1 00:00:10,210 --> 00:00:12,310 All right, I'll invite everyone to find 2 00:00:12,310 --> 00:00:13,150 their seats. 3 00:00:17,650 --> 00:00:19,490 For the sectional, we are blessed to have 4 00:00:19,490 --> 00:00:22,150 with us the Reverend Dr. Trevor Sutton. He 5 00:00:22,150 --> 00:00:24,820 is pastor at St. Luke Lutheran Church in 6 00:00:24,820 --> 00:00:27,430 Lansing, Michigan. He is a recent graduate 7 00:00:27,430 --> 00:00:29,400 of our Ph.D. program, so I'll put in a 8 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:32,200 little plug for our graduate program here 9 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,500 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. But what 10 00:00:35,500 --> 00:00:38,070 he is presenting doesn't actually flow out 11 00:00:38,070 --> 00:00:40,240 of that doctoral work. Instead, it flows 12 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:42,780 out of work he did in a master's degree at 13 00:00:42,780 --> 00:00:45,810 Michigan State University. So any Spartan 14 00:00:45,810 --> 00:00:49,350 fans out there? Here you go. So, Pastor 15 00:00:49,350 --> 00:00:49,650 Sutton. 16 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,100 Well, good afternoon. Welcome to you all. 17 00:01:03,330 --> 00:01:06,230 It is a joy and a privilege to be 18 00:01:06,230 --> 00:01:07,830 presenting, to be part of this 19 00:01:07,830 --> 00:01:10,470 conversation. What a joyful conversation 20 00:01:10,470 --> 00:01:12,600 this is. What a great experience to be 21 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:15,270 able to think about something so 22 00:01:15,270 --> 00:01:19,180 prescient, so, I think, essential for the 23 00:01:19,180 --> 00:01:20,680 church to be asking the questions we're 24 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:23,450 asking. So it's a joy to be with you all. 25 00:01:23,750 --> 00:01:25,520 As you heard, my name is Trevor Sutton. 26 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:29,820 This is TikTok Theology, the promises and 27 00:01:29,820 --> 00:01:34,230 perils of digitally mediated theology. And 28 00:01:34,230 --> 00:01:36,500 by way of kind of an introduction, this is 29 00:01:36,500 --> 00:01:39,160 going to be a flyover. I've got a short 30 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:41,330 amount of time. We're just going to buzz 31 00:01:41,330 --> 00:01:43,970 through, I think, the key points of the 32 00:01:43,970 --> 00:01:45,870 conversation and the argument. But we 33 00:01:45,870 --> 00:01:47,470 could drill deeper on each of the things 34 00:01:47,470 --> 00:01:49,440 I'm going to talk about. So for that 35 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:53,280 reason, I've given you my email address. I 36 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:55,080 know that the app that we've been using is 37 00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:57,120 a way that we can connect. And of course, 38 00:01:57,180 --> 00:01:59,450 I'll be here today and tomorrow. Really, 39 00:01:59,490 --> 00:02:00,790 I'd like to be able to use this as an 40 00:02:00,790 --> 00:02:02,590 opportunity to start a conversation 41 00:02:02,590 --> 00:02:07,430 because I'm painfully aware of how really 42 00:02:07,430 --> 00:02:08,890 we're not going to go deep on any part 43 00:02:08,890 --> 00:02:14,000 here. So we will jump right in. I like to 44 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,440 give the four key concepts right off the 45 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,710 front. These are the four key words, key 46 00:02:19,710 --> 00:02:22,610 concepts to kind of guide our thinking and 47 00:02:22,610 --> 00:02:24,780 our progression through the argument 48 00:02:24,780 --> 00:02:27,250 today. So those four things are agora, 49 00:02:28,380 --> 00:02:35,350 modality, remix, and re-remix. And to get 50 00:02:35,350 --> 00:02:36,790 us started, the first one we're going to 51 00:02:36,790 --> 00:02:38,690 think about and talk about is the concept 52 00:02:38,690 --> 00:02:43,300 of agora. To get us into that, I want to 53 00:02:43,300 --> 00:02:46,600 give you a historical example of this. I'm 54 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,030 sure many of you have heard this before. 55 00:02:49,570 --> 00:02:52,640 This comes from Gregory of Nyssa. This is 56 00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:56,210 what he says. Constantinople is full of 57 00:02:56,210 --> 00:03:00,410 it. The squares, the marketplaces, the 58 00:03:00,410 --> 00:03:03,550 crossroads, the alleyways, old clothesmen, 59 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:06,720 money changers, food sellers, they are all 60 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:10,360 busy arguing. If you ask someone to give 61 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,490 you change, he philosophizes about the 62 00:03:13,490 --> 00:03:15,990 begotten and the unbegotten. If you 63 00:03:15,990 --> 00:03:17,830 inquire about the price of a loaf, you're 64 00:03:17,830 --> 00:03:20,770 told by way of reply, the father is 65 00:03:20,770 --> 00:03:23,600 greater and the son inferior. If you ask, 66 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:27,010 is my bath ready? The attendant answers 67 00:03:27,010 --> 00:03:31,580 that the son was made out of nothing. So 68 00:03:31,580 --> 00:03:34,210 Gregory is describing the agora of his 69 00:03:34,210 --> 00:03:37,550 day. He's describing the theological 70 00:03:37,550 --> 00:03:40,790 conversations that were happening. The 71 00:03:40,790 --> 00:03:45,720 Arianism controversies spilling over into 72 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:48,530 the marketplace, into the crossroads, the 73 00:03:48,530 --> 00:03:50,660 alleyways, all of those different things, 74 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,730 the agora. Now this was Gregory's 75 00:03:54,730 --> 00:03:56,970 situation. This was where theological 76 00:03:56,970 --> 00:04:01,870 conversations were happening for him. I'm 77 00:04:01,870 --> 00:04:03,840 not so sure it's the same for us. 78 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:05,980 Certainly there's theological 79 00:04:05,980 --> 00:04:07,910 conversations that are happening at 80 00:04:07,910 --> 00:04:11,050 Starbucks, theological conversations that 81 00:04:11,050 --> 00:04:14,920 happen at the soccer field. But I think 82 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,290 the center of gravity has moved where 83 00:04:18,290 --> 00:04:21,290 theological discourse is happening. I 84 00:04:21,290 --> 00:04:24,530 would suggest to you all that we now, this 85 00:04:24,530 --> 00:04:30,370 agora, has become a digital agora. We 86 00:04:30,370 --> 00:04:32,300 could call this the digital agora. I think 87 00:04:32,300 --> 00:04:34,510 there's some other names that we could put 88 00:04:34,510 --> 00:04:37,240 in here in our sermon for chapel today. 