points out ways media influences society and culture. Another approach is “philosophy of technology” in which thinkers like Martin Heidegger, Albert Borgmann, Andrew Feenberg, and perhaps Jaques Ellul ask more fundamental questions like what it means to be human in a technological age. Then there are Christian authors who typically fall into one of two categories: those offering advice on how to use technology for more effective ministry, and those addressing the new moral issues presented by technological change (e.g., internet porn and distracted parents glued to their phones at family dinner).
Unlike those approaches, Campbell and Garner draw from an academic field that generally receives less attention in popular writing on technology—sociology. Yet this isn’t cite-a-study-that-proves-your-point writing, but rather a deep dive into subdisciplines like internet, religion, and media studies from an explicitly Christian worldview. Campbell herself has been a pioneer in the study of digital religion, and Networked Theology brings together insight from several of her previous works—most notably her book When Religion Meets New Media and her article “Understanding the Relationship Between Religious Practice Online and Offline in a Networked Society.” (To give a sense of how significant these are, at an academic conference on media and religion I recently attended, I can’t recall hearing a single paper that didn’t reference Campbell’s work.) To this, Garner adds rich theological reflection and an international reach that helps Networked Theology avoid trotting out familiar American technology stories.
Why This Approach Matters
Why have I spent so much time setting up the book’s approach? Part of the reason is to clarify that what Garner and Campbell offer isn’t so much a guide for how to answer specific technological questions or what to do in specific situations, but a model of how to read technological shifts and reflect theologically without being reactionary.
For example, imagine you’ve noticed that younger, more technically savvy people are less likely to accept the views of those in traditional positions of authority. One way of responding is to loudly denounce them as “those postmoderns.” Instead, Campbell and Garner give us the image of a network, which “stresses that within digital culture our relationships with information and others have changed from static, controlled structures to dynamic, adaptive connections. (3)
In other words, as people incorporate computers, phones, and other networked devices into their lives, society itself has begun to mirror the web of connections between those machines.
Campbell and Garner then build on the concept of the network and show that “networked religion” has five main characteristics: networked communities, storied identities, convergent practices, shifting authority, and multisite reality.
Note the fourth one—shifting authority. In this section, they go on to offer a more nuanced understanding of this concept: “The Internet is a place where negotiations are occurring over who and what constitutes legitimate religious leader and gatekeeper of knowledge” (74).
Campbell and Garner aren’t necessarily saying this is a good or bad thing, and they go on to point out that “while the Internet challenges offline religious authorities, it can also provide opportunities for maintaining or establishing influence” (74). This helps explains why previous unknowns like Tim Challies or Rachel Held Evans can gain online influence, while figures who gained influence in earlier media like Albert Mohler (magazines and radio) can maintain and extend their audience online.
Practical Value
While much of Networked Theology is academic in tone and geared toward offering tools for better understanding what’s happening with modern media, it closes with some excellent reflections on “a vision of technology . . . unashamedly Christian and Christ-following in its ethos and how it is lived out in the world” (120).
As guideposts, Campbell and Garner offer Micah’s threefold call “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8). Practically, doing justice with technology could mean Christians looking for areas of injustice such as the digital divide they can mend (129); or when using social media to connect with youth, not neglecting older people who don’t feel comfortable and might be left out (131). In an age of speedy transactions and angry tweets, the idea of walking humbly might mean not relying on technology or the church for quick fixes (140), but on Christ himself for the true but often slow process of transformation and sanctification.
In the end, Cambell and Garner offer a fine example of how to remain grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ while also taking a careful, systematic look at how people and cultures use, appropriate, and navigate technology.
Heidi Campbell and Stephen Garner. Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2016. 192 pp. $22.99.
QUOTED: "Campbell and Garner’s work makes a significant contribution to both media studies and theology, but their task was not easy. They encountered the challenge of attempting to extract themselves from their environment, examine it, and comment on its effects even as they are still a part of it."
