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Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News
"Reading the morning newspaper is the realist's morning prayer."--G. W. F. Hegel
Whenever we reach for our phones or scan a newspaper to get "caught up," we are being not merely informed but also formed. News consumption can shape our sense of belonging, how we judge the value of our lives, and even how our brains function. Christians mustn't let the news replace prayer as Hegel envisioned, but neither should we simply discard the daily feed. We need a better understanding of what the news is for and how to read it well. Jeffrey Bilbro invites readers to take a step back and gain some theological and historical perspective on the nature and very purpose of news. In Reading the Times he reflects on how we pay attention, how we discern the nature of time and history, and how we form communities through what we read and discuss. Drawing on writers from Thoreau and Dante to Merton and Berry, along with activist-journalists such as Frederick Douglass and Dorothy Day, Bilbro offers an alternative vision of the rhythms of life, one in which we understand our times in light of what is timeless. Throughout, he suggests practices to counteract common maladies tied to media consumption in order to cultivate healthier ways of reading and being. When the news sets itself up as the light of the world, it usurps the role of the living Word. But when it helps us attend together to the work of Christ--down through history and within our daily contexts--it can play a vital part in enabling us to love our neighbors. Reading the Times is a refreshing and humane call to put the news in its place.
Whenever we reach for our phones or scan a newspaper to get "caught up," we are being not merely informed but also formed. News consumption can shape our sense of belonging, how we judge the value of our lives, and even how our brains function. Christians mustn't let the news replace prayer as Hegel envisioned, but neither should we simply discard the daily feed. We need a better understanding of what the news is for and how to read it well. Jeffrey Bilbro invites readers to take a step back and gain some theological and historical perspective on the nature and very purpose of news. In Reading the Times he reflects on how we pay attention, how we discern the nature of time and history, and how we form communities through what we read and discuss. Drawing on writers from Thoreau and Dante to Merton and Berry, along with activist-journalists such as Frederick Douglass and Dorothy Day, Bilbro offers an alternative vision of the rhythms of life, one in which we understand our times in light of what is timeless. Throughout, he suggests practices to counteract common maladies tied to media consumption in order to cultivate healthier ways of reading and being. When the news sets itself up as the light of the world, it usurps the role of the living Word. But when it helps us attend together to the work of Christ--down through history and within our daily contexts--it can play a vital part in enabling us to love our neighbors. Reading the Times is a refreshing and humane call to put the news in its place.
200 pages, Hardcover
Published June 8, 2021
37 people are currently reading
762 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
August 16, 2021
This one really spoke to me at this moment in my life, while I have been wrestling with how (or whether) I should be consuming and evaluating the news (and media in general for that matter), which seems to be deliberately turning people against one another.
Beginning with Thoreau’s admonishment to “Read not the Times. Read the Eternities,” Bilbro draws wisdom from scripture, science, and other thinkers to chart a path away from vitriol and division and toward love and community. I’ve likely made this sound saccharine and cliché, but I found this book to be exceptionally clear-eyed and rewarding.
One of my favorites of the year. 5 stars.
Beginning with Thoreau’s admonishment to “Read not the Times. Read the Eternities,” Bilbro draws wisdom from scripture, science, and other thinkers to chart a path away from vitriol and division and toward love and community. I’ve likely made this sound saccharine and cliché, but I found this book to be exceptionally clear-eyed and rewarding.
One of my favorites of the year. 5 stars.
May 12, 2021
With our constant barrage of breaking news, how can we better understand how to navigate it? In Reading the Times, Jeffrey Bilbro takes us on a literary and theological inquiry into the news.
At just about 200 pages, the book is divided into three sections that show how the news impacts our experience of attention, time, and community. Bilbro writes with cutting clarity, looking at different philosophers and theories to help us see the news with open eyes.
The Idolatry of Headlines
I was most interested in how the news can be an idol. This book is an obvious product of a post-Trump era, and I was moved to repent of my practices as I saw how I am constantly tethered to headlines. I saw how packaged news does not allow us to think critically and interact with it in thoughtful ways. We lose precision and nuance with the way we consume.
