More on Blogging and a New Reformation

Yesterday, I took my blogging life into my hands and dared to disagree with Hugh Hewitt's contention that blogging is a new reformation.  This was spurred on by Tim Challies review of Hugh's book.  A couple of good comments have come in that I thought were worth following up on.  In a comment here, Jeff Clinton from the Dawn Treader says:

That said, however, there is a special kind of shift taking place in the spreading of an idea. Blogging changes the rules about how an idea gets spread ... and the speed with which an idea gets spread ... and the reach of an idea. Blogging has made using the web to spread ideas incredibly easy. Most do not realize just how easy it is ... and that it is free.

Having just read the book "Tipping Point", the rise of blogging could be the environmental context needed to spread idea "epidemics" at mind blazing speeds.

And, Blogotional agrees and disagrees with me:

When it comes to the church, David is dead nuts on. Blogging cannot and will not produce a reformation -- that will require some new and appealing idea. I for one am not hoping for nor desire a reformation in the church, most of what I see developing in the church that is "new" is the kind of stuff the the reformation of the 16th century came about to combat.

However, on a purely political level, Hugh's analogy is not so unsound. the 16th century reformation changed politics forever, both in governments and in the ecclesiastical circles. The political potency of Rome prior to the reformation cannot be understated. Every king and potentate in the western world drew their authority from Rome. The reformation changed all that.

And:

I have yet to meet the perfect analogy. When pushed they all break down. Hugh's is no exception, but that does not invaildate its usefulness. In this case Hugh is right and David is right. Both of them should keep writing, and I am going to keep reading.

I'll split a hair with Blogotional and point out that it was the ideas of the reformation that changed th ecclesiastical and political landscape, not the printing press.  Again, the printing press was just a vehicle for spreading ideas.  But he is right that the advent of the printing press signalled something momentous.

I like Blogotional's last comment.  In my own review of Blog I was much more positive than Tim and I share Hugh's enthusiasm for blogging.  I am griping here about analogies and metaphors and Blogotional points out that there is no perfect analogy. 

Having said that, I think any reformation that comes in the future will be of an ideological character, be it theological, political or something else.  But, taking Jeff's and Blogotional's comments into account I do agree that blogging is symptomatic of a huge shift in the way ideas are spread.  And I do think that is what Hugh was getting at and I agree.

My only concern is that we keep our mental energies focused in the right direction and not get so infatuated with a technology that we are diverted from focusing on the big ideas.

Comments

[John Schroeder (Blogotional)]

Thanks for the trackback and discussions of my comments. You are abloslutely right about where we should focus our mental energies. But one of the things that make ideas take hold is those ideas being repeated over and over, the more bloggers, the more than will happen, Hugh is a drum beater, trying to make that work.

[brad]

Dave,
I personally have changed my blogging from blogging for reformation to blogging the reformation.
In other words, I do not think blogging can create a reformation but it can tell the story of a reformation that is happening and thereby spread the flame a bit.

As for the reality of a positive reformation happening, it certainly is. Church renewal that is back to basics in Christian practice is happening and there are some great writers that try to discuss what is happening. Learning has a pattern and it starts with observation and imitation, (i..e. an actual practice) and then that new story is analyzed. Blogging can do the analysis to make replication more attainable.
brad

[David Wayne]

Brad

"I personally have changed my blogging from blogging for reformation to blogging the reformation.
In other words, I do not think blogging can create a reformation but it can tell the story of a reformation that is happening and thereby spread the flame a bit."

Brilliant!!

[doderbeck]

I think Challies is right on with this review. I said pretty much the same thing when I reviewed the book in January on my blog here: http://www.davidopderbeck.com/archives/2005/01/hugh_hewitts_bl.html

[Terry]

I was surprised when I read a book on Gutenberg a few years back that he printed a Bible and indulgences. He made a lot of his money by printing the very thing that Martin Luther opposed. I also read some of the pamphlets that Luther and other reformers wrote. The movable type printing press was an instrument of both evil and good.

It seems the marriage of certain technologies and certain ideas at a certain point in history do bring leaps of change. One of those leaps of change has been the abundance of porn in our day. Stealing music has abounded. We can talk about the good things but technology brings power that can be good or bad.

Blogging is a new organization of something that has been on the Internet for quite some time, a discussion. E-mail, e-mail forwards, e-mail lists, forums, newsgroups, and such are all the sort of things that are happening in the blogdom. The difference is that people are refining what they say a little more. You blog keeps going because you have a vested interest in it, so it does not fizzle like newsgroups or forums do. It is written by you and people respond. With a subject driven newsgroup, people started noticing that sooner or later people were asking the same things, the reply to issues came back to refer to our FAQ section or read the **** manual. As a whole body of knowledge on the Internet got summed up as read the manual and the FAQ, it all fizzled. Instead of fizzling, you as a blogger just move on to something more interesting.

There are some interesting FAQ pages out there if you have not explored them.
http://home.earthlink.net/~bazillion/dg_faq.html
http://www.cybercom.net/~damish/backgammon/bg-faq.html
http://www.drpribut.com/sports/chessfaq.html
http://www.carp.net/faq/cfaq_1.htm

[Terry]

I have written some related ideas on my own blog.

http://pruittcommunications.blogspot.com/2005/03/bible-time-bible-software.html