89 00:04:37,810 --> 00:04:40,780 Digital Athens, you could think of it as 90 00:04:40,780 --> 00:04:44,180 digital Babylon. Maybe taking Gregory and 91 00:04:44,180 --> 00:04:45,750 Nyssa, you could think of this as digital 92 00:04:45,750 --> 00:04:48,420 Constantinople. Whatever you want to say, 93 00:04:48,450 --> 00:04:52,820 but the digital agora. And that's a place 94 00:04:52,820 --> 00:04:55,230 where there are theological conversations 95 00:04:55,230 --> 00:04:57,330 happening. Let me give you some examples 96 00:04:57,330 --> 00:05:00,900 of what I have in mind concretely. This 97 00:05:00,900 --> 00:05:04,400 here is actually from my ministry in 98 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:06,440 Lansing, Michigan. This is one of the 99 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,370 young people in our congregation. Saw 100 00:05:09,370 --> 00:05:12,780 something on TikTok, animals that God did 101 00:05:12,780 --> 00:05:17,050 not create. Saw it on TikTok, this digital 102 00:05:17,050 --> 00:05:19,850 agora, and then texted one of the pastors 103 00:05:19,850 --> 00:05:24,690 and said, is this true, pastor? Now I'm 104 00:05:24,690 --> 00:05:27,130 using the example of TikTok here, but 105 00:05:27,130 --> 00:05:29,560 that's not all that I have in mind in this 106 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:32,260 presentation. We could think of really any 107 00:05:32,260 --> 00:05:35,330 digitally mediated theological discourse. 108 00:05:35,730 --> 00:05:38,840 So what I have in mind is TikTok, Twitter, 109 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,010 or X, Instagram, Facebook. I think even 110 00:05:43,010 --> 00:05:46,580 further than that, YouTube, podcasts, all 111 00:05:46,580 --> 00:05:49,510 of the ways that theological discourse is 112 00:05:49,510 --> 00:05:52,150 happening in digitally mediated 113 00:05:52,150 --> 00:05:53,850 environments. That's what I have in mind 114 00:05:53,850 --> 00:05:58,690 when I say digital agora. So to give you 115 00:05:58,690 --> 00:06:00,790 some more concrete examples of again what 116 00:06:00,790 --> 00:06:02,660 I'm thinking about, what I'm talking about 117 00:06:02,660 --> 00:06:06,260 here with this digital agora. You can see 118 00:06:06,260 --> 00:06:09,400 lots of different examples here. We have 119 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:13,270 people on Instagram, on TikTok, on Reels, 120 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:15,940 talking about deconstructing their faith. 121 00:06:17,140 --> 00:06:20,850 So deconversions, you might say. On this 122 00:06:20,850 --> 00:06:24,380 digital agora, we've got CS Lewis quotes 123 00:06:24,380 --> 00:06:27,350 and pictures of CS Lewis. You've got 124 00:06:27,350 --> 00:06:30,720 theology students talking about their 125 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,290 theological studies, providing commentary 126 00:06:33,290 --> 00:06:35,190 of what they're learning. You've got 127 00:06:35,190 --> 00:06:37,930 something called desert theology, people 128 00:06:37,930 --> 00:06:41,500 rhapsodizing about theology in remote 129 00:06:41,500 --> 00:06:45,370 places, you might say. Other things that I 130 00:06:45,370 --> 00:06:47,670 have in mind, again this is a TikTok 131 00:06:47,670 --> 00:06:49,980 video. This is somebody trying to 132 00:06:49,980 --> 00:06:53,250 problematize the Genesis narrative and 133 00:06:53,250 --> 00:06:56,450 suggest that what is meant by ribs isn't 134 00:06:56,450 --> 00:06:58,280 what you think it is or something like 135 00:06:58,280 --> 00:07:01,390 that. What I'd have you notice on this one 136 00:07:01,390 --> 00:07:05,320 in particular is the number of 137 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:09,460 interactions, the quantity that's involved 138 00:07:09,460 --> 00:07:12,400 here. It might be hard to see, but this 139 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,430 video from an unknown person, I don't know 140 00:07:15,430 --> 00:07:19,570 who this commentator is, but receiving 1.1 141 00:07:19,570 --> 00:07:22,270 million favorites, 142 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:29,850 10,000 comments. It's a massive quantity 143 00:07:29,850 --> 00:07:33,190 of interaction with this theological 144 00:07:33,190 --> 00:07:36,890 content on TikTok. How does that compare 145 00:07:36,890 --> 00:07:39,960 with other places of discourse, other 146 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:42,230 situations in history? Let me give you one 147 00:07:42,230 --> 00:07:45,100 example. So 1.1 million on this TikTok 148 00:07:45,100 --> 00:07:50,140 video, Henry David Thoreau, 1849, really 149 00:07:50,140 --> 00:07:53,970 not that long ago. He says this, for a 150 00:07:53,970 --> 00:07:56,640 year or two past, my publisher has been 151 00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:59,740 writing from time to time to ask what 152 00:07:59,740 --> 00:08:02,150 disposition should be made of the copies 153 00:08:02,150 --> 00:08:04,650 of A Week on the Concord and the Merrimack 154 00:08:04,650 --> 00:08:06,850 Rivers still on hand. The publisher is 155 00:08:06,850 --> 00:08:08,150 saying, what do we do with all these 156 00:08:08,150 --> 00:08:11,390 copies? I had them all sent to me here. 157 00:08:11,820 --> 00:08:13,990 They've arrived today by express filling 158 00:08:13,990 --> 00:08:17,930 the man's wagon 706 copies out of an 159 00:08:17,930 --> 00:08:22,530 edition of 1000. I now have a library of 160 00:08:22,530 --> 00:08:26,270 nearly 900 volumes, over 700 of which I 161 00:08:26,270 --> 00:08:31,110 wrote myself. This is encouraging and 162 00:08:31,110 --> 00:08:35,050 humbling as an author, realizing your book 163 00:08:35,050 --> 00:08:37,120 is not doing as well as you think it ought 164 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:39,990 to do. But Henry David Thoreau, in the 165 00:08:39,990 --> 00:08:45,720 course of two years, was able to sell 294 166 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:50,230 copies of his book. 294 copies in the 167 00:08:50,230 --> 00:08:52,960 course of two years. And this gentleman on 168 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:55,100 TikTok, I don't know how long it took him 169 00:08:55,100 --> 00:08:58,300 to get 1.1 million favorites, but I can 170 00:08:58,300 --> 00:09:03,070 assure you it was not two years. So simply 171 00:09:03,070 --> 00:09:06,380 in terms of quantity of interaction and 172 00:09:06,380 --> 00:09:08,310 the number of people inhabiting this 173 00:09:08,310 --> 00:09:10,520 digital agora, I think right there it 174 00:09:10,520 --> 00:09:14,550 makes it a worthy locus of inquiry for 175 00:09:14,550 --> 00:09:17,490 theologians, for pastors, for seminary 176 00:09:17,490 --> 00:09:20,360 students and so forth. So that's what I 177 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:22,260 have in mind when I talk about the digital 178 00:09:22,260 --> 00:09:25,100 agora. Now one other kind of piece of 179 00:09:25,100 --> 00:09:27,400 historical situating that I think is 180 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:30,100 important is to realize that what I'm 181 00:09:30,100 --> 00:09:32,500 talking about and where we find ourselves 182 00:09:32,500 --> 00:09:35,810 today, there's continuity and 183 00:09:35,810 --> 00:09:38,940 discontinuity here. By way of continuity, 184 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,010 I would argue that theological discourse 185 00:09:42,010 --> 00:09:44,850 and technological change, it's always been 186 00:09:44,850 --> 00:09:47,350 interwoven. So through the history of the 187 00:09:47,350 --> 00:09:50,790 church, our conversations about theology, 188 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:52,890 it's connected to theological or 189 00:09:52,890 --> 00:09:55,590 technological change. So for example, 190 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:58,800 primary orality, the movement from that to 191 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:01,230 the written word, already today we've 192 00:10:01,230 --> 00:10:04,600 heard a few times about Walter Ong, an 193 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:07,810 influential scholar in my field, digital 194 00:10:07,810 --> 00:10:10,010 rhetoric. But Walter Ong in his book, 195 00:10:10,210 --> 00:10:11,940 Orality and Literacy, he says, the 196 00:10:11,940 --> 00:10:15,750 reduction of dynamic sound to quiescent 197 00:10:15,750 --> 00:10:19,080 space, the separation of the world from 198 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:21,350 the living present. This movement from 199 00:10:21,350 --> 00:10:24,360 primary orality to the written word, one 200 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:26,060 of my favorite sections in Augustine's 201 00:10:26,060 --> 00:10:29,390 Confessions, he marvels at Ambrose, right? 