After teaching an introductory course on media ecology at the college level for eighteen consecutive years, I place current authors into two camps: Those who do not regard new media as capable of being tamed (at least, not cold turkey), and those who believe it will take significant personal discipline to restrain them. Some of […]
Monday, 03 July, 2023 by T. David Gordon
If there were a silver lining to the dark cloud of the recent COVID-19 restrictions, it would be that we were compelled to think about our bodies: what to put on them, what to put in them, how proximate to other bodies to place them. COVID forced us to come to terms with our embodiment […]
Monday, 03 July, 2023 by T. David Gordon
For over a decade I have taught an introductory course on Media Ecology at Grove City College, and I have written two little books about worship that are profoundly informed by Media Ecology. To write on this topic interests me in a number of ways, not the least of which is the interesting lexical issue: […]
Wednesday, 30 April, 2014 by T. David Gordon
For a book written about media in 1985, Postman’s book is surprisingly relevant. When my students read it, I expect them to say something about how irrelevant it is to them, but they never say this; instead, they speak enthusiastically about how insightful and helpful it is. This is probably because laptops, iPads, and smartphones […]
Wednesday, 01 May, 2013 by T. David Gordon
In the 1980s, many evangelicals spoke about winning the world to Christ by the year 2000, and there were a number of conversations about the matter, all of which, in hindsight, appear to have been a tad ambitious. It was not uncommon in those days for a Gordon-Conwell Seminary student to raise a hand in […]
Tuesday, 01 November, 2011 by T. David Gordon
The editors of Modern Reformation have kindly asked me to write a bit about my new book Why Johnny Can’t Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers (P&R, 2009). The title is a double theft. The “Why Johnny Can’t” part is stolen from Rudolph Flesch, Why Johnny Can’t Read: And What You Can Do About […]
Tuesday, 01 September, 2009 by T. David Gordon
"Orthodoxy" now has a fairly clear definition. The church's historic creeds and confessions have continued to affirm the basic realities of the Apostles' Creed and Nicene Creed, and the respective communions have refined their own distinctives. The boundaries of orthodoxy, whether generically considered or considered within the church's respective branches, are fairly well established. We […]
Friday, 05 September, 2008 by T. David Gordon
The argument for the regulative principle main-tains that God has, in Scripture, revealed his zeal to direct his own worship. That it is contained in the Westminster Standards and reflected by the adherents of those standards in Scotland, England, and America is sufficient to warrant its observation by the Church. It is a mandate "from […]
Thursday, 05 July, 2007 by T. David Gordon
In light of the comparative dearth of historically and theologically informed studies of Reformed worship, one is inclined to welcome any contribution to the field that is characterized by both. R. J. Gore, Jr.’s most recent book is just that, although the book turns out to be more concerned with the subtitle than the title. […]
Tuesday, 15 May, 2007 by T. David Gordon
The question mark in the title of Schultze's book is not to be overlooked. Despite undoubtedly genuine efforts at fair-mindedness and overt statements directed against technophobes, this volume seriously questions the widespread use of presentation technologies in Christian worship today. Schultze rightly warns that technology tends to develop a life of its own, unrestrained by […]
Thursday, 03 May, 2007 by T. David Gordon
If someone had asked me a decade ago about the sufficiency of Scripture, I would have given a zealous defense of the historic Reformed position. I will do the same today; I still affirm the historic Reformed view without any variation from its expression in the Westminster Confession's first chapter: The whole counsel of God […]
Tuesday, 01 January, 2002 by T. David Gordon