On the Internet

On the Internet by Hubert Dreyfus is a critique of the use of the Internet for distance learning.  His main themes are embodiment, hyperlinks, distance learning, telepresence, and nihilism.  Dreyfus critically exposes the weaknesses of the internet on all of these fronts.  While there will inevitably be some weakness’ when using the medium of the internet (as with any medium), I thought that Dreyfus spent too much time arguing against the extreme claims and misuses of the internet and not enough time presenting the positive uses of the internet.  Chapter 2, “How Far is Distance Learning from Education?” was of special interest to me.

Dryfus begins with some facts.  He says that knowledge is doubling every year or so which calls for a new wave of technology he terms “hyperlearning”.  Hyperlearning refers not only to the accelerated pace of learning but also to the unprecedented degree of connectedness of knowledge, experience, media, and brains – both human and nonhuman.  He then jumps right into exposing the weakness of other touted technologies of the past (like the motion picture and the radio) insinuating that the Internet will prove to be equally as ineffective at educating the masses as they were.  And, his argument continues as to the pros and cons of face-to-face learner and teacher over against the virtual/disembodied experience delivered by the Internet.

When it comes to communication, specifically in the context of education, Dreyfus goes to great lengths to convince his readers of the absolute advantage of face-to-face learning over against distance learning.  Nobody will deny that communication is more than just words.  This is an obvious weakness to distance education.  But, Dreyful continually argues the extremes in order to dismiss the whole.  For example, he argues for how ridiculous it would be for medical students to sit at home and experience surgical procedure through the lens of a camera and a microphone attached to the surgeon.  Who would disagree?  This is obviously stretching the claims of what the virtual education is able to accomplish without admitting to what it can accomplish.

Dreyfus breaks down the learning process into 7 helpful stages: Novice, Advanced Beginner, Competence, Proficiency, Expertise, Mastery, and Practical Wisdom.  These areas are helpful for understanding his conclusion.  He concludes that in the best-case scenario the distance learner can only achieve level three (Competence).  Every level beyond competence requires the honing of theories and principles learned under the watchful eye and skillful hand of an embodied master.  For this reason, he concludes that distance learning delivered by means of the Internet ALONE falls short of producing educated individuals with full mastery of their field of study.  

In defense of the use of the Internet for distance learning I would argue that neither the distance education teacher nor the learner is just a voice in cyberspace with no context, authority, or identity.  The distance learner is not locked in a dungeon somewhere and chained to a desk chair in front of a computer screen.  Modern distance education programs offer many great delivery methods such as:  real time classes through video conferencing, mp3, cd, steaming video, recorded video…  Student to student and student to teacher forums, email, telephone, skype, and mentorship programs allow for multiple ways to keep in contact, interact, and practice with real people through the medium of the Internet and face-to-face.  The distance learner has the advantage of putting what he has learned in theory directly into practice in the real world.  Obviously, discernment must be used as what areas of study are suited to this method. 

Among others, I believe seminary training is an ideal course of study that can use the Internet to produce master students.  Students pursuing a theological education through the Internet are able to maintain their current job, church membership, and address while getting the education that they need.  Far from being chained to a desk chair, students are able to practice what they have learned in theory in the context of their family, church, and community.  When considering the pros and cons of being on campus or learning from a distance, it’s hard to say which is better.  Each offers a unique learning experience.  Some may prefer being on campus and other may prefer using the Internet.  Both are good.  Both have advantages and disadvantages.  Seminaries and other institutions of higher learning should recognize the advantages of offering courses of study using multiple methods and means of delivery in order to produce students with full mastery of the subject matter in theory and in practice.

In conclusion, Dreyfus, after spending most of the book criticizing the Internet and its proponents, comes to a balanced conclusion himself.  The Internet, like all other mediums of communication, is imperfect.  Spoken language, body language, books, chalkboards, projectors, videos, mp3s…all have their limitations but they are good inherently.  They are gifts from God to be used wisely and responsibly for the good of all men.  Admittedly, distance education is not the end-all-be-all answer to solving the world’s problems and its use of technology obviously has its limitations but it can be used very effectively to meet the needs of modern students.  Dreyfus himself admits to using recorded lectures and other means of communication via the Internet to enhance the classroom learning experience.  

Happy Reformation Day

Historians like dates.  And one of the dates that historians like best is October 31, 1517.  On that day one monk with mallet in hand nailed a document to the church door in Wittenberg.  It contained a list of Ninety-Five Theses for a debate.  The immediate concern was an indulgence sale to finance St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and the Sistine Chapel—Michelangelo didn’t come cheap.  Martin Luther, the mallet-wielding monk, could keep silent no longer.  He got much more than a debate, however.  He and his list of Ninety-Five Theses triggered a Reformation that would sweep across the German lands, across Europe, and eventually across the entire world.  The world would never be the same.  Luther’s act gave birth to the Protestant church, now nearly 600 million members strong.  Luther’s act also brought the world out of medieval times and into the modern age.  Little wonder historians like the date October 31, 1517. 

