How the Internet Impacted my Theology

Learning Digital Ministry in (spite of) Seminary

I am a geek.

I’m definitely a Bible geek, with a love for the deep cuts of Bible trivia and fond memories of trying to write my own Bible commentary back when I was in high school.

I’m a church geek, with knowledge on far too many things about the liturgical calendar and church history and why we do all these strange things every seven days or so.

And I’m just a geek geek, loving technology and video games, preferring Digimon to that mainstream Pokemon. And of course, there’s the fact that when I was in seminary learning Greek and Hebrew (required) I decided to teach myself HTML and CSS (geek). Because I was convinced these last two languages would probably be more helpful for the future of ministry in the church.

But more than just learning to dabble in HTML and CSS (which I probably know about as well as Greek and Hebrew — enough to know where to turn to parse a root stem or to modify a Wordpress plugin), learning to build my own corners of the internet instilled a value that has carried through to every aspect of my life, especially my theology.

I see the internet as a sandbox, a big space where we are all invited to play.

Sometimes we want to sit back and look at what others have made. But more than just consuming things online, we are invited to collaborate and create. We are free to build something, invite others to come and play, and knock it down whenever we feel the urge to start again.

By learning to write bits and pieces of the code that make up these online spaces, I was empowered to try and fail, to tinker and experiment, to explore and ask questions, and be a part of making a space rather than just accepting what was given to me.

And it was this posture that carried me through my time at seminary, inviting me to see theology the same way.

Theology is not just something we read, crafted by the experts in our past, but it is something we are all called to do, asking questions, poking holes, making new pieces for ourselves and the world we live in.

Theology is not fixed in the past but alive in the present and even changing in the future.

Theology is not about one voice or homogeneous group of voices telling us all what to think, as if “right thinking” was ever the way to salvation. Instead theology, like the internet, theology is about diverse voices and perspectives, all finding space to (finally) be heard.

And in the same breath of all the positives I found in the internet and theology, the dangers are equally present, as it can become an echo chamber that reinforces your own biases or leads you down a path of clickbait and conspiracies. (And yes, I am talking just as much about theology as I am the internet!)

I am grateful that I allowed my inner geek to stretch into the world around me, for all the ways it led me to learn new skills and languages, from web design to video editing and whatever else I hope to dabble in next, but most of all for the ways it empowers me to see theology and all of life as space to share, collaborate, and play in together.

As we step into a new year and a new presidential administration, we will need spaces to share, collaborate, and play together, maybe more than ever before. I hope that our theology continues to be diverse and generative, evolving and empowering, providing opportunities for everyone and everything in this world to flourish.

(Unless the AI takes over first. But that’s another theology for another day!)