Acton Line brings you a conversation with theologians Darrell Bock and Jonathan Armstrong, and Dan Churchwell -- Acton’s director of program outreach. In this episode, they discuss the pros and cons of virtual reality and its impact on Christian worship.
Bock and Armstrong recognize that the world is changing faster each day as we discover new ways of navigating this seemingly infinite digital space. According to the World Economic Forum, we are entering into a Fourth Industrial Age. This age is characterized by a fusion of technologies that blur the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres. 
In their book, Virtual Reality Church, Bock and Armstrong layout a strategy on how to joyfully communicate the teachings of Jesus Christ through disruptive technologies in this new digital age. They examine how this can affect how we worship in person, but also how we can leverage virtual reality to evangelize the Christian faith where many are persecuted. Virtual Reality Church is a guide on how to integrate revolutionary technologies into our everyday Christian life to be better evangelizers. 
Virtual Reality Church 
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Darrell Bock and Jonathan Armstrong on virtual reality church

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The modern world is a busy and complicated place for Christians. Obligations to jobs, friends, and family, along with personal interests, frequently overshadow our relationship with Christ. 
In spite of all this, John Michael Talbot shows there are many ways to deepen a connection to Christ with a busy life. He's written 28 books, produced 59 music albums, and still maintains an active ministry from Little Portion Hermitage in Arkansas, where he teaches the importance of community living and finding inspiration in the Scriptures.
In this episode, Acton's director of research, John Pinheiro, speaks to John Michael about converting to Christianity, the choice to live the monastic life, and the challenges of following Christ in today’s world.
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John Michael Talbot
Late Have I Loved You | Troubadour

Finding Christ in a Busy World

When celebrated American novelist and short story writer Flannery O’Connor died at the age of 39 in 1964, she left behind an unfinished third novel titled, “Why Do the Heathen Rage?” Scholarly experts uncovered and studied the material, deeming it unpublishable. It stayed that way for 40 years. Until now.
For the past 10-plus years, award-winning author Jessica Hooten Wilson has explored the 378 pages of typed and handwritten material of the novel—transcribing pages, organizing them into scenes, and collating everything to provide a glimpse into what O’Connor might have planned to publish. “Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress” is the result.  
In this episode, Acton alumni and student programs manager Noah Gould speaks to Jessica Hooten Wilson about introducing O’Connor’s unfinished novel to the public for the first time.
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Why Do the Heathen Rage | Jessica Hooten Wilson
How Racist Was Flannery O'Connor? | The New Yorker
There the Story Stops: Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage? | Sally Thomas, RLO

Progress on a Work in Progress

There is no question today that new technology is changing the way we think about and experience work. Speculation abounds about how the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies will affect the workplace. Worries about machines replacing humans on the job are common. Others, however, are optimistic about the way AI is changing how we work—they see AI as an important tool to promote better efficiency and productivity in the workplace. How will AI change the way work is done? How will it affect the workforce? How will it affect the economy? 
To answer some of these questions and more, we bring you a panel discussion from our February Business Matters Conference. Acton’s director of programs and education, Dan Churchwell, leads Brent Orrell, Mark Johnson, and Máté Csak in a conversation looking to the future of work and the role disruptive technology will play in it.
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Business Matters 2024: Hope for Work and Enterprise | Acton On-Demand

AI, Disruptive Technology, and the Future of Work

Gertrude Himmelfarb was one of the foremost historians of Victorian life. She produced page-turning biographies of some of the age’s most intriguing and influential figures, including Lord Acton, Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, and George Eliot. She also produced social histories of the period and brought a Victorian sensibility to American politics as a leading conservative public intellectual.
In this episode, Acton librarian and research associate Dan Hugger speaks with Nicole Penn, author of an essay just published in National Affairs entitled “The Historian’s Craft,” which deftly explores the life and legacy of one of the conservative movement’s most accomplished women.
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The Historian's Craft | National Affairs
Middlemarch | George Eliot
The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments | Gertrude Himmelfarb
The Moral Imagination: From Adam Smith to Lionel Trilling: Gertrude Himmelfarb
Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals: Ronnie Grinberg
Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience and Politics | Gertrude Himmelfarb
The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age | Gertrude Himmelfarb
The New History and the Old: Critical Essays and Reappraisals, Rev. Ed. | Gertrude Himmelfarb
Glad to the Brink of Fear | Nicole Penn
A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870 | Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao | The Seen and the Unseen
Historian of the Liberal Paradox | Gertrude Himmelfarb
Remembering Gertrude Himmelfarb with Yuval Levin | Acton Line
Learning from Victorian Virtues | Interview with Gertrude Himmelfarb

The Historian's Craft: Gertrude Himmelfarb

Many Christian congregations now offer hybrid worship services: you can worship in person or online. While these options have become increasingly popular, our understanding of them has not kept pace. Furthermore, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence will only complicate matters further. The contemporary church needs a way to make sense of the dizzying influx of emerging technologies, practices, and possibilities.
In this episode, Acton director of programs and education Dan Churchwell talks to Rev. A Trevor Sutton, senior pastor of St. Luke Lutheran Church in Lansing, Michigan, and coauthor of “Redeeming Technology,” about hybrid worship, the effect AI will have on the church, and how to respond to concerns from laity and clergy alike.
AI and the Discipline of Human Flourishing | Religion & Liberty Online
Church in a Digital Age: Must We Worship Bodily to Worship at All?
‘Redeeming Technology’ | Concordia Publishing House 
Acton Lecture Series

Darrell Bock and Jonathan Armstrong on virtual reality church

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