Distant news leads to disordered love. One way to counteract this consumerism is to read the news in divine light. Bilbro shows us how the blessed man as a rooted tree reminds us to be rooted in Scripture. We can be tied to eternal truths. We should not ask whether we are on the “right side of history.” Rather, we should seek to see how we can participate in the drama of God’s ongoing redemption of creation.
Keep Your Eyes on the Eschatological Horizon
Do we find the significance of our lives within the context of our news feeds? Reading the times against an eschatological horizon helps us look to God’s ongoing and future redemptive work.
Longing for attachment reveals a deeper problem of loneliness. The Internet and Social Media changes the way we view communities. Don’t place your belonging primary in the public sphere of the news and current events, but see yourself as belonging to the family of God that exists across space and time.
Liturgies for Reading the News
Bilbro presents us with different liturgies to help us train our minds. To better pay attention, we can read with eternity in mind and learn a craft. Calibrating our rhythms to the liturgical calendar and meditating on art keyed to kairos helps us better steward our time. To better our community, we can diversify our newsfeed, practice “faithful joining” with our neighbors, and support redemptive publishing. The simple practice of taking a walk will help us reorient, and we can show support and change our habits by aspirationally subscribing to different publications.
The book concludes on a positive note. We don’t have to give up on the news. It can often act as an indispensable guide in the way we faithfully enact God’s plan of redemption in our particular space and time. Seeking to love our neighbors and to love God is a more excellent way to read the news. And if we can do that, it makes the news worth reading.
I received a media copy of Reading the Times and this is my honest review.
At just about 200 pages, the book is divided into three sections that show how the news impacts our experience of attention, time, and community. Bilbro writes with cutting clarity, looking at different philosophers and theories to help us see the news with open eyes.
The Idolatry of Headlines
I was most interested in how the news can be an idol. This book is an obvious product of a post-Trump era, and I was moved to repent of my practices as I saw how I am constantly tethered to headlines. I saw how packaged news does not allow us to think critically and interact with it in thoughtful ways. We lose precision and nuance with the way we consume.
Distant news leads to disordered love. One way to counteract this consumerism is to read the news in divine light. Bilbro shows us how the blessed man as a rooted tree reminds us to be rooted in Scripture. We can be tied to eternal truths. We should not ask whether we are on the “right side of history.” Rather, we should seek to see how we can participate in the drama of God’s ongoing redemption of creation.
Keep Your Eyes on the Eschatological Horizon
Do we find the significance of our lives within the context of our news feeds? Reading the times against an eschatological horizon helps us look to God’s ongoing and future redemptive work.
Longing for attachment reveals a deeper problem of loneliness. The Internet and Social Media changes the way we view communities. Don’t place your belonging primary in the public sphere of the news and current events, but see yourself as belonging to the family of God that exists across space and time.
Liturgies for Reading the News
Bilbro presents us with different liturgies to help us train our minds. To better pay attention, we can read with eternity in mind and learn a craft. Calibrating our rhythms to the liturgical calendar and meditating on art keyed to kairos helps us better steward our time. To better our community, we can diversify our newsfeed, practice “faithful joining” with our neighbors, and support redemptive publishing. The simple practice of taking a walk will help us reorient, and we can show support and change our habits by aspirationally subscribing to different publications.
The book concludes on a positive note. We don’t have to give up on the news. It can often act as an indispensable guide in the way we faithfully enact God’s plan of redemption in our particular space and time. Seeking to love our neighbors and to love God is a more excellent way to read the news. And if we can do that, it makes the news worth reading.
I received a media copy of Reading the Times and this is my honest review.
Want to read
August 5, 2022
July 15, 2021
For the last dozen years I have consistently avoided the news, and I feel I am a calmer, even better informed person for it. In the spirit of Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Jeffrey Bilbro goes even deeper in his literary, social, and theological analysis.
