By Tyler McKenzie
“WHAT DOES A POST-LITERATE CULTURE LOOK LIKE?”
Growing up in a Christian Church, it was hammered into me, “We are a people of The Book!” “No creed but Christ! No book but the Bible!” After thirty-nine years, I am grateful for this faith foundation! But can the “People of the Book” still be the “People of the Book” if we stop reading altogether?
Alan Noble recently posted an article on his Substack called “What Does a Post-Literate Culture Look Like?” He cites research that shows reading for pleasure has fallen to only 16% in 2023. Colleges are assigning far less reading to students. Parents are offloading bedtime stories to AI. Noble goes on to ponder what sort of epistemological crisis awaits a modern culture that chooses not to read.
I would argue that it’s not just that we don’t read, it’s what we’ve traded reading out for. Reading has long been our primary medium of learning and forming ideas of what is true and good. What happens when the dominant medium of information becomes social media sound bites, short-form videos, and sensationalized newsreels curated by scheming algorithms?
Can we still call ourselves the “People of the Book”:
- When we choose influencers over authors?
- When we choose broadcasters over Bible Study?
- When we choose hot-take commentators over slow-bake contemplation?
INFLUENCERS OVER AUTHORS
James K. A. Smith once argued that attention-giving is an act of worship because whatever we give our attention to shapes us at our core. This not only includes the thinkers that we give our attention to but also the mediums. The dominant medium of communication in a society will also shape people. So, when the main mediums of communication in a society are hyper-stimulated smart screens with an agenda:
- How do our habits of interpersonal engagement change?
- What happens to our emotional reflexes?
- What becomes of our collective wisdom?
- What does it do to our ability to think biblically?
The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a sad but telling case study. Mr. Kirk was not a denominational leader or global politician. He was the founder of a nonprofit with strong opinions about politics and a massive online following. What does it say about our society when the targets for violence become online influencers? Last November, CNN reported that one-fifth of U.S. adults get their news from influencers, and that number climbs to nearly 40% among young people. Their reporting was based on Pew Research Center’s “Social Media and News Fact Sheet.” Pew found that over half of U.S. adults (53%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media.
In a 2019 column in the New York Times called, “Don’t Scoff at Influencers. They’re Taking Over the World,” Kevin Roose wrote, “When the first TikTok star is elected president, I hope she will save some room in her cabinet for older and more conventional bureaucrats, even if they don’t have millions of followers, great hair or amazing dance moves. I say ‘when,’ not ‘if’ ….” Based on the growing power online personalities have, Roose may be right. Influencers are the future. One of the most frantically discussed strategies of the Democratic Party is countering the online clout of the G.O.P. Millions of dollars are being thrown at finding their version of “the next Joe Rogan.”
RECOVERING OUR BOOKISH HERITAGE
Historic Christianity has quite the resume when it comes to being … bookish. Andreas Kostenberger and Michael Kruger, two New Testament historians, argue that the first two centuries of Christians were world leaders in book technology. When Christianity came along, people mostly wrote on scrolls made from sheets of papyrus or parchment pasted together in a long strip. Writing was done on the inside of the scroll, so that when it was rolled up the words were protected. This could be terribly inconvenient, especially if you wanted to read the last chapter of a long scroll. And wouldn’t you know it, once Jesus did! In Luke 4, he preached from Isaiah 61!
As Christianity spread, they had long Gospels and letters they wanted to circulate together. They needed a more convenient technology. So, they developed the codex which, in contrast, was created by taking a stack of papyrus or parchment leaves, folding them in half, and binding them at the spine. This format allowed for the traditional leaf book with writing on both sides of each page. In The Heresy of Orthodoxy: How Contemporary Culture’s Fascination with Diversity has Reshaped our Understanding of Early Christianity, Kostenberger and Kruger write:
It is now well established among modern scholars that early Christians not only preferred the codex instead of the (sc)roll, but they did so at a remarkably early point. Various manuscript discoveries indicate that the codex was the widely established Christian practice by the early second century, if not late in the first. … It was not until the late fourth century and beyond that the rest of the ancient world began to prefer the codex to the (sc)roll. … The dominant use of the codex reveals a Christian scribal culture able to forge a new literary path by employing a revolutionary book technology that would eventually come to dominate the entire Greco-Roman world.
From there, the “People of the Book” continued to preserve, copy, and circulate their sacred texts. Eventually, they would be leading advocates for universal literacy. To be clear, literacy is not a condition of salvation (or even spiritual maturity), but there is a longstanding belief that the Bible is actually God’s Word. Therefore, the more we meditate on it and surrender to its truth, the better.
I love how Tim Mackie and The Bible Project has popularized the Hebrew Bible as “ancient meditation literature.” The idea is that the canonical Old Testament was intentionally written and organized to be pondered over time. Psalm 1 is a classic passage here! It shows us what the ideal Bible reader looks like.
Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.
Every day for the rest of your life, if you read and ponder, read and ponder, read and ponder, something divine will happen. The Bible will start to read you, and the eternal truths will become a part of your root system. You become a riverbank tree that thrives, no matter the season.
To summarize the words of the Psalmist, What do you meditate on day and night? What voices do you listen to? What stories are they telling you? What sort of life are they converting you to? What mediums are they using? Is your imagination being colonized by algorithms and influencers in a dizzying frenzy or is it being formed by the prophets and apostles over a lifelong journey? The church must become a counterculture in our post-literate time. The church can model a slower, more contemplative, discerning, and wise way … but only if we remain the “People of the Book.” but only if we remain the “People of the Book.”
Tyler McKenzie serves as lead pastor at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
Love this!