Blogtour: "The Next Story" by Tim Challies

Tim Challies. The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion. Zondervan, 2011. 208 pgs. 

Digital technology is everywhere. We all know it; we see it (or not), experience it, live with it, use it, and are surrounded by it all the time. From cars to cell phones to shopping to reading, 'the digital explosion' is as good a phrase as any to characterize our time. However, there are many important questions to ask in the face of this explosion. Questions like: How has life and faith been changed by these technologies? How does out constant connected-ness affect us? And what does it mean that we are under surveillance most of our lives? These, and more, are the questions Challies addresses in this book as he seeks to help the reader know how to think about technology as a Christian.

Challies first spends three chapters examining how we have arrived at this place of digital explosion. He then lays out three principles to keep in mind while evaluating technology. 1. It is a good, God-given gift. 2. It is under the curse, just like everything else. 3. "It is the human application of technology that helps us determine if it is being used to honor God or further human sin." With these in mind, Challies explores 5 major issues: speaking the truth in love (communication), mediation and identity, distraction, information, truth and authority, and, lastly, visibility and privacy. 

Next is a book which contains some great insights; it is an important addition to Christian literature. There is a great need for teaching and good material on how to think about technology rather than what to think about technology. There are simply too many new things coming at us to fast for us to rely on other people to determine for us what we ought to think and how we ought to react to each new item. This is, above all else, the great strength of Next: That it seeks to aid the reader in just this way, despite only succeeding at times. 

Challies words were particularly penetrating as he spoke, in various places throughout the book, about how technology or information can easily become idols in our lives. Of all the problems of technology this age-old issue is the worst; it is a must-have discussion in most of our churches. 

Unfortunately, Challies has also written a very inconsistent and, at times, shallow book. He does not keep to his own definition of technology, nor the list of three points he makes about technology (which I noted above). At times he speaks as if it is the application which makes a technology good or bad, and at times he does not. Frankly, I find point number 3 to be naive at best; the instrumentalist approach to technology is widely and, in my opinion, rightly rejected. The fact that we can use technology for good or ill is an obvious, and overstated, truth. The deeper truth is that technologies affect us in ways independent of how we use them. Challies bounces around the instrumentalist approach, affirming it here and denying it there. He notes that technology is a good gift of God but several times writes as if it were merely a necessary evil. Which is it? Further, his thoughts on mediated vs. unmediated communication are a muddle at best; skip that chapter. 

Overall, the best chapters in this book were on distraction and information. This is where Challies theological insight is keenest and where he focuses on idolatry and how technology, in general, is affecting us. The rest of his book was both philosophically and theologically weak. Yes, technology is under the curse, but what do we do with that? Challies never says. His conclusion is that we just need to think better about technology. While this is certainly true it is not enough. In many cases, technology itself inhibits better and deeper thinking. I would put a much stronger emphasis on digital fasting than Challies did, as well as on several other time honored practices of the Christian faith. 

Conclusion: 3.5 Stars. Conditionally Recommended. This is a good, and needed, book on the intersection of technology and faith. It is worth reading. Be aware, however, that it contains a subtle but extremely negative view of technology (Edit: as Challies pointed out in the comments, his negative view is towards digital technology specifically, not all technology. Near the beginning of Next he does speak of technology, in general, as part of the creation mandate and, therefore, something good)and has embedded within it several areas of naivety in regards to what technology is, how it affects us, and how we can or should respond.

Thanks to EngagingChurchBlog for the chance to review this book.