Bilbro hits his stride in Part Two with his penetrating comments on time. That may seem especially theoretical, but it makes all the difference whether we are beholden to chronos time (chronology; quantitative clock time) or kairos time (often defined as qualitative moments of significance). The news is imprisoned by chronos. It isolates and disconnects events from their meaning and leaves us barren.
The author goes even further, saying that with kairos time “history’s true meaning emerges in the light of Christ’s life.” Our lives are not empty, trivial moments that are doomed to be forgotten centuries and millennia hence. Rather, quoting Paul Griffiths, “the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus lie at the heart of time. . . . Time is contracted by these events, pleated and folded around them, gathered by them into a tensely dense possibility” (p. 90). Every laugh, every tear, every act of love is caught up in the kairos of Christ for eternity. Death is defeated. In Christ, nothing is lost.
How do we apply all this to the dilemma of our current hyper-contentious news environment? Bilbro, perhaps surprisingly, critiques the conventional wisdom that we need more fact checking and that we need to diversify our news feeds. I’ll let you read the book to find out why, but here’s a hint: it has to do with forming community.
In this way Bilbro offers more ways forward than Postman. “Instead of allowing the news to create our communities, Christians should seek to help their communities create the news” (p. 145). This can begin with the simple act of walking our neighborhoods rather than isolating ourselves in cars or behind screens. On another level we can, for example, pursue redemptive publishing by reading, he suggests, things like Civil Eats, American Conservative, The Atlantic, Commonweal, Hedgehog Review and more.
This book is so much more than about the news. It is a rich and profound book about life. And you can easily find the time to read it with all the free time you will have from not following the news.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My opinions are my own.
Bilbro hits his stride in Part Two with his penetrating comments on time. That may seem especially theoretical, but it makes all the difference whether we are beholden to chronos time (chronology; quantitative clock time) or kairos time (often defined as qualitative moments of significance). The news is imprisoned by chronos. It isolates and disconnects events from their meaning and leaves us barren.
The author goes even further, saying that with kairos time “history’s true meaning emerges in the light of Christ’s life.” Our lives are not empty, trivial moments that are doomed to be forgotten centuries and millennia hence. Rather, quoting Paul Griffiths, “the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus lie at the heart of time. . . . Time is contracted by these events, pleated and folded around them, gathered by them into a tensely dense possibility” (p. 90). Every laugh, every tear, every act of love is caught up in the kairos of Christ for eternity. Death is defeated. In Christ, nothing is lost.
How do we apply all this to the dilemma of our current hyper-contentious news environment? Bilbro, perhaps surprisingly, critiques the conventional wisdom that we need more fact checking and that we need to diversify our news feeds. I’ll let you read the book to find out why, but here’s a hint: it has to do with forming community.
In this way Bilbro offers more ways forward than Postman. “Instead of allowing the news to create our communities, Christians should seek to help their communities create the news” (p. 145). This can begin with the simple act of walking our neighborhoods rather than isolating ourselves in cars or behind screens. On another level we can, for example, pursue redemptive publishing by reading, he suggests, things like Civil Eats, American Conservative, The Atlantic, Commonweal, Hedgehog Review and more.
This book is so much more than about the news. It is a rich and profound book about life. And you can easily find the time to read it with all the free time you will have from not following the news.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My opinions are my own.
August 17, 2021
Really good. Need more books like this.
May 21, 2021
Summary: A discussion of what Christian faithfulness looks like as we engage the news, focusing on our practices of attention, our awareness of the time we are in, and the communities of which we are part.
We are in what some have called an epistemic crisis, particularly as it pertains to the news. We have more access to news media than ever on broadcast and cable TV, print and online publications and stories that pervade our social media feeds. Yet we are less confident than ever in the veracity of these sources and so we turn to those that our particular “tribe” favor. Jeffrey Bilbro comes at this slant. Eschewing the traditional advice (that has even appeared on this blog) of fact-checking and diversifying our news sources, Bilbro proposes a different theological framework for how we engage with the news.
