- Feb 5, 2002
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Expel from him (her) every evil and unclean spirit which hides and makes its lair in his (her) heart. Priest: The spirit of deceit, the spirit of evil, the spirit of idolatry and of every 4 covetousness; the spirit of falsehood and of every uncleanness, which operates through the prompting of the devil. And make him (her) a reason-endowed sheep in the holy flock of Thy Christ, an honorable member of Thy Church, a consecrated vessel, a child of the light and an heir of Thy Kingdom, that having lived in accordance with Thy commandments, and preserved inviolate the seal, and kept his (her) garment undefiled, he (she) may receive the blessedness of the Saints in Thy Kingdom. (From the Orthodox baptism rite)
The name of this Substack project is “Rational Sheep.” I am told that, in the original Greek, that’s “probaton logikon” — but that’s above this mass-media professor’s paygrade. In some Orthodox Christian rites this is translated as “reason-endowed sheep,” but that doesn’t work very well in a headline.
The key is that these sheep can communicate, with some degree of reason, and they are following their Shepherd. For the purposes of this project we will assume that they can read and use devices with digital screens.
But let’s jump in a time machine, flash back to 1990, and consider the academic adventure that is at the heart of Rational Sheep. I am referring to my leap from a mainstream newspaper to Denver Seminary, where I worked with the late Haddon Robinson on a project (it failed, in the end) to study the many ways that mass-media (think movies, television, music, news, etc.) shape the environment in which pastors, counselors, church-planters, youth ministers and others work. My academic title was Communicator on Culture.
Early on, I set up a large bulletin board in the lobby outside the auditorium and main classrooms and began filling it with articles from magazines and newspapers. These clips pointed to trends in popular culture and news and that I thought seminary students and professors would need to see. Note: This was the cable-television age, but we knew (see George Gilder’s “Life After Television” in 1990) that the World Wide Web and hand-held screens loomed ahead.
One morning, I arrived for work and discovered that someone had destroyed the bulletin board, scattering push-pins and shredded articles all over the lobby. This person left no note and never told anyone at Denver Seminary why they did what they did (or this was not communicated to me). We took down the offensive board.
What was going on and what does this have to do with Rational Sheep?
Continued below.
The name of this Substack project is “Rational Sheep.” I am told that, in the original Greek, that’s “probaton logikon” — but that’s above this mass-media professor’s paygrade. In some Orthodox Christian rites this is translated as “reason-endowed sheep,” but that doesn’t work very well in a headline.
The key is that these sheep can communicate, with some degree of reason, and they are following their Shepherd. For the purposes of this project we will assume that they can read and use devices with digital screens.
But let’s jump in a time machine, flash back to 1990, and consider the academic adventure that is at the heart of Rational Sheep. I am referring to my leap from a mainstream newspaper to Denver Seminary, where I worked with the late Haddon Robinson on a project (it failed, in the end) to study the many ways that mass-media (think movies, television, music, news, etc.) shape the environment in which pastors, counselors, church-planters, youth ministers and others work. My academic title was Communicator on Culture.
Early on, I set up a large bulletin board in the lobby outside the auditorium and main classrooms and began filling it with articles from magazines and newspapers. These clips pointed to trends in popular culture and news and that I thought seminary students and professors would need to see. Note: This was the cable-television age, but we knew (see George Gilder’s “Life After Television” in 1990) that the World Wide Web and hand-held screens loomed ahead.
One morning, I arrived for work and discovered that someone had destroyed the bulletin board, scattering push-pins and shredded articles all over the lobby. This person left no note and never told anyone at Denver Seminary why they did what they did (or this was not communicated to me). We took down the offensive board.
What was going on and what does this have to do with Rational Sheep?
Continued below.
