Citation

Halt GP. Int. Rev. Missions 2008; 97(384‐385): 7-20.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Wiley-Blackwell)

DOI

10.1111/j.1758-6631.2008.tb00623.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Liberationist theologies gave rue to a re-emphasis on Christian life as being primarily historical life, and Christian spirituality as rooted in faithful and honest attention to the immediacy of historical reality. However, for many people living in media-saturated, overdeveloped societies, any distinction between actual reality and a mediated pseudo-reality is blurred. Another facet of life in a media-saturated context is that of being regularly confronted with impressions of destitution, violence and ecological degradation, whilst at the same time being further distanced from the realities represented through communications media and their ‘virtualizing’ tendency. This rapid change in our relation to reality has, I suggest, profound theological and missiological consequences. The ways in which electronic media have modified life, including religious life, are complex and varied. Consumption of electronic media does not seem to have replaced religion as such but it has tended to shape religious life in its own image. With particular reference to Slavoj Zizek's reading of “the Real” after “9/11”, I have attempted to sketch how some of these sweeping social and cultural changes may impact on the interpretation of Christian discipleship and mission. In the end, either the Christian life is vulnerable to potentially disruptive reality, or it is at risk of collapsing into a version of the pursuit of happiness mediated by and through late-capitalist culture.