First of all, he considers the Christian practice of attentiveness. He observes what he calls the “macadamization of the mind” with all the different news fragments that come across our attention every day, that flattens our critical and perceptual abilities. He commends sancta indifferentia, a holy indifference that is not disengagement but rather responses that come out of contemplation and not knee-jerk passions, allowing us to discern what we ought really care about and focusing on truth rather than outcomes. We need to learn how to read not the Times but the Eternities, in the words of Thoreau. Some of this may come through the liturgies of attention of reading books, particularly old books and learning a craft that grounds us in the physical world rather than the virtual life of our screens.
Second, Bilbro focuses on time, distinguishing between chronos or clock time, and kairos, an awareness of the seasons and rhythms of life. Both may be over-emphasized. Instead, Bilbro commends Auerbach’s idea of “figural realism” that “locates common individuals and events in the grand architecture of heaven.” In Christian faith, the Incarnation may be considered the greatest example of this as the coming of Jesus brings to focus the redemptive purposes of God pointing to their ultimate fulfillment in the eschaton. For Christians, the practices of the liturgies of the hours and the church year as well as the meditation upon works of art attune us to the great realities within which our daily, embodied life is lived.
Finally Bilbro considers the communities to which we belong–not nebulous, online communities or political tribes, but the local communities of our physical place, our congregations, and those we join in deeply shared interests. This is why the safeguards commonly proposed to dealing with media are not enough. They do not engage the atomization of community into amorphous “public spheres.” Here he commends the forming of real communities that cross ideological line in addressing localized and practical concerns such as has occurred with the Catholic Worker Movement and the Bruderhof, and notes the publishing efforts that arise from these that provide redemptive alternatives to much of our media. He notes the examples of both Frederick Douglass and Dorothy Day, whose writing came out of and was sustained by the communities of concern of which they were part. Bilbro shares the example of his own efforts in local culture, reflected in the website Front Porch Republic. He argues we ought both support and engage in such efforts in real community.
There is much I like in what Bilbro proposes in having our lives grounded in attention, aware of the kairos moments of God amid the stream of events, and real belonging to our local communities–even to the point of walking in them, which many of us have rediscovered in the pandemic. I would have appreciated some discussion about distinguishing between redemptive and toxic communities. White Citizens Councils and abolitionist and civil rights organizations both functioned at local levels and published. What is the difference between a community that draws one into a dark place, and one that strengthens and calls out the better angels of our nature?
What I most appreciate is that Bilbro proposes that the shape of Christian faithfulness as we engage the news is really one of bringing our reading of the news into a richly textured life of attention, of awareness of the grander story in which our lives are embedded, and of the communal life of those with whom we walk through life. Bilbro offers both fresh perspective and practical steps that help us read both the Times and the Eternities in our lives.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
We are in what some have called an epistemic crisis, particularly as it pertains to the news. We have more access to news media than ever on broadcast and cable TV, print and online publications and stories that pervade our social media feeds. Yet we are less confident than ever in the veracity of these sources and so we turn to those that our particular “tribe” favor. Jeffrey Bilbro comes at this slant. Eschewing the traditional advice (that has even appeared on this blog) of fact-checking and diversifying our news sources, Bilbro proposes a different theological framework for how we engage with the news.
First of all, he considers the Christian practice of attentiveness. He observes what he calls the “macadamization of the mind” with all the different news fragments that come across our attention every day, that flattens our critical and perceptual abilities. He commends sancta indifferentia, a holy indifference that is not disengagement but rather responses that come out of contemplation and not knee-jerk passions, allowing us to discern what we ought really care about and focusing on truth rather than outcomes. We need to learn how to read not the Times but the Eternities, in the words of Thoreau. Some of this may come through the liturgies of attention of reading books, particularly old books and learning a craft that grounds us in the physical world rather than the virtual life of our screens.
Second, Bilbro focuses on time, distinguishing between chronos or clock time, and kairos, an awareness of the seasons and rhythms of life. Both may be over-emphasized. Instead, Bilbro commends Auerbach’s idea of “figural realism” that “locates common individuals and events in the grand architecture of heaven.” In Christian faith, the Incarnation may be considered the greatest example of this as the coming of Jesus brings to focus the redemptive purposes