By Guest Contributor: Dustin Steeve
It is good that a ‘Great Books’ honors program should present a conference on new media. Though it may seem ironic, a classical education provides both the ability to understand the revolution that is occurring in media and the impetus to help lead it. As the coordinator of this year’s GodblogCon, I have found my classical education to be the most important ‘tool’ in my belt as I think through and plan out this year’s conference.
Recently I found myself engaged in a wonderful conversation with Ken Myers of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. What began as a phone call to encourage sponsorship in GodblogCon quickly became a conversation regarding right motivation for entering new media, the appropriate content for the form of new media, and the consequences of poorly employing new media. Though these questions pertain to very new mediums of communication, the questions themselves are rooted in understandings resulting from a knowledge of heritage, history, and big ideas.
Questions like these are not often considered in the ‘frenzy to be first’. Who in their heart does not aspire to be a visionary? Who in their heart does not desire to be known for being ahead of their time or for seeing real value in a thing where others did not? In a society where every new thing is preferred over every old thing, the ‘frenzy to be first’ to partake of new things often motivates the rapid rise of those new things. As a result, many new things that had the potential to be very good are not used well and do not endure.
Questions like the ones raised by Ken Myers must be considered in order to do a thing well. Take for example Myers’ final question regarding the consequence of not understanding the form of media and employing it poorly. If one does not understand the form of the medium they are working in or if they treat all mediums as though they were equal, then they will poorly employ the medium. All mediums are not the same and the ability to disseminate news, communicate an idea, or tell a story changes from medium to medium. A painting based on Dante’s Divine Comedy cannot tell the same story as the poem itself. Failure to take into account the form of the media with the function it serves results in poor communication. If one communicates poorly, one interacts with the world around them poorly. If the function of a form of mass media is used poorly, then communication within this mass media will be poor as a result. Clearly, this is not desirable.
Classical education provides one with both the questions and the ability to think through them. Although I cannot draw direct correlations between every big idea addressed in my classical education and every question surrounding the rise of new media, I can see that my ability to conceive of and wrestle with these questions is a direct result of my thinking through the classics. Where Plato broadly introduced me to forms and Aristotle to the idea of proper functions, questions pertaining to the form and function of new media found categories of understanding within which they could be considered. Where the Bible, Luther, Wesley and Edwards compel me to evangelize to culture, Emerson and Pericles help me more clearly think through the nature and power of clear, precise language in my message.
Will Socrates be at GodblogCon? Much to the heartbreak of GodblogCon speaker John Mark Reynolds, no he will not. However, influences from the questions and ideas he raised in my mind will be. The classical education I received from the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University has provided me with the right questions and ideas necessary to understand and engage new media well. I believe that these questions and ideas should influence my fellow Christians as we meet to discuss the form of this new media and how we can employ it well to impact culture for the cause of Christ. Should a great books program present a conference on new media technologies? Of course, there is nobody who is better equipped to do so.
Dustin Steeve is a candidate at the Torrey Honors Institute and a senior majoring in History and minoring in Bible at Biola University. Dustin is currently in his second year as coordinator of GodblogCon. To register or find out more information about GodblogCon, visit www.GodblogCon.com.