"This book makes the much needed argument for Christian communities to humbly and confidently question and engage with digital culture. Campbell and Garner’s research is thorough, pulling from multiple disciplines and gathering in this one textbook earlier scholars’ investigations and insights with the topic, extending that research in valuable ways using biblical norms"
Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture (Review by Annalee Ward)
Robert Woods January 9, 2017 Research: Featured Book Reviews (peer reviewed) 0 Comments
Cite as follows: Ward, Annalee (2017). Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture, by Heidi A. Campbell and Stephen Garner (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016) [Book Review]. Journal of Christian Teaching Practice 3(1), http://www.theccsn.com/augustine-for-philosophers/ [a publication of the Christianity and Communication Studies Network, www.theccsn.com, copyright 2017]
Downloadable PDF: Annalee Ward_Review of Networked Theology_Campbell and Garner
By Annalee Ward, Ph.D., ARWard@dbq.edu; Director of the Wendt Character Initiative, Dubuque University
Students sit seemingly idle in the techno-hunch, engrossed in their own little square of light. An outraged outsider might opine, “Is this how a church youth group gathers?” This lament is only part of the story. While students do engage in mindlessness, they also search scripture, message friends, listen to inspiring music, watch videos of performers and everyday people sharing their faith. They tweet the silly. They tweet the profound. They live together in a digital world.
The scene characterizes an age-old tension of a technological shift—we lose some things with each new technology, but we also gain. Heidi Campbell and Stephen Garner’s Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture provides needed reflection on what is happening in our digital world in relationship to Christian theology and its practice. Changes are afoot. The ways people gather as a church are in flux. The concept of place is blurring. Speaking to this context, the authors provide evaluative language for a theological perspective on the changes and challenges of a digital world, helping us all to live “wisely” (14).
With the refreshing starting point of making “theology visible through the eyes of media studies and the network metaphor” (12), Campbell and Garner argue that theology is inherently networked. To explore this perspective, they bring the neophyte to this area of study up to speed. Basic definitions of theology and new media ensure the readers understand the breadth of their approach. For those already actively reading and studying in this area, much of this is review, but if the readers are new to either practical theology or media studies, the book will systematically map characteristics of each. Therefore, this book will be appropriate for both upper level undergraduates, supplementary graduate studies, and the thoughtful layperson.
Nevertheless, rarely in discussions of the digital world do we find an understanding of technology as something that encompasses more than just the hardware. Using the work of scholars such as Arnold Pacey and Stephen Monsma, Campbell and Garner include the processes of production, cultural values, and context in their definition. The authors trace the historical technological paradigm shifts and reactions to them. This history reminds us of how the illiterate were marginalized, which raises questions regarding the marginalization of the non-networked. As characteristics and values of this networked world are named, the strengths of the book begin to emerge. To live in our digitally-shaped world thoughtfully, they point out, awareness of the media ecology is a must. Additionally, they stand in the line of James Carey’s “media as culture” work and Quentin J. Schultze’s framing of media within a cultural definition and Christian worldview.[1]
Proceeding systematically, Campbell and Garner define new media all the while looking hopefully for positive new practices. Their description uncovers the nature of what I prefer to call convergent media (new media) and suggests questions which we need to consider. What are the implications for the church if more people are living in augmented reality? The blurring of space and place, the blurring of creator and user—of author intent and interpretation—mean both new connections and lost connections. If reality is a malleable concept, how should the church speak of Truth? If traditional logic matters not, how do we persuasively communicate? And how are the values of this new media culture shaping us? If interactivity is a norm and the freedom of creativity with, at best, limited boundaries, is the method, then how might theology look and sound differently? Ontologically, adapting one’s message to the audience takes on new dimensions. Interrogating what is normative and what is culturally preferable begins to take on new urgency. To thoughtfully do so requires that we foreground the characteristics and values of digital life—something this book does well.
As they move on to describe characteristics of networked religion, issues around the nature of the networked community, identity, merging and blurring practices, the irrelevance of authority, and the practice of multisite experiences emerge. Participating in this networked life comes with costs. Life online means giving up authorial ownership, offline living, communal authority, and privacy. This is a culture that is constantly in flux, mixing and re-mixing anything and everything. A culture where the expectations are that we will be in constant contact. A culture that assumes the individual “I” takes precedence over community. A culture where what I do online is not private and might be publicized. These are all conditions of this networked world.
