You can't escape the fact that we live in a high tech world. If people, who lived as recently as a hundred years ago, could visit our time their response our technology would probably be one of bewilderment. They would find themselves totally out of touch with the way things are done in our world. Words like "online," "twitter," and "facebook" would mean nothing to them. If you gave them cell phones, they would probably ask "What do we do with these?" They would probably also be shocked to see how all this technology has changed morality and altered family values. Of course they're not coming to visit us, but we have our own level of confusion. In this issue we review a significant book to help us sort out the blessings and curses of the electronic age.

Norman

John Dyer. From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel. 2011. pb. 191 pages

When I first received my copy of From the Garden to the City, I really wasn't sure I wanted to review the book. For one thing, the picture on the cover misled me. It depicts a USB cord growing out of a plant. Then there was the title - . I didn't pay that much attention to the subtitle other than to observe that it said something about technology. I thought maybe it was going to be a book about how to use the computer to do a better job of raising vegetables and flowers. Besides that, I wondered if it had anything to do with families, and we only review materials that have some application to families. So I put it aside meaning to take a closer look later on.

Shortly thereafter, Ann picked it up and said, "You really need to read this book." She was right and I was wrong about all of my assumptions. In the first place there's the title, From the Garden to the City. The metaphor is taken from Jacques Ellul's book, The Meaning of the City. Dyer writes "Ellul wrote that in building the first city, Cain was attempting to set up an alternative to the Garden of Eden" (76-77). That's why Dyer addresses the subject under the title From the Garden to the City." Secondly, I should have paid more attention to the subtitle. The author is not against technology, but he is aware that it has the potential for a corrupting influence on our culture, our church - and guess what? Our families too.

John Dyer directs WEB development at Dallas Theological Seminary. To say that he's high tech savvy is an understatement. He's also an excellent Bible student and theologian. He has a unique grasp of the manner in which human communication takes place in our culture.

It's important for the reader to understand Dyer's definition of technology. As the term is currently used it has four different meanings

"
1. the skill of making things,
2. the study of the skill of making things,
3. the tools used to make those things, and
4. the things made with these tools" (58).

Dyer considers Adam and Eve the initiators of technology. They made the first set of clothes, but then he suggests that God provided the first technology upgrade by making "brand-new-state-of-the-art animal skins." He cleverly inserts the vocabulary of current technology to describe Biblical events. He suggests that God "rebooted" the world after the flood.

Working with his definition of technology he traces the history of "making." He skillfully weaves Biblical events into the story, especially the Old Testament. Even so, his discussion of technology goes far beyond drawing parallels between Biblical events and the current technological revolution.

He takes a careful look at the way ideas, values, and ethics are communicated in a high tech world. He relies heavily on the works of Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman. He goes back to McCluhan's famous phrase, "The medium is the message." He explains, "What he meant was that the transformative effect of a technology is so powerful that it often overshadows what we say or do with that medium" (38). He illustrates the power of the medium with a story about signing up for two WEB services on the same day. The first service sent back a pre-written "thank you" via e-mail. The second sent a handwritten note of appreciation. While the message was the same, the handwritten note suggested a high level of appreciation. The medium - hand written note - was part of the message.

He's not suggesting that we cancel our online services, get rid our cell phones, and smart phones. Electronic communication obviously speeds up the process of communication, but there's also something lost. Writing a hand written note and taking it to the mail box is much slower and more difficult than sending a text message, but lost in that process is the ability to communicate deeper meaning. Electronic communication is not always people sensitive. It's easy to respond to an e-mail message that you don't like with sarcasm and insensitivity. You may say things you would never say to a person's face, but the hurt runs deep when it is inflicted in this impersonal manner.

Let's talk about how it affects families. Dyer describes a family that came to the United States from another culture and a different language. They learn English, but not the way their children do. English will always be the second language to people from the old country. It will be the primary language for their children. Similarly, we have two different kinds of people who understand technology, and they are often in the same home. There are digital natives (the younger generation) and digital immigrants (the older generation).

I'm a father, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather. I'm reasonably technological savvy for a man in his seventies, but when I'm around my children and grandchildren, they are texting with the speed of lighting. I don't even own a cell phone with a keyboard on it. Besides that they use a shorthand, which looks like a foreign language to me. That's not necessarily bad, but it does mean that we have to work harder at communicating with each other.

So what are the corrupting influences of technology? We're all aware of the negative impact of musical lyrics, and the way they impact our moral standards. However, it doesn't stop there. There's the problem of social isolation. Dyer wants to know if we can really call the contemporary church a community. He points to the fact that high tech devices are now part and parcel of nearly every church community. That's not without its problems. I sat in a class at a conference not too long ago. The facilitator had entered his notes into an electronic device. Halfway through his presentation, the battery died and the poor guy had to wing it from there on. But isolation, whether it be in the church, the family, or the community is a bigger problem than technological breakdowns.

` Finally Dyer warns that technology has the power to encourage the flesh, and that's a big problem in a world where we are inclined to sin and selfishness. He adds, "Christians who live God-honoring lives in the digital world are those who can discern the tendencies built into all technology and then decide when those tendencies are in line with godly values, when those tendencies are damaging to the soul" (96).

I highly recommend John Dyer's book. I've marked it up and made notes, and plan to examine pertinent sections again. It's Biblical, practical, in touch with today's culture, and highly readable. As an added bonus he provides the reader with an index, which is most helpful when you want to go back and look at specific comments. In his introduction Dyer writes, "This book is my attempt to grapple with those (technological) changes and understand how we can fulfill our role as God's image-bearers in a world very far removed from the garden" (17). I would say he succeeded to a remarkable degree.

Norman Bales
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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