Three reasons are given: First, the volume of essays submitted for publication has significantly declined. Why? “Essays get published immediately on the internet on websites and blogsites.” Second, they have other projects to pursue. But it is the third that I draw attention to here.
“…that British society (possibly even Western society generally) is becoming semi-literate. The number of people who can be reached by intelligent literature is declining drastically. …we no longer have: a literate society.”Perk relates a couple of examples of this sad reality. One is as follows: “…when I recently tried to organise a non-fiction reading group, I was told by one person whom I approached as a possible member of the group: “I got through college without reading any books, why should I start now?”
As he draws his thoughts to a close, he makes this observation:
“If we do communicate the message of the gospel effectively to our society in a way that most people can understand, and the result is the re-Christianising of the nation, this will eventually produce a literate society, because wherever Christianity has gone this has been the result. Christianity is a religion of the book.”Is he right? Christianity is certainly the religion of the Book. And it is certainly the case since the Reformation, fueled in part by the fruit of Gutenberg’s movable type, that literacy has been tied to Christian education and missions. It is evidenced in the Bible translation work of global missions.
But communication media have changed, and not for the first time. The oral society gave way to the literate. The literate society has given way to the broadcast society. And now the broadcast society is yielding to the rise of the digital. Rex Miller has explored these changes in The Millenial Matrix.
Where will this lead? How will it impact not only the spread of the gospel (in relation to the breadth of its reach) but the embrace of the gospel (the depth of its influence on lives and society)?
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