202 00:10:29,630 --> 00:10:33,230 Because what can Ambrose do? He can read 203 00:10:33,230 --> 00:10:36,740 in his head. He says, when Ambrose read, 204 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:38,970 his eyes ran over the columns of writing, 205 00:10:38,970 --> 00:10:41,910 but his voice and his tongue were at rest. 206 00:10:42,070 --> 00:10:44,410 It was an oddity, it was a marvel that he 207 00:10:44,410 --> 00:10:46,650 could do this because you see this 208 00:10:46,650 --> 00:10:48,850 historical movement moving from primary 209 00:10:48,850 --> 00:10:53,390 orality to the written word. Further on, 210 00:10:53,650 --> 00:10:55,520 the shift of oral culture to literate 211 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:57,720 culture, closely connected to that, this 212 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:00,260 is from Susan White, someone I interacted 213 00:11:00,260 --> 00:11:02,860 with in my dissertation. She says this, 214 00:11:02,990 --> 00:11:05,760 the shift from primarily extemporized 215 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:08,230 liturgical prayer offered within the 216 00:11:08,230 --> 00:11:11,000 conventions to a primarily text-based 217 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:13,940 liturgy, it was largely complete in the 218 00:11:13,940 --> 00:11:17,110 West by about the mid-sixth century. So 219 00:11:17,110 --> 00:11:18,740 what Susan White is suggesting here is 220 00:11:18,740 --> 00:11:22,750 that the liturgy influenced, as we move 221 00:11:22,750 --> 00:11:24,880 toward a text-based liturgy, kind of 222 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:27,990 codifying the liturgy from place to place, 223 00:11:28,190 --> 00:11:30,660 things like that. And then one that we're 224 00:11:30,660 --> 00:11:32,260 probably really familiar with, the 225 00:11:32,260 --> 00:11:35,930 Reformation and Luther and the mass media 226 00:11:35,930 --> 00:11:38,430 and communication technologies there. So 227 00:11:38,430 --> 00:11:40,400 Andrew Pedigree, Luther and his friends, 228 00:11:40,470 --> 00:11:41,770 they used every instrument of 229 00:11:41,770 --> 00:11:45,140 communication known to Europe at the time, 230 00:11:45,470 --> 00:11:47,870 correspondence, song, word of mouth, 231 00:11:48,110 --> 00:11:51,710 printed or painted and printed images. So 232 00:11:51,710 --> 00:11:54,110 what I'm talking about here, theological 233 00:11:54,110 --> 00:11:57,080 discourse in digitally mediated 234 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:00,920 environments, it has things that have come 235 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:02,650 before it, technological change that we 236 00:12:02,650 --> 00:12:05,590 can find a continuity, but also I think 237 00:12:05,590 --> 00:12:08,530 there is a rupture happening here. It is a 238 00:12:08,530 --> 00:12:10,730 new media ecology, it is a new 239 00:12:10,730 --> 00:12:15,000 environment, it is a new situation for the 240 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,840 church to make sense of. And so we can see 241 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,410 things in the past, but obviously it's a 242 00:12:21,410 --> 00:12:23,980 new situation. I'm not the only one kind 243 00:12:23,980 --> 00:12:26,810 of suggesting that. This would be, 244 00:12:27,210 --> 00:12:28,410 actually before we get to that, I'm sorry, 245 00:12:28,910 --> 00:12:30,150 Neil Postman, we'll talk about him in a 246 00:12:30,150 --> 00:12:33,350 moment. But so the animating question for 247 00:12:33,350 --> 00:12:37,290 us, what I want us to consider here, what 248 00:12:37,290 --> 00:12:40,830 happens when TikTok, Instagram X and 249 00:12:40,830 --> 00:12:42,490 YouTube, what happens when these things 250 00:12:42,490 --> 00:12:44,730 become locations for catechesis, 251 00:12:45,130 --> 00:12:49,400 evangelism, theological conversation? More 252 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:52,200 specifically, kind of practically, how can 253 00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:55,240 pastors and theologians navigate this 254 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:59,110 situation, the promises and the perils? So 255 00:12:59,110 --> 00:13:00,080 that's what we're thinking about, that's 256 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,810 what we're looking at. To drive us into 257 00:13:02,810 --> 00:13:05,750 this, I think we need some basis of 258 00:13:05,750 --> 00:13:09,350 thinking about media and media ecology, 259 00:13:10,490 --> 00:13:14,490 new media, things like that. So the next 260 00:13:14,490 --> 00:13:18,830 point, modality. Modality. What I have 261 00:13:18,830 --> 00:13:21,230 here is a painting, this is one that maybe 262 00:13:21,230 --> 00:13:23,300 you're familiar with, Renee Magritte, the 263 00:13:23,300 --> 00:13:26,300 treachery of images. This was originally 264 00:13:26,300 --> 00:13:30,540 oil on canvas. Now Magritte's painting, I 265 00:13:30,540 --> 00:13:32,840 think it's really helpful in helping us 266 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:36,180 make sense of media and the importance of 267 00:13:36,180 --> 00:13:42,850 media. Had Magritte done this in clay, it 268 00:13:42,850 --> 00:13:45,620 wouldn't have worked. Had Magritte done 269 00:13:45,620 --> 00:13:48,690 this in wood, it would not have worked. 270 00:13:49,490 --> 00:13:53,900 Why is that? It would have been a pipe. So 271 00:13:53,900 --> 00:13:55,870 if you're familiar with his original work, 272 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:58,270 I don't have it fully represented here, 273 00:13:58,340 --> 00:14:00,870 but below this painting of a pipe, it says 274 00:14:00,870 --> 00:14:06,140 in French, this is not a pipe. And he's 275 00:14:06,140 --> 00:14:08,280 kind of messing with you as a viewer 276 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:11,620 because clearly it is a pipe, but it's not 277 00:14:11,620 --> 00:14:15,690 a pipe. Why not? It's a painting of a 278 00:14:15,690 --> 00:14:17,660 pipe. I don't know if this is what 279 00:14:17,660 --> 00:14:19,660 Magritte was exactly trying to do or not, 280 00:14:19,820 --> 00:14:24,200 but he was showing us that modality or 281 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:28,030 media matters. Because this is oil on 282 00:14:28,030 --> 00:14:31,700 canvas, it is not a pipe. It's a 283 00:14:31,700 --> 00:14:33,470 representation of a pipe or an image of a 284 00:14:33,470 --> 00:14:35,710 pipe. If it was wood or clay, it actually 285 00:14:35,710 --> 00:14:38,810 would have been a pipe. And so I like to 286 00:14:38,810 --> 00:14:41,510 use that to demonstrate modality matters. 