A digest of three things to help you engage with God, neighbor, and culture.
The Medicated Soul
Matthew Loftus
Living and working as a doctor among the urban poor in Baltimore, Maryland, Matthew Loftus thinks a lot about mental illness. Loftus is a Christian and this article points out two dangerous approaches he's encountered in his work: "the scientific approach" which assumes there is a pill to solve every problem, and a certain "Christian" approach which assumes that all mental illness is purely spiritual. Both of these approaches miss the mark in their failure to realize that we are both physical and spiritual creatures. This article explores the implications of this deeply Christian claim.
Echoes of Exodus
Alastair Roberts
The exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt is one of the most important events in the Bible, but the whole Bible is a book of many exoduses hiding in plain sight. To see this, we must approach the Bible more like a great piece of music than an instruction manual.
In this stimulating lecture, Alastair Roberts presents "a musical reading of scripture" with the exodus as the Bible's primary musical theme, often subtly stated but many times bold and unmissable. This talk will help open your ears and imagination to the rich, beautiful, and unexpected harmonies of the Bible. It will also give you a greater appreciation for the work of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection is the most glorious crescendo of scripture's music and the greatest exodus of all—both for him and for all who trust in him.
Plug in your headphones, grab a Bible, and hear the music.
For a deeper dive, check out Alastair's book Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption Through Scripture (co-authored with Andrew Wilson).
Tech Pioneer Jaron Lanier Talks
Social Media
"Social media hates your soul. ... It’s a religion that’s completely lacking in empathy or any kind of personal acknowledgment. And it’s a bad religion. It’s a nerdy, empty, sterile, ugly, useless religion that’s based on false ideas."
You wouldn't expect to hear this from one of world's most renowned technologists and one the original creators of virtual reality, but this is the surprising claim of Silicon Valley pioneer Jaron Lanier. Armed with the planet's most spellbining dreadlocks, Lanier is on a crusade to get you to delete your social media accounts right now. This is the topic of his new book and he's been on the interview circuit this summer to explain how our social media platforms will remain deeply flawed so long as they are built on an advertising model that relentlessly harvests user attention for monetary gain. Lanier is no technophobe, though. He knows the dark side of technology, but he also offers some substantial hope that the social media of the future could be better than what we have today.
Give Jaron Lanier twenty minutes of your time—and Google him for more!