The study of church history is vital.  It provides us with plenty of examples—good, bad, and even ugly—of Christians from all walks of life and from a variety of contexts who labored to bring their faith to bear upon the world in which they lived.  Church history is like one grand classroom focused on living out Christ’s final command to his church—to be disciples in the world.  When we remember the lessons, we tend to do well.  When we forget or ignore them, we tend to stumble.                                                   –Stephen J. Nichols

            During the time of the Reformation, God raised up able men such as Huss, Savernorola, Calvin, Zwingli, Beza, Bucer, Vermigli, Bullinger, Farel, Knox and others to radically develop a distinctly biblical worldview.  If for no other reason than the density and rapidity of change, sixteenth-century Europe experienced a transformation in worldview that was more nearly a revolution in the conventional sense of the term than perhaps any other period comparable period in history.                          –Scott Amos

           

The heart of Reformation doctrine was the five Solas:

·      Sola Scriptura, meaning “Scripture alone”: The Bible is the sole and final authority in all matters of life and godliness.

·      Sola Gratia, meaning “grace alone”: Salvation is by God’s grace alone.

·      Sola Fide, meaning “faith alone”: Salvation is through faith alone.

·      Sola Christus, meaning “Christ alone”: Salvation is found in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone.

·      Soli Deo Gloria, meaning “the glory of God alone”: All of life can be lived for the glory of God; everything we do can and should be done for God’s glory.

I believe that our theology determines our practice.  What we believe determines what we think, say, and do.  If we as a church don’t get it right on the doctrines of the Bible, Christ, and salvation, then our practice will be headed in the wrong direction.  Although the reformers were not perfect, God used them in great ways.  We would do well to remember them and benefit from their contributions.  The Reformers didn’t set out to invent something new.  They simply sought to rediscover what had been lost.  In many ways, we find ourselves in a similar predicament. 

The Reformers often used a phrase that is still relevant for us today, “Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda,” meaning “the church reformed, always reforming.”  On this side of eternity we will always be reforming in order to more clearly and accurately articulate biblical doctrine and exercise it rightly for the glory of God.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Interested in further Study?  There are so many good books on church history that it would be hard to choose a few.  Biographies are always my favorite.  Here are two books that I have read recently:

“Revolutions in Worldview”, ed. W. Andrew Hoffecker (Phillipsburg, New Jersey:  P&R Publishing, 2007)

“The Reformation: How a Monk with a Mallet Changed the World”, Stephen J. Nichols (Wheaton, Illinois:  Crossway, 2007)

The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love

I have begun to read a book by Jonathan Leeman called, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love.  In the opening section, he makes some very interesting observations in his analysis of our modern view of love and authority.  He uses this angle to introduce the doctrines of Church Membership and Church Discipline.  The following are some thoughts from that first section that I found interesting.  I apologize for any rambling as some of these thoughts are still under construction.  For a better treatment, I recommend buying the book.

It’s no wonder that most churches have left orthodoxy for an “all we need is love” mentality.  But, is it really loving to sacrifice truth on the altar of pragmatism?  This seems more of a love for self than God.  Pastors don’t want to sound authoritative, judgmental, or dogmatic because our culture frowns at that.  We are told Christians should be people who overlook sin and accept people just as they are in the name of love.  I don’t know where they are getting their idea of love but it’s not from the Bible. 

To tell someone that they are ok with God when they are not, is most unloving.  Many churches today hold the cure in one hand but choose to treat the sinners symptoms instead.  Many pastors feel the demand and supply what the people want usually in the form of moralisms and therapies.  The consumerist mentality of our culture has crept into the church.  People want church their way and if you don’t give it to them they will leave just as quickly as they came for the next best thing.  Many pastors know the greatest need but feel the pressure and minister to felt needs in order to fill pews and to avoid rejection.  At the heart of the matter, is an individualistic love of self on the part of the pastor and the people.

The unholy union of individualism and consumerism have conceived anti-authority-ism.  The God of the Bible, His Word, and the message of His church are offensive to the modern mind. 

The campaign that Western culture has been waging for several centuries for the individual has been a campaign waged against all forms of authority.  From elementary school through graduate school, Western educators have taught us to question authority: the authority of the church because of what it did to Galileo; the authority of the king because of his usurpations; the authority of the majority because of its tyrannies; the authority of males because of their exercise of brute strength and acts of oppression; the authority of the Bible because of its alleged contradictions; the authority of science because of its paradigm shifts; the authority of philosophy because of its language games; the authority of language because it has been deconstructed; the authority of parents because they are not cool; the authority of the market because of extravagant inequalities; the authority of the police because of their fire hoses and night sticks; the authority of religious leaders because they’ll make you drink the Kool-Aid; the authority of the media because of its biases; the authority of superpowers because of their imperialism.   -Jonathan Leeman

We like authority as long as it conforms to our self-conception of right and wrong.  We like community as long as we are allowed to openly express our individuality.  We like the church as long as it tells us that we’re all right.