287 00:14:41,810 --> 00:14:46,150 Media matters. My work in digital rhetoric 288 00:14:46,150 --> 00:14:49,320 put me into this kind of world of studying 289 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:52,190 media. So the word media, we use it a lot. 290 00:14:52,290 --> 00:14:54,230 I don't always know how well we understand 291 00:14:54,230 --> 00:14:57,100 it, what we mean by media. Coming from 292 00:14:57,100 --> 00:14:59,760 Latin, it means something to the effect of 293 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,530 middle. And there's a family resemblance 294 00:15:02,530 --> 00:15:04,670 of other words that kind of have a similar 295 00:15:04,670 --> 00:15:08,770 origin. Mediate, median, mediocre, all of 296 00:15:08,770 --> 00:15:12,340 those words implying something about a 297 00:15:12,340 --> 00:15:14,610 middle. Something's mediocre, it's not 298 00:15:14,610 --> 00:15:17,950 good, it's not bad, it's in the middle. So 299 00:15:17,950 --> 00:15:19,950 when we hear media, we should think of a 300 00:15:19,950 --> 00:15:22,320 mediating substance, a thing in the 301 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:24,690 middle. You could also think of media as a 302 00:15:24,690 --> 00:15:28,660 conduit, a pipe. Not a pipe for smoking 303 00:15:28,660 --> 00:15:31,330 tobacco, but a pipe for water to go 304 00:15:31,330 --> 00:15:33,460 through. And that's what media does. It's 305 00:15:33,460 --> 00:15:36,530 a conduit for communication, you know, 306 00:15:36,630 --> 00:15:38,270 things can be expressed and delivered 307 00:15:38,270 --> 00:15:40,740 through this media, through this conduit. 308 00:15:42,370 --> 00:15:44,310 Marshall McLuhan, a name that we heard 309 00:15:44,310 --> 00:15:46,880 from our last speaker. Marshall McLuhan, 310 00:15:46,910 --> 00:15:49,150 one of the foremost media theorists in our 311 00:15:49,150 --> 00:15:52,220 day. He offers some really great insights 312 00:15:52,220 --> 00:15:56,450 about what media does to us as humans and 313 00:15:56,450 --> 00:15:59,090 interpersonally and how we think and 314 00:15:59,090 --> 00:16:01,160 inhabit the world. One of my favorite 315 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:03,960 insights from McLuhan is actually the 316 00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:07,070 idea, not medium is the message, but 317 00:16:07,070 --> 00:16:11,870 sensus communis, or common sense. And this 318 00:16:11,870 --> 00:16:14,010 is a thing that other philosophers before 319 00:16:14,010 --> 00:16:17,080 McLuhan grappled with this idea of common 320 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:19,280 sense. But you can think of it like this, 321 00:16:19,340 --> 00:16:23,150 we are sensory creatures, God created us 322 00:16:23,150 --> 00:16:26,180 with all our senses, all our members, and 323 00:16:26,180 --> 00:16:28,750 we inhabit the world as sensory creatures. 324 00:16:28,750 --> 00:16:33,690 What media does is this, it extends some 325 00:16:33,690 --> 00:16:36,830 of our senses, but not all of our senses. 326 00:16:38,730 --> 00:16:40,060 And what McLuhan says is that it 327 00:16:40,060 --> 00:16:43,070 rearranges your sense ratios. So for 328 00:16:43,070 --> 00:16:45,970 example, if you are watching a television 329 00:16:45,970 --> 00:16:49,810 show, it takes your eyes and your ears, 330 00:16:50,140 --> 00:16:52,780 those senses are magnified, but your 331 00:16:52,780 --> 00:16:55,880 tactile senses or your chemical senses, 332 00:16:57,020 --> 00:16:59,080 they're not transferred over to that 333 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:01,550 place. So something like online worship, 334 00:17:01,850 --> 00:17:03,960 right? Your eyes and your ears are in the 335 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:09,330 sanctuary, your body is on the couch. Your 336 00:17:09,330 --> 00:17:11,930 chemical senses are eating a snack or 337 00:17:11,930 --> 00:17:14,200 something like that. So what media does, 338 00:17:14,370 --> 00:17:16,670 it rearranges our sense ratios, it 339 00:17:16,670 --> 00:17:19,500 ruptures our sensus communis, our common 340 00:17:19,500 --> 00:17:22,770 sense. And McLuhan says that extending any 341 00:17:22,770 --> 00:17:25,110 one of these, it changes how we think and 342 00:17:25,110 --> 00:17:27,350 how we act, really how we inhabit or 343 00:17:27,350 --> 00:17:32,380 perceive the world. Anil Postman, a 344 00:17:32,380 --> 00:17:35,250 student of McLuhan, he kind of furthers 345 00:17:35,250 --> 00:17:37,490 some of this. This is from the field of 346 00:17:37,490 --> 00:17:40,460 media ecology. But Postman says this, a 347 00:17:40,460 --> 00:17:43,430 new technology, it doesn't add or subtract 348 00:17:43,430 --> 00:17:47,230 something, it changes everything. So when 349 00:17:47,230 --> 00:17:51,000 we think of switching media or finding a 350 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:54,140 new medium, folks like Postman would say 351 00:17:54,140 --> 00:17:57,410 that this is a paradigmatic shift, this is 352 00:17:57,410 --> 00:17:59,540 a new environment. You're inhabiting a new 353 00:17:59,540 --> 00:18:02,610 world, a new paradigm, a new logic from in 354 00:18:02,610 --> 00:18:06,820 -person to mediated. A Postman even says 355 00:18:06,820 --> 00:18:09,820 this, he says a preacher who confines 356 00:18:09,820 --> 00:18:13,020 himself to considering how a medium can 357 00:18:13,020 --> 00:18:15,760 increase his audience, that preacher is 358 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:17,900 going to miss the significant question. In 359 00:18:17,900 --> 00:18:20,360 what sense do new media alter what is 360 00:18:20,360 --> 00:18:24,440 meant by religion, by church, even by God? 361 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:29,070 So this idea of as we switch from one 362 00:18:29,070 --> 00:18:31,810 medium to another, as we move across 363 00:18:31,810 --> 00:18:34,910 different sorts of media, what folks like 364 00:18:34,910 --> 00:18:38,550 McLuhan or Postman would suggest is that 365 00:18:38,550 --> 00:18:41,820 the logic is changing. The paradigm is 366 00:18:41,820 --> 00:18:43,890 changing, the environment is changing, the 367 00:18:43,890 --> 00:18:46,460 questions we ask are changing, what's 368 00:18:46,460 --> 00:18:49,090 possible, what's thinkable, what's good or 369 00:18:49,090 --> 00:18:53,460 bad changes. So let's bring this down to 370 00:18:53,460 --> 00:18:56,370 kind of our language and our situation. We 371 00:18:56,370 --> 00:18:58,800 can think of the Small Catechism and how 372 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,710 it has shape-shifted across different 373 00:19:01,710 --> 00:19:04,410 sorts of media. So three radically 374 00:19:04,410 --> 00:19:06,580 different catechisms you might say, same 375 00:19:06,580 --> 00:19:09,950 content but new environments. So a small 376 00:19:09,950 --> 00:19:14,220 catechism in codex form, bound in print 377 00:19:14,220 --> 00:19:18,160 and meant for family conversation or 378 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:20,420 catechetical conversation. A small 379 00:19:20,420 --> 00:19:22,990 catechism like that is analog, doesn't 380 00:19:22,990 --> 00:19:26,430 require electricity, doesn't die, doesn't 381 00:19:26,430 --> 00:19:28,930 run out of batteries. A small catechism 382 00:19:28,930 --> 00:19:32,370 like that is not hypertext. So yes it is 383 00:19:32,370 --> 00:19:34,470 citing scripture, it's hypertext in that 384 00:19:34,470 --> 00:19:37,940 way, but