Atla Annual 2022

Historically, when the codex replaced the scroll as the primary info-delivery device, particular modes of spirituality, novel means for spiritually forming and shaping adherents, like lectio divina, for example, emerged in response to new technology, i.e., the book. Today, info delivery is once again primarily mediated by the scroll, except that now we scroll glowing screens for illumination. In this new information ecosystem, misinformation and disinformation are rampant; conspiracy entities like QAnon 'crowdsource reality' by turning consumers into info mass-producers; and messaging is suffuse with appeal to salvation: save the children, save the election, save the nation, save your power and influence, all are being stolen from you. Such messaging instigated events on January 6, 2021, when the Capitol was awash with antisemitic and racist symbols and scarred with the indelible marks of Christian nationalism. In other words, consumption of mis-and disinformation and 'alternative reality' has profoundly shaped 'Christian' identity for many. In this info ecosystem, skills for media literacy (or better, media discernment) are a crucial spiritual discipline for spiritual formation; media literacy as a discipline emerges in response to a new technological reality where spirituality and community are mediated by screens.

 At Atla Annual 2022, I want to challenge participants to play with media discernment as crucial for spiritual formation. Among players who live, move, and have our being in a media-rich, info-saturated system, media discernment refers to a disposition of heart and requisite skills for critically attending to self and to others in love so that info consumption nourishes well-being. We wonder: is it possible that our use of media, or, perhaps, our use of these devices that mediate for us a knowing of good and evil and a tethering of self and other, is it possible that our use of media might initiate within us growth and maturity? Let's play!