People are taking their theology online with them, and they are discovering other stories and other practices, argue the authors. Living out one’s theology in the network accords new relationships in community that are flattened, less hierarchical. Geographical boundaries are crossed. Our neighborhoods are no longer easily defined, as digital relationships begin to trump spatial ones. Connectedness happens on screen. Barriers to entry are lowered if not removed, but because of the equalizing effect, appeals to authority or orthodoxy are trivialized, and with freer access safety becomes a concern. Traditions are mixed. Identities are more fluid, more performative, emphasizing story and individual experience. The fluidity and fickleness of this community could easily lead to a loss of a moral compass. While Campbell and Garner believe defining “neighbor” more broadly evidences an incarnational theology that goes beyond the immediately physical (92), I wonder how a message of Jesus’ incarnation is received when embodied presence is not central to online faith practice
Once the characteristic assumptions are laid out, the authors address countermeasures that might need to be enacted. Despite the fact that the digital environment makes identifying who one’s neighbors are and where they are found difficult, the authors believe a simple heuristic will empower appropriate use of technology: love God and love neighbor. Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). These values will cause disruption to those engaged in the digital environment. As New York Times journalist David Brooks reminds us, social media encourage self-aggrandizement and the publicizing of oneself.[2] By focusing on neighbor and practicing virtues of humility, honesty, and authenticity before God, our networked theology can become a natural and necessary realm for the practice of a thoughtful Christianity, advocacy which Campbell’s earlier and more broadly religious book avoids.[3]
Campbell and Garner’s work makes a significant contribution to both media studies and theology, but their task was not easy. They encountered the challenge of attempting to extract themselves from their environment, examine it, and comment on its effects even as they are still a part of it. I see no way out of this conundrum. Academics who live in the older logic of process rationality are speaking about evaluating a digital culture that operates with a different logic. They are often constrained by the language of that older technology. They call for a “careful reading of technological trends.” They speak of “systematic analysis,” a “discernment process,” and “digital literacy” (2). Their evaluation uses language to harness a networked world and turn it into a linear, step-by-step, point-by-point analysis—taming the wildness into something those of us who grew up in the older world might dare to think we could manage. But for those who have only lived with the technology, the approach may seem quaint.
Overall, this book makes the much needed argument for Christian communities to humbly and confidently question and engage with digital culture. Campbell and Garner’s research is thorough, pulling from multiple disciplines and gathering in this one textbook earlier scholars’ investigations and insights with the topic, extending that research in valuable ways using biblical norms.
This is no narrow rant from a particular theological interpretation nor does it dismiss technology. Dutch theologian and prime minister Abraham Kuyper once wrote, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”[4] The authors take this seriously in their exploration of the intersection of digital culture and theology. They refuse to encourage churches to take either an anti-cultural stance by ignoring this technological environment, nor do they succumb to an inevitable digital environment uncritically. The church, preach Campbell and Garner, must live out its beliefs and values in every area of life. Networked theology is simply not optional.
Notes
[1] James W. Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (Winchester, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1980); Quentin J. Schultze, Communicating for Life: Christian Stewardship in Community and Media (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000).
[2] David Brooks, The Road to Character (New York: Random House, 2015), 250.
[3] Heidi Campbell, When Religion Meets New Media (New York: Routledge, 2010).
[4] Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, ed. James D. Bratt (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 461.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
"Networked Theology" (Heidi Campbell and Stephen Garner)
TITLE: Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture (Engaging Culture)
AUTHOR: Heidi Campbell and Stephen Garner
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016, (192 pages).
Digital devices have become ubiquitous throughout the world. It has redefined how we communicate, how we interact, and how we live. For many people, technology has become so integral that one cannot live without it. An outage could easily shift people to panic mode. Its attractiveness can become an addiction in itself. In faith matters, digital media and technology has not only redefined how we practise our faith, it is taking us on a whole new direction. This means we need to learn how to engage this new environment wisely and appropriately. This new digital era has invaded and affected the way we learn, do outreach, teach Christian Education, do Church, and share faith concerns. This is why we need to take the technology seriously and to think of constructive ways to engage with it, about it, and through it.