it's not linked to other 385 00:19:37,940 --> 00:19:41,910 catechisms or other religions. It engages 386 00:19:41,910 --> 00:19:45,280 the senses, largely the eye and the ear, 387 00:19:45,420 --> 00:19:48,450 but also the tactile sense. And it's 388 00:19:48,450 --> 00:19:51,560 communal. The concept of the bound book 389 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:54,930 for catechetical instruction, it's 390 00:19:54,930 --> 00:19:57,800 communal. The small catechism being 391 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:00,260 brought to something like a smartphone or 392 00:20:00,260 --> 00:20:04,300 the internet, a new media, suddenly now it 393 00:20:04,300 --> 00:20:08,410 is hypertext. So this small catechism is 394 00:20:08,410 --> 00:20:11,710 existing on a world wide web, it's 395 00:20:11,710 --> 00:20:14,310 connected to a plurality of religious 396 00:20:14,310 --> 00:20:17,880 ideas. That's noteworthy right? A Small 397 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:23,450 Catechism that's bound is unto itself. But 398 00:20:23,450 --> 00:20:25,060 a Small Catechism that exists on the 399 00:20:25,060 --> 00:20:27,490 internet is suddenly hyperlinked in some 400 00:20:27,490 --> 00:20:30,630 way to the Westminster smaller catechism, 401 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:35,130 a Roman Catholic catechism or atheistic 402 00:20:35,130 --> 00:20:38,540 philosophies and things like that. It 403 00:20:38,540 --> 00:20:41,440 engages all the eyes, not so much the 404 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,140 ears, not so much the tactile sense, and 405 00:20:44,140 --> 00:20:46,680 being a device it's really intended for 406 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:48,910 the individual, especially a smartphone. 407 00:20:49,780 --> 00:20:51,020 And then you think of something like the 408 00:20:51,020 --> 00:20:54,250 Small Catechism on a smart speaker and the 409 00:20:54,250 --> 00:20:58,490 idea of Alexa doing catechesis for us. And 410 00:20:58,490 --> 00:21:00,630 this is really engaging something we could 411 00:21:00,630 --> 00:21:02,960 call second orality, that comes from 412 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:05,660 Walter Ong again. This idea of moving from 413 00:21:05,660 --> 00:21:09,100 oral culture to text culture and then kind 414 00:21:09,100 --> 00:21:11,370 of back to an oral culture where we don't 415 00:21:11,370 --> 00:21:15,570 read as much as we hear. That idea. So it 416 00:21:15,570 --> 00:21:18,010 engages all the ears, not so much the 417 00:21:18,010 --> 00:21:21,510 eyes, not the tactile. This is also 418 00:21:21,510 --> 00:21:23,850 engaging alterity. This comes from the 419 00:21:23,850 --> 00:21:26,820 philosopher Don Eide, but interacting with 420 00:21:26,820 --> 00:21:29,820 Alexa and a Small Catechism app, it's 421 00:21:29,820 --> 00:21:32,690 working with a robot. It's working with an 422 00:21:32,690 --> 00:21:35,630 artificial intelligence alterity. It's you 423 00:21:35,630 --> 00:21:38,730 and the robot. Or sort of like you and an 424 00:21:38,730 --> 00:21:41,370 ATM machine would be Don Eide's example. 425 00:21:41,370 --> 00:21:44,140 You use this individually but maybe also 426 00:21:44,140 --> 00:21:46,340 communally. And it's obviously connected 427 00:21:46,340 --> 00:21:49,040 to a commercial ecosystem. This is the 428 00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:51,110 same thing that you're ordering Amazon 429 00:21:51,110 --> 00:21:54,610 products on and then also learning your 430 00:21:54,610 --> 00:21:58,520 Small Catechism. So same content, but 431 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:00,750 radically new environments. The modality 432 00:22:00,750 --> 00:22:03,950 matters. It changes the paradigm, it 433 00:22:03,950 --> 00:22:06,090 changes what's thinkable, what's possible, 434 00:22:06,290 --> 00:22:10,830 what's impossible, and so forth. Okay, 435 00:22:11,300 --> 00:22:15,270 third point. We've moved from Agora, the 436 00:22:15,270 --> 00:22:16,870 digital Agora that we now inhabit where 437 00:22:16,870 --> 00:22:18,700 there's all this theological conversation. 438 00:22:19,100 --> 00:22:22,140 We need to attend to media and how that 439 00:22:22,140 --> 00:22:25,140 changes the game. And then this is more 440 00:22:25,140 --> 00:22:27,750 strategic, more practical, or pragmatic 441 00:22:27,750 --> 00:22:30,550 for us, but the concept of remixing. 442 00:22:32,050 --> 00:22:34,290 Remixing. This comes especially from my 443 00:22:34,290 --> 00:22:37,150 work in the realm of digital rhetoric. Two 444 00:22:37,150 --> 00:22:39,320 colleagues of mine at Michigan State, Jim 445 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:42,160 Rodolfo and Danielle DeVos, but the 446 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,430 concept of multimodal remixing and 447 00:22:45,430 --> 00:22:47,160 remixing, they also have another term that 448 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:48,530 we're going to interact with in a moment. 449 00:22:48,530 --> 00:22:51,470 But so remixing, we might think of like 450 00:22:51,470 --> 00:22:54,240 hip hop music. That's not exactly what I 451 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:57,810 have in mind, but connected. Remixing is 452 00:22:57,810 --> 00:23:00,380 in the realm of digital rhetoric, taking 453 00:23:00,380 --> 00:23:03,650 old pieces of text, images, sounds, and 454 00:23:03,650 --> 00:23:06,450 video, stitching them together to form a 455 00:23:06,450 --> 00:23:09,190 new product, and that's how composers 456 00:23:09,190 --> 00:23:12,360 achieve persuasive, creative, or parodic 457 00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:16,060 effects. Rodolfo and DeVos, they go as far 458 00:23:16,060 --> 00:23:18,300 as to say remix is the premier 459 00:23:18,300 --> 00:23:21,770 contemporary composing practice. They 460 00:23:21,770 --> 00:23:24,870 would say most of what we do as 461 00:23:24,870 --> 00:23:29,210 contemporary people is a form of remixing. 462 00:23:29,210 --> 00:23:31,940 So we can think of this slide right here, 463 00:23:32,010 --> 00:23:34,680 I think as a form of remixing. What I have 464 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,420 up here is content from an academic 465 00:23:37,420 --> 00:23:41,250 journal article. I have a picture. I 466 00:23:41,250 --> 00:23:43,490 didn't take that picture, but I took that 467 00:23:43,490 --> 00:23:46,720 picture from a design software and used 468 00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:48,990 that as part of this slide. 469 00:23:48,990 --> 00:23:50,990 Choosing the color. Choosing the font. 470 00:23:50,990 --> 00:23:52,990 Choosing what to highlight. 471 00:23:52,990 --> 00:23:54,990 Choosing the citations all those things. 472 00:23:54,990 --> 00:23:56,990 I'm remixing several things right here. 473 00:23:57,990 --> 00:24:01,000 I'm composing something but in a different context. 474 00:24:02,210 --> 00:24:04,010 So transformation occurs when one delivers 475 00:24:05,010 --> 00:24:06,000 when one delivers a text into a new context. 476 00:24:06,250 --> 00:24:08,200 Collecting the text with others to make 477 00:24:08,250 --> 00:24:10,300 a new compilation adding addtional 478 00:24:10,350 --> 00:24:12,350 materials to the text. 479 00:24:13,410 --> 00:24:15,410 And I would suggest that multi 480 00:24:15,410 --> 00:24:18,410 module remixing is a lot of what 481 00:24:18,410 --> 00:24:20,410 were seeing in the digital agora. 