![Hidden Power of Electronic Culture (05) by Hipps, Shane [Paperback (2006)]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31YOET3lMXL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
"The medium is the message" Marshall McLuhan famously declared in the 1960s. Like many of McLuhan's slogans, the meaning of "the medium is the message is not immediately apparent." To dumb down McLuhan considerably, he means that a medium (such as print, the telephone, or the Internet) is not just a container into which content is neutrally poured but that a given medium becomes a part of the message itself.
For this reason, everyone who's concerned about culture and especially about religious faith should also be concerned with how the various media are affecting our lives. As both a student of McLuhan and a Christian, Shane Hipps (a Mennonite pastor) offers his analysis of "How Technology Shapes Your Faith" in Flickering Pixels.
My overall impression, before I get to some useful details, is that Hipps makes us aware of the ways in which technology changes and effects us and does a fairly good job of applying some of McLuhan's principles to some of the media we use. His writing is, thankfully, clear and concise.
He also gets points for having done something that far too few writers do: he's related his understanding of technology to culture and faith. Far too many Christians blithely use the media available to them without giving any thought to the kind of habits and souls that their use of technology is forming in them.
Hipps also has scores some points by pointing out the ways in which technology can lead to isolation and individualism and rightly advocates that we remember the corporate and communal aspect of being Christian.
In fact, some of Hipps's best thinking occurs on this point: "If God's chosen medium for his message was the person of Jesus Christ, and the church is the body of Christ, that means God has chosen the church to extend his revelation in a special way" (p. 168). And also, "The church is simply an extension of the gospel. The church is a direct reflection of Jesus Christ. We are the message (p. 169).
Flickering Pixels is perhaps most effective in showing how the medium of print significantly changed the Christian (especially Protestantism) with regards to theology, the Bible, the Church, and, yes, even the church pew! Chapter 4 is particularly strong on this point (Chapter 8 is also useful).
So far, so good. On the downside, Hipps often doesn't present enough evidence. Maybe his writing and message has been affected by his contact with postmodern media because his anecdotal and elliptical evidence is suggestive but not conclusive.
Flickering Pixels also doesn't adequately deal with how to appropriately use such media as cell phones, the Internet, and others. It's one thing to slam immature uses of technology but it's even more important to teach about more mature uses of these same media. In Chapters 10 and 11 Hipps does deal with the importance of physical presence in relationships, but there's not enough extended discussion of such important issues.
For those who belong to a community of faith, Flickering Pixels has much food for thought. Hipps final words are appropriate ones to challenge us: "Go therefore, and be the message."
WARNING: Don't buy this book if you already have Hipps's The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture (and vice versa), since there's a lot of overlap between them and not much that's significantly different.
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