How Medium Affects Message

Cafedave ponders how the medium in which he reads the Bible affects his response to the biblical text:

I’ve noticed, though, that depending on what method I’m using to get the Bible content

• feed-reader program—mostly used for scanning large numbers of short articles
• browser—speed reading longer articles
• web print-out—usually used for articles that are interesting, but don’t need to be pondered
• small Bible that fits in my work bag—small print, usually used to check a few verses, not read long slabs of the Bible
• big Bible that is kept in a bible cover—used for everyday reading, and also for Bible study and sermon preparation

my attitude to the exact same words is slightly different. There’s a greater sense of reverence that comes from picking up a book and reading it than any of the other methods.

We’d add a Bible program (like Logos) to the list. We imagine in that case that you intend to look at passages more in-depth than you might in other media.

And that only covers visual media. Consider the different ways you can experience a Bible audibly:

• hearing a recording on an iPod
• hearing a recording on CD
• hearing a recording at your computer
• hearing a live person read it in church
• hearing a family member read it during devotions
• reading it aloud yourself
• pondering the different emphases that different readers give to the text. For example, you could listen to Marquis Laughlin and Max McLean read the same passage to you at the ESV Online Edition. You’d come away with a slightly different take after hearing each one.

Note: we adjusted some punctuation and capitalization in the quote.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2006 at 4:53 pm and is filed under General. Both comments and pings are currently closed.