482 00:24:21,530 --> 00:24:23,850 So that you see old pieces of text, 483 00:24:23,850 --> 00:24:24,850 images and sounds, videos that are 484 00:24:24,850 --> 00:24:26,850 being stitched together in new ways 485 00:24:26,850 --> 00:24:28,850 on social media. 486 00:24:28,850 --> 00:24:31,850 So here's some examples that C. S. Lewis 487 00:24:31,850 --> 00:24:34,850 quote that I showed you from Instagram. 488 00:24:34,850 --> 00:24:37,850 There's this picture of C. S. Lewis there 489 00:24:37,850 --> 00:24:39,850 some text from C. S. Lewis. 490 00:24:39,850 --> 00:24:44,450 But it's actually not from C. S. Lewis. I was 491 00:24:44,850 --> 00:24:45,850 wondering where did C. S. Lewis write 492 00:24:45,850 --> 00:24:48,850 this? He didn't write it. It is a 493 00:24:48,850 --> 00:24:50,350 Billy Graham quote. 494 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,360 But in remixing, whether intentional or 495 00:24:55,360 --> 00:24:59,260 sloppy, the image of C.S. Lewis and a 496 00:24:59,260 --> 00:25:02,700 quote, ostensibly from him, but more 497 00:25:02,700 --> 00:25:05,070 likely Billy Graham, put together on 498 00:25:05,070 --> 00:25:07,140 Instagram. Other examples of this 499 00:25:07,140 --> 00:25:10,270 remixing? The two others there, you have 500 00:25:10,270 --> 00:25:14,350 people who heard a sermon, preached in 501 00:25:14,350 --> 00:25:18,550 person, and are now giving commentary on 502 00:25:18,550 --> 00:25:20,850 that sermon. These are TikTok reels of 503 00:25:20,850 --> 00:25:23,390 people saying, I just heard this sermon 504 00:25:23,390 --> 00:25:25,890 and here's what the sermon was about, and 505 00:25:25,890 --> 00:25:27,660 here's some thoughts that I had about it. 506 00:25:27,830 --> 00:25:29,760 One is just a person who heard a preacher, 507 00:25:29,830 --> 00:25:31,030 the other one is the preacher himself, 508 00:25:32,360 --> 00:25:35,000 taking the sermon and condensing it to 30 509 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,170 seconds. But the idea of remixing content 510 00:25:39,170 --> 00:25:41,970 in a totally different media ecology, 511 00:25:41,970 --> 00:25:46,640 another example of this, I would suggest 512 00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,950 would be the movement of preaching from 513 00:25:49,950 --> 00:25:54,350 oral proclamation in person to recording a 514 00:25:54,350 --> 00:25:57,520 sermon and posting it online. In my 515 00:25:57,520 --> 00:25:59,790 dissertation work, the data that I was 516 00:25:59,790 --> 00:26:03,660 working with, 80% of congregations during 517 00:26:03,660 --> 00:26:05,900 the pandemic, or soon after the pandemic, 518 00:26:05,900 --> 00:26:10,330 using online worship. So a vast majority 519 00:26:10,330 --> 00:26:13,170 of churches doing this very practice, 520 00:26:13,470 --> 00:26:16,910 remixing an in-person sermon, moving it to 521 00:26:16,910 --> 00:26:20,840 a digital sermon. And what happens is, we 522 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:23,350 get new affordances when we move it into a 523 00:26:23,350 --> 00:26:26,750 new environment. For example, when a 524 00:26:26,750 --> 00:26:28,450 preacher is preaching and you have to go 525 00:26:28,450 --> 00:26:32,720 to the bathroom, you can't pause him and 526 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:34,390 go to the bathroom and pick it back up, 527 00:26:34,630 --> 00:26:36,930 but you can hear. When a preacher is 528 00:26:36,930 --> 00:26:41,370 preaching in person, he's not hyperlinked 529 00:26:41,370 --> 00:26:43,470 to the World Wide Web. You have a phone in 530 00:26:43,470 --> 00:26:45,600 your pocket, but he is not, but this video 531 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:47,870 is. When a preacher is preaching, you can 532 00:26:47,870 --> 00:26:49,340 lean to the person next to you or elbow 533 00:26:49,340 --> 00:26:51,880 you. You have that affordance, but this 534 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:54,450 gives us a totally different affordance of 535 00:26:54,450 --> 00:26:57,350 a comment bar that everybody in the 536 00:26:57,350 --> 00:26:59,450 congregation, the digital congregation 537 00:26:59,450 --> 00:27:03,490 that is, can see. So here's an example of 538 00:27:03,490 --> 00:27:05,990 multimodal remixing. Other examples that I 539 00:27:05,990 --> 00:27:08,730 think would categorize within all this, 540 00:27:09,530 --> 00:27:11,100 live stream worship services, recording 541 00:27:11,100 --> 00:27:13,560 sermons, things I've already talked about, 542 00:27:13,900 --> 00:27:16,870 hybrid Bible studies, podcasts and social 543 00:27:16,870 --> 00:27:18,700 media posts. I know churches engage in 544 00:27:18,700 --> 00:27:22,770 those things. Devotional reels, multimodal 545 00:27:22,770 --> 00:27:26,840 remixing. Now there's a strategy that we 546 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:29,450 can bring to bear on this. So as we think 547 00:27:29,450 --> 00:27:32,180 about multimodal remixing, moving from one 548 00:27:32,180 --> 00:27:36,190 medium to another, there's a strategy, a 549 00:27:36,190 --> 00:27:38,090 language we can use. It would be 550 00:27:38,090 --> 00:27:41,190 rhetorical velocity. Rhetorical velocity, 551 00:27:41,360 --> 00:27:44,130 velocity is not just speed, but velocity 552 00:27:44,130 --> 00:27:46,730 is directional speed. And again, this 553 00:27:46,730 --> 00:27:49,630 comes from my colleagues at MSU, Rodolfo 554 00:27:49,630 --> 00:27:51,970 and DeVos, but rhetorical velocity is how 555 00:27:51,970 --> 00:27:54,370 information is crafted, delivered and 556 00:27:54,370 --> 00:27:57,510 distributed, but then recomposed, 557 00:27:57,940 --> 00:28:00,710 redelivered and redistributed across 558 00:28:00,710 --> 00:28:03,410 physical and virtual spaces. So how 559 00:28:03,410 --> 00:28:06,420 content moves from technology to 560 00:28:06,420 --> 00:28:09,490 technology, or how content moves from one 561 00:28:09,490 --> 00:28:12,690 medium to another. So the example I gave 562 00:28:12,690 --> 00:28:14,530 you of the Small Catechism, that's an 563 00:28:14,530 --> 00:28:18,500 example of rhetorical velocity. Same 564 00:28:18,500 --> 00:28:21,600 information, but how it is recomposed, 565 00:28:21,730 --> 00:28:24,130 redelivered and then redistributed from 566 00:28:24,130 --> 00:28:26,600 one application to the next or one medium 567 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,210 to the next. Now like I said, rhetorical 568 00:28:29,210 --> 00:28:32,510 velocity is a strategy, or it can be 569 00:28:32,510 --> 00:28:34,810 turned into a strategy. Here's what I 570 00:28:34,810 --> 00:28:40,050 mean. It is a compositional heuristic. So 571 00:28:40,050 --> 00:28:43,090 we can use rhetorical velocity, this 572 00:28:43,090 --> 00:28:46,460 concept, as preachers and teachers and 573 00:28:46,460 --> 00:28:49,990 pastors and seminarians. We can use this 574 00:28:49,990 --> 00:28:54,330 idea to help us think more lucidly about 575 00:28:54,330 --> 00:28:58,600 digital or theological conversation in 576 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,370 digital environments. So a compositional 577 00:29:01,370 --> 00:29:03,210 heuristic, you know, discovery questions 578 00:29:03,210 --> 00:29:06,940 we can ask, as we are composing, who is 579 00:29:06,940 --> 00:29:10,080 interested, why do they want to recompose 580 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:13,180 this work, what will they produce, how 581 00:29:13,180 --> 00:29:15,450 might it be delivered, how might I guide 582 