However offensive it may be to our culture, our God and His Word are authoritative.  God is the source of truth and his Word is true.  He is Lord and King.  He sovereignly rules over all things and will judge everyone according to His righteous standards.  He will not sweep sin under the rug.  Christians are those whom by his grace have been saved from his wrath through faith in Jesus Christ.  Instead of sweeping sin under the rug, God sent his son to die on the cross for all those who repent and believe.  The life and death of Jesus Christ put truth and love on display for the world to see. 

Any church that exchanges truth for love has fallen into error.  The redeemed of the Lord are called to hold fast to the truth and to speak it in love.  The church should be the pillar and ground of the truth.  Its authority does not lie within corporate or individual autonomy but on God and His Word.  True biblical love has an outward focus.  We are commanded to love God and one another through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The expression of Christian love is always guided by truth.

A proper view of God and man, as they are presented in the Bible, puts things into a right perspective.  The church is a group of individuals created by God, under His authority, in community, to love and serve one another for His glory.  The pastors as well as the people of the church are sinners prone to error but striving to obey God’s Word.  Obedience encompasses the proclamation of truth as well as loving one another.  We must avoid the great temptation to elevate love or authority above one another for both are to be equally exercised in light of biblical truth. 

Radical

Radical!  Radical is a convicting book about taking back your faith from the American dream.  The author, David Platt, transparently takes you on an autobiographical/expository journey in order to contrast what Jesus taught and lived to the way we teach and live our lives in the American church.  He employs many testimonies from his own life and ministry to illustrate what it means to live a life of radical faith for the sake of the gospel. 

As a young mega-church pastor, Platt was confronted with the startling reality of Jesus’ life and ministry.  As he heard Jesus say, “the Son of Man has no place to lay his head,” “Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God,”  “no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God,” “anyone who comes to me and does not hate his family and even his own life cannot be my disciple,” “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” he saw with new eyes what it meant to be a follower of Christ.  The type of radical abandonment that Jesus taught seemed to be far off from what was going on in his church and evangelicalism in America.  He observes that we have taken the Jesus of the Bible and fashioned him into a “nice, middle-class, American Jesus” who looks and thinks a lot like us.

Radical is a call for healthy judgment within the American church in order to see the world and our mission in the world more clearly.  It’s a call to hear the words of Jesus and respond in faith and obedience no matter what the cost.  It’s a call to pray for laborers and to make disciples.  It’s a call to treasure Christ above all else and to live a life of radical abandonment for the sake of the lost.  It’s call to proclaim the pure gospel.

Platt ends the book by challenging his readers to join in “The Radical Experiment,” which he promises will turn your life right side up.  The experiment is for one year, and involves five components. Because I want everyone to read this book, I’m not going to reveal them.  Far from five steps to a better you, the five components are less radical than you might think and more along the lines of what every obedient follower of Christ should be doing anyway.  Although it may seem bold to promise that five things could turn your life right side up, I think he’s pretty safe in calling Christians to obey the clear commands of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Take the challenge—Read the book!

Christ and Culture Revisited

What does it mean to be in the world but not of the world?  How do we define terms such as Christ, culture, and postmoderism?  Is there one particular grid through which Christians can view their relationship between Christ and culture?  What relationship does the church as the church have with the culture?  What relationship does the individual Christian have with the culture? 

Christ and Culture Revisited is a thoughtful book by D.A. Carson who is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.  Carson explores the controversial relationship between Christ and Culture with particular attention given to our postmodern context.  This book, in my estimation, is not the first book you would want to read on the subject, given its scholarly content, but definitely a must read for those who have some background on the subject. 

Carson begins by wrestling with the definition of the term “culture.”  He prefers the widely cited definition offered by Clifford Geertz, which says, “The culture concept…denotes an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes towards life.”  He then interacts with H. Richard Niebuhr’s five-fold typology of Christ and culture: Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox, and Christ the transformer of culture.  Carson critiques Niebuhr’s theology as well as his typologies of Christ and culture with the conclusion that they are too idealistic and reductionistic but never the less a helpful starting point for the discussion.  He then emphasizes the importance of recognizing the great turning points in redemptive history (the meta-narrative of the Bible) in order to properly perceive the Christians relationship between Christ and culture.  This leads him to question whether the Bible as a whole offers distinct types as alternatives for the Christian to choose or reject or whether Niebuhr’s types are more rightly thought to be possible emphases within the a more comprehensive whole. 

In the end, if you are looking for someone to tell you what to believe and how to act or react to the culture in every situation, this book is not for you.  Carson, in a very balanced way, interacts with the competing voices of the past as well as contemporary commentators in order to present a well-informed discussion of Christ and culture.  What he does present with certainty is that the ongoing tension between Christians and their relationship with the culture will remain until the second coming of Christ, so until then we must wrestle with these things with the Bible as our norming norm.  With a proper understanding of the Lordship of Christ and redemptive history we will be far better able to interact with the changing nature of our culture than simply adopting a narrow rigid grid.

Carson gives his final charge as follows: To a generation that scrambles for the top and then looks around and asks, “Is this all there is?”  a biblical vision that focuses on Christ and his cross, on the links between this world and the next, on bold Christian living and faithful witness, and on a large-scale vision that makes the world our parish while loving the neighbor next door, raises our eyes above ourselves, and delights in the glory of God.