Chapter 1 begins with a primer about the interactions between theology and technology. The authors cover the three key responses (optimism, pessimism, and instrumentalism) by listing both the advantages and the disadvantages before offering their prescription. While technology is largely positive, it can also concerns about how it challenges the traditional models and presuppositions in society. They acknowledge that technology has now become forever ingrained into the fabric of modern life. The next best thing we can do is to learn to live with it. This is done through chapter 2 which gives us a deeper understanding of new media and digital influences. We learn about digital coding and how the digital media are used as building blocks. They can be interactive, programmable, and continues to progress from one generation to another. Not only that, they have also transformed the way we communicate. Media content can be readily downloaded. People are always being in contact. The individual has the power to speak above the rest. Privacy has become a major concern. With technology becoming increasingly "flexible, transitional, and transnational," and if I may add, transactional, faith matters need to be looked at with greater discernment. Who then is our neighbour in the digital culture? Where is our neighbour? How should we treat our digital neighbours? This calls for a community response that media can be used not only for communicating and sharing interests, it can be a new way of living and believing. Four levels of inquiry are proposed:
How does our faith shape our identity and mission?
How does our group define itself as a community?
What is the authority structure and decision making methodology?
What is the group's relationship with text and mass media?
They also give readers some guidelines that come about when we understand the implications of how technology affects us. These guidelines are developed from passages of Scripture. We need to develop theologies that begin with the Person of God. Campbell and Garner propose a two-fold approach on developing such a public theology: 1) Be based on the revelation of God; 2) articulate this in the community we are networked in. Based on Micah 6:8, we can live neighbourly via doing justice; loving mercy; and walking humbly in the digital world.
There are many books that look at theological interaction with all things technology. The authors feel that not many have adequately dealt with "clear, systematic investigations" for faith practitioners. They intend to provide a map in which readers can theologize about digital matters. Calling it a "networked society," they borrow ideas from science fiction, nonfiction, social networks, and rhetoric surrounding its use. From science fiction, they imagine the use of cyberspace and the image of a wide open network where everyone can get into. From social networks, despite the use of digital devices in an electronic network space, people who interact are still considered a social community. From rhetoric, they show us how the network can become a metaphor for describing our social networks and well-being. Following this, they lay down the foundations of theology being in terms of making meaning from the eyes of faith in Jesus, and to communicate that understanding to others. A key note is that network can shape theology which is why the authors spend time explaining what "networked theology" is. They pay attention to the way technology has infiltrated and influenced the way we live and believe. Let me offer three thoughts about this book.
First, I appreciate how the authors take care to define the fundamentals of both technology and theology without becoming too locked into difficult terminology. This makes it palatable for the layperson to read. For those of us who are familiar with these terms, the definitions and descriptions can be a good review as well. Understanding how faith and technology interact requires us to understand what they are in the first place. Second, apart from technology, the theological perspective is sensitive to other disciplines like sociology, mission, connectivity, culture, and others, which makes this book a fascinating read. In the same manner, they urge churches to develop their own theological convictions on how to interact with the digital culture. This must be based on their theological identity and their sense of call in the neighbourhoods and networks they are in. Third, I believe this book addresses something that is still very much in its infancy. The way the Internet and social media have dominated headlines recently might only be the beginning of something more significant. What will the future networks be like? How can the Church adapt? What are the changes coming? Before churches devote too much attention to the nitty-gritty of technology and digital media, it is more important to observe how people are taking to it. The digital environment is still in flux and I believe even more changes will be coming. In the meantime, while the present digital environment must be addressed, we should be careful not to put all of our eggs into this era's concerns and forget about preparing about the next. Do what we can with regard to the concerns in this book, but remember that ten or twenty years down the road, we may need to work on the next big thing.
Heidi Campbell is associate professor of communications at Texas A&M University and has been an advocate for all things faith related to media, online matters, and religious activities in the digital world. Stephen Garner shares that theological and technological conviction. He is head of school of theology at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand.
Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.