00:29:15,450 --> 00:29:18,760 future recomposition, what genres and 583 00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:20,920 mediums will the work potentially 584 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:23,830 transcend, what will the temporal lifespan 585 00:29:23,830 --> 00:29:26,660 be. These are questions we should have in 586 00:29:26,660 --> 00:29:30,230 mind, as we are composing, recognizing we 587 00:29:30,230 --> 00:29:34,240 compose in a digital agora. Even if we're 588 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:35,770 preparing a sermon for in-person, if 589 00:29:35,770 --> 00:29:37,740 that's going to be recorded and posted, 590 00:29:38,380 --> 00:29:41,250 these are questions we ought to ask. Now 591 00:29:41,250 --> 00:29:43,110 within that, we can think of positive 592 00:29:43,110 --> 00:29:46,280 appropriation, ways that this can be used 593 00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:48,590 that's beneficial to the short and long 594 00:29:48,590 --> 00:29:51,560 -term rhetorical objectives, neutral or 595 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:54,160 negative appropriation. So here's what I 596 00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,290 mean by that. A positive appropriation 597 00:29:57,290 --> 00:30:00,030 would be like a brief selection of a 598 00:30:00,030 --> 00:30:03,170 sermon becomes content to the congregation 599 00:30:03,170 --> 00:30:05,900 via email. That aligns with your 600 00:30:05,900 --> 00:30:09,270 rhetorical objectives as a preacher. A 601 00:30:09,270 --> 00:30:10,710 neutral appropriation that might be 602 00:30:10,710 --> 00:30:12,940 somebody hears your sermon, preached in 603 00:30:12,940 --> 00:30:14,680 person and then creates a social media 604 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,150 post about it, not necessarily good or 605 00:30:17,150 --> 00:30:20,550 bad, but it exists. A negative 606 00:30:20,550 --> 00:30:23,220 appropriation, your sermon becomes a 607 00:30:23,220 --> 00:30:26,590 parody video, because it was so horrific 608 00:30:26,590 --> 00:30:29,830 or so bad or embarrassing, bonus points 609 00:30:29,830 --> 00:30:33,930 for being auto-tuned. That's an example of 610 00:30:33,930 --> 00:30:37,970 your sermon was turned into a different 611 00:30:37,970 --> 00:30:39,900 medium in a way that's really 612 00:30:39,900 --> 00:30:42,510 counterproductive to what you had in mind. 613 00:30:43,470 --> 00:30:46,740 So in this context, as preachers at a 614 00:30:46,740 --> 00:30:49,250 symposium, to kind of put a fine point on 615 00:30:49,250 --> 00:30:52,350 it, you know, rhetorical velocity, it's 616 00:30:52,350 --> 00:30:54,480 the strategic theorizing for how 617 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:57,990 theological discourse might be recomposed, 618 00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:00,720 why it might be recomposed, and then how 619 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,930 this is useful or not to our rhetorical 620 00:31:03,930 --> 00:31:06,860 objectives. So these are questions I would 621 00:31:06,860 --> 00:31:10,530 suggest for us as preachers, teachers, 622 00:31:10,970 --> 00:31:13,400 seminarians, seminary faculty, you know, 623 00:31:13,540 --> 00:31:15,470 how will this theological discourse end up 624 00:31:15,470 --> 00:31:17,670 in a different medium? They're recording 625 00:31:17,670 --> 00:31:19,110 this thing right here, right? So that's 626 00:31:19,110 --> 00:31:21,580 already happening. How will the audience 627 00:31:21,580 --> 00:31:25,250 and kyrotic moment be transformed? How 628 00:31:25,250 --> 00:31:27,920 will the message be transformed? How might 629 00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:29,850 this be positively or negatively 630 00:31:29,850 --> 00:31:33,120 appropriated? What can I do to guide the 631 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,930 theological discourse as it is remixed? 632 00:31:38,100 --> 00:31:41,700 Heuristic questions for us to consider as 633 00:31:41,700 --> 00:31:44,970 we engage in theological discourse in the 634 00:31:44,970 --> 00:31:48,010 digital media world. Last one would be 635 00:31:48,010 --> 00:31:54,950 this, re-remix. Re-remix. To quote the 636 00:31:54,950 --> 00:31:58,450 venerable theologian, Mitch Hedberg, I 637 00:31:58,450 --> 00:32:03,250 remixed a remix, it was back to normal. If 638 00:32:03,250 --> 00:32:04,450 you're familiar with Mitch Hedberg, he is 639 00:32:04,450 --> 00:32:06,220 not a theologian at all, he's a comedian, 640 00:32:06,220 --> 00:32:09,030 but the idea of remixing a remix and well, 641 00:32:09,230 --> 00:32:11,260 it went right back to normal, I think 642 00:32:11,260 --> 00:32:15,070 there's actually some insight in that. And 643 00:32:15,070 --> 00:32:18,240 that last section here, remix. I would not 644 00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,100 suggest, what I'm not suggesting is, 645 00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:23,240 eschewing the digital, but I am suggesting 646 00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:26,410 planning beyond it. Not eschewing the 647 00:32:26,410 --> 00:32:31,680 digital, but planning beyond it. Look at 648 00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:33,950 that picture up there, the idea of if you 649 00:32:33,950 --> 00:32:36,850 are going to prepare a sermon for oral 650 00:32:36,850 --> 00:32:41,330 proclamation with a gathered audience, if 651 00:32:41,330 --> 00:32:44,900 you are then going to put that online and 652 00:32:44,900 --> 00:32:46,860 move that to a new media ecology, if 653 00:32:46,860 --> 00:32:49,630 you're going to engage in this rhetorical 654 00:32:49,630 --> 00:32:52,900 velocity, then you should also plan in 655 00:32:52,900 --> 00:32:56,540 some way for how you might think beyond 656 00:32:56,540 --> 00:32:59,310 the digital, and if somebody hears that 657 00:32:59,310 --> 00:33:03,810 sermon, what next? Or what is the feedback 658 00:33:03,810 --> 00:33:06,250 loop or the conversational loop that maybe 659 00:33:06,250 --> 00:33:08,850 moves it from the in-person to the 660 00:33:08,850 --> 00:33:11,790 digital, perhaps back to the in-person or 661 00:33:11,790 --> 00:33:14,390 the incarnate? Scripture does this, 662 00:33:14,890 --> 00:33:16,390 Scripture without using the language of 663 00:33:16,390 --> 00:33:19,630 rhetorical velocity does this. 2 John 1, 664 00:33:19,900 --> 00:33:21,430 Though I have much to write to you, I'd 665 00:33:21,430 --> 00:33:24,940 rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I 666 00:33:24,940 --> 00:33:27,540 hope to come to you and talk face to face, 667 00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:31,380 so that our joy may be complete. This 668 00:33:31,380 --> 00:33:33,640 right here is a biblical example of what 669 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:35,550 I'm talking about, rhetorical velocity 670 00:33:35,550 --> 00:33:40,580 using one medium, the epistle, the written 671 00:33:40,580 --> 00:33:43,550 word, but then planning beyond that for 672 00:33:43,550 --> 00:33:47,920 face to face conversation. We can also see 673 00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:50,330 this in the book of Acts, Philip and the 674 00:33:50,330 --> 00:33:53,460 Ethiopian eunuch, recognizing that here he 675 00:33:53,460 --> 00:33:56,300 is, the Ethiopian eunuch, reading Isaiah 676 00:33:56,300 --> 00:33:59,240 the prophet, probably out loud, right? But 677 00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:01,910 reading Isaiah the prophet, and then this 678 00:34:01,910 --> 00:34:05,110 turning into a face to face conversation. 