Devices and Desires

Is the Church essential? 

As churches grapple with government directives about when to open after the COVID-shutdown, we’re confronted with this question. 

We’re talking about whether the church is really essential: not just in light the COVID-19 pandemic, but also as it pertains to our secular age.

We sit down with Dr. Sam Cloud to discuss Anxiety in this day and age and what the church's response should be.

Dr. Cloud is an attending physician at the Erie County Medical Center, where he specializes in emergency medicine. He'll give us insights into how anxiety influences health outcomes, and how faith can impact that.

We'll take a look at the big picture about why our culture seems to produce higher anxiety than in the past, and how the church can be a beautiful witness in the midst of that.

What narratives for sexual relationships are affecting us in the 21st century?

How are those narratives failing us?

And what does it look like for the gospel to flourish in a sexually broken culture? For singles and for couples?

In this episode, we'll take a theological look at how God "made us male and female" so that the church can better live out a life of faith and flourishing.

Our main reference point is the book Divine Sex, by Jonathan Grant.

What's wrong with the nuclear family in the 21st century? What role does it play in the church and in the life of discipleship.

We're continuing to seek a sacred world in a secular age, and today we're following up on a point made at the end of our last episode on Smartphones. Namely, how have we changed the way intergenerational relationships work over the years? What are we doing wrong that we're not even seeing?

We're using a resource that made our heads turn immediately after recording the episode on smartphones:

"The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake," by David Brooks. The Atlantic, March 2020. 

How does technology affect the life of faith and discipleship in the 21st century?

Specifically, the use of mobile technology (Smartphones, wearable tech) makes our lives and minds a lot different than they were 15 years ago. What does this mean for us theologically? Practically?

We'll engage in particular with two resources:

1. "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?" by Jean Twenge. The Atlantic, Sep. 2017.

2. Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon, by David Kinnaman & Mark Matlock. (2019) This book recaps extensive statistical research by the Barna Group.

Welcome to Devices & Desires. We're seeking a sacred world in a secular age, and looking deeply into the life of faith in today's culture.

We all long for something. As St. Augustine wrote, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." But rather than despair, we see within the cracks of our culture an opportunity for the Gospel to spring forth, bringing new life to the surface. Our hope is that you will track with us on this journey, and, to start out on the right foot, we're using this first episode to cast our vision and explain some interesting terms.

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