Jeffrey S. Siker

Jeffrey Siker, a NT professor at Loyola Marymount University as well as an ordained minister in the PCUSA, has written what I would term a "meditation" on the impact of changing technologies on the meaning and use of Holy Scripture. On the whole, I would call the tone of the work cautionary rather than negative, though my sense is that, personally, Professor Siker mourns more than he celebrates the changes that he chronicles. However, for those who desire to consider the impact of modern technological culture on faith and religion, Siker's work is a critical reflection.
One key strength of the work is that Siker begins by tracing out the impact of earlier technological shifts on the meaning and use of Scripture…specifically, the shift from oral tradition to written codex to printed book. In fact, the work opens with a quotation from Johannes Gutenberg that is the inspiration for the book's title:

Yes, it is a press most certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams the most abundant and marvelous liquor that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of men! Through it, God will spread His word!"

That context is invaluable to anchor his later reflections on this latest technological evolution (from print to digital). He even includes a very helpful section on the science of reading, providing a non-technical summary of what neurology has taught us especially about the differences between reading paper books and digital screens (and there ARE important differences that impact/lower overall reading comprehension).
Another great strength is the study's breadth. Siker includes Bible study programs, the use of the Bible on social media (YouTube, Twitter, etc), audio Bibles, and even includes a separate reflection on changes in children's Bibles. It is in digital social media particularly, where Scripture is "liquefied," that is, "the Bible gets transformed from solid text to image and sound" (p. 183).
Finally, Siker works very hard to maintain a balanced tone; he does not want to sound hysterical, and, overall, he succeeds. He takes special note of some of the adaptive features of digital Bibles (e.g., zoom, text enlargement, and audio features) that allow people with visual disability to gain access to Scripture. However, there are concerns here that could be summarized as the loss of the "topography" or "geography" of Scripture. Early on, he notes that one very particular issue with digital platforms is the loss of the canonical context: on tablets and phones, one navigates directly to the target passage (say 1 Corinthians) rather than leafing through the pages of a print Bible and has no sense that 1 Corinthians follows Romans or that it is part of the Pauline corpus or, for that matter, that it is even in the New Testament!!! (Of course, most readers obviously do know those facts…but such contexts are all-but invisible in the digital environment.)
Thus, Scripture becomes fragmented into pieces that fit only on the phone or tablet or laptop screen. Also, Scripture is often drowned by the surrounding "paratext" (Siker's term) of hyperlinks to blogs and commentaries and video presentations and advertisements for "related" products. And that doesn't even touch the issue of access to literally HUNDREDS of versions. After reading Siker, though, I'm convinced that this "fragmentation" began in the age of print (especially with the addition of chapter and verse divisions) and has just been amplified by the digital shift. For me, this is another piece of evidence for my seminary professor's claim that what we call "postmodernity" is really just "MOST-modernity"…modernism pushed to its absolute limit. (It's not a "new" system at all but merely the implosion of the current system.)
One very minor critique is the book's final chapter on the major Bible study (Logos, Olive Tree, Accordance, etc). While it was very helpful and even-handed in its analysis of the various strengths and weaknesses of each program, it felt like the book had turned into some sort of weird infomercial, reminiscent of an "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" episode. And, unfortunately, this piece ends up dating what otherwise could be a pretty timeless work. He spends a segment of this chapter reviewing BibleWorks software; just this past summer, that company suddenly announced it was closing. So I read Siker's work as a kind of epitaph for the software I have used since I stared seminary in 2003.
This is not a book that is offering answers as much as it is framing important questions that get ignored because, on the whole, they are inconvenient, especially to churches and believers and traditions that stake their identity on being always "culturally-relevant." Because there is a piece of our "irrelevancy" that constitutes a core component of our witness to the world. And perhaps a part of that witness lies in a commitment to uphold and maintain "bound" Bibles in a liquid age.… (altro)