679 00:34:05,780 --> 00:34:07,440 And I think something like this is quite 680 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:09,850 stunning, because you think of all the 681 00:34:09,850 --> 00:34:11,880 shape shifting that message had to go 682 00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:13,750 through, all the rhetorical velocity, 683 00:34:14,250 --> 00:34:17,850 Isaiah proclaiming a prophetic word to a 684 00:34:17,850 --> 00:34:20,390 gathered audience, that word being turned 685 00:34:20,390 --> 00:34:23,930 into a text and a scroll being read by the 686 00:34:23,930 --> 00:34:26,360 Ethiopian eunuch, and that turning into a 687 00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:29,670 conversation with Philip and him, and then 688 00:34:29,670 --> 00:34:33,200 doing what? Being turned into a text, into 689 00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:34,670 a text that we are now talking about. 690 00:34:34,910 --> 00:34:37,070 That's sort of what I'm having in mind 691 00:34:37,070 --> 00:34:38,740 here as I think about these things. 692 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,410 Lutheran Hour Ministries thinks in terms 693 00:34:42,410 --> 00:34:44,510 of rhetorical velocity, again whether they 694 00:34:44,510 --> 00:34:46,880 know it or not, but this idea of planning 695 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,790 beyond the media, so bringing Christ to 696 00:34:49,790 --> 00:34:52,690 the Nations and the Nations to the Church. 697 00:34:52,690 --> 00:34:56,790 So this idea of if someone hears the word 698 00:34:56,790 --> 00:34:59,900 proclaimed on the Lutheran Hour radio or a 699 00:34:59,900 --> 00:35:04,170 podcast, what then is the remix, what then 700 00:35:04,170 --> 00:35:08,510 is the opportunity for embodied one to one 701 00:35:08,510 --> 00:35:13,540 personal engagement after that? So the 702 00:35:13,540 --> 00:35:14,640 last thing I have to share with you, and 703 00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:16,810 then we'll have some time for question and 704 00:35:16,810 --> 00:35:19,620 conversation, the question, my animating 705 00:35:19,620 --> 00:35:21,720 question has been, you know, how can 706 00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:24,390 pastors and theologians navigate the 707 00:35:24,390 --> 00:35:27,720 promises and perils of digitally mediated 708 00:35:27,720 --> 00:35:31,090 theology, seeking to kind of offer some 709 00:35:31,090 --> 00:35:34,300 strategic ways for how we might navigate 710 00:35:34,300 --> 00:35:38,270 this digital agorum. And three things that 711 00:35:38,270 --> 00:35:39,540 I want to leave you with would be this, 712 00:35:40,170 --> 00:35:42,610 strategic composition, that's that 713 00:35:42,610 --> 00:35:44,040 rhetorical velocity I've been talking 714 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:47,440 about, so strategically composing for the 715 00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:49,310 deliberate purpose of providing or 716 00:35:49,310 --> 00:35:52,080 limiting materials for future potential 717 00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:55,350 acts of appropriation and recomposition by 718 00:35:55,350 --> 00:35:57,450 others. Let me give you some really 719 00:35:57,450 --> 00:35:59,020 specific examples of what I mean there. 720 00:35:59,490 --> 00:36:02,390 Our congregation, we do live stream 721 00:36:02,390 --> 00:36:05,460 worship, we end our communion services 722 00:36:05,460 --> 00:36:10,570 before the words of institution. Why? This 723 00:36:10,570 --> 00:36:12,740 idea of rhetorical velocity so that 724 00:36:12,740 --> 00:36:16,310 somebody can't negatively appropriate that 725 00:36:16,310 --> 00:36:18,940 and have some bread and have some wine at 726 00:36:18,940 --> 00:36:21,440 home and take that word, that institution, 727 00:36:21,650 --> 00:36:23,850 the words of institution and do communion 728 00:36:23,850 --> 00:36:25,620 in their own living room. That was a way 729 00:36:25,620 --> 00:36:29,190 that we limit the rhetorical velocity of 730 00:36:29,190 --> 00:36:31,860 that whole thing. Other ways you might 731 00:36:31,860 --> 00:36:35,230 consider this would be taking a quote from 732 00:36:35,230 --> 00:36:37,230 a sermon, and if you're going to be 733 00:36:37,230 --> 00:36:39,260 quoted, if you're going to be tweeted, 734 00:36:40,460 --> 00:36:43,430 here's the key quote. Again, promoting 735 00:36:43,430 --> 00:36:46,400 positive appropriation in this world of 736 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:50,140 rhetorical velocity. And then another one, 737 00:36:50,510 --> 00:36:52,410 oh yeah, one more on that too. I think in 738 00:36:52,410 --> 00:36:55,250 a world where we are uploading and 739 00:36:55,250 --> 00:36:58,880 digitizing sermons, to be very thoughtful 740 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,350 and conscious of the ways that that can be 741 00:37:02,350 --> 00:37:06,190 negatively appropriated in editing, and 742 00:37:06,190 --> 00:37:09,360 what I mean by that is, think of yourself 743 00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:11,230 as you're preaching of how does this sound 744 00:37:11,230 --> 00:37:15,030 in a sound bite. If a piece of what you're 745 00:37:15,030 --> 00:37:17,270 saying is ripped out of context, put 746 00:37:17,270 --> 00:37:18,870 together with other things, can someone 747 00:37:18,870 --> 00:37:22,370 make a highlight reel of inflammatory 748 00:37:22,370 --> 00:37:24,570 speech from the pulpit, that sort of 749 00:37:24,570 --> 00:37:26,140 thing. That would be some of what I'm 750 00:37:26,140 --> 00:37:28,550 talking about here, rhetorical velocity. A 751 00:37:28,550 --> 00:37:31,310 common sense, so this idea of census 752 00:37:31,310 --> 00:37:34,450 communis. So if digital media rearranges 753 00:37:34,450 --> 00:37:36,790 the sense ratios, how do we nudge this 754 00:37:36,790 --> 00:37:39,290 away, maybe from those digitally media 755 00:37:39,290 --> 00:37:41,520 environments toward common sense 756 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,660 interactions. That idea of re-remixing. 757 00:37:45,230 --> 00:37:48,060 And then the last one, very practical, but 758 00:37:48,060 --> 00:37:51,030 the ability we have to switch channels. 759 00:37:51,470 --> 00:37:52,900 And what I mean by that is switching 760 00:37:52,900 --> 00:37:57,370 medium or switching platforms. So just 761 00:37:57,370 --> 00:38:00,040 because an interaction begins on TikTok, 762 00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:03,410 it doesn't have to end there. And so an 763 00:38:03,410 --> 00:38:05,250 interaction on TikTok can lead to a text 764 00:38:05,250 --> 00:38:07,350 message, can lead to a face-to-face 765 00:38:07,350 --> 00:38:10,890 conversation. And just the idea that if a 766 00:38:10,890 --> 00:38:12,320 parishioner reaches out and says, I saw 767 00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:15,130 this video, that can then turn into, hey 768 00:38:15,130 --> 00:38:18,030 let's chat, let's have coffee, that sort 769 00:38:18,030 --> 00:38:22,070 of thing. Alright, so like I said, this is 770 00:38:22,070 --> 00:38:24,730 more of a conversation starter than it is 771 00:38:24,730 --> 00:38:28,140 a definitive word on any of this. But 772 00:38:28,140 --> 00:38:29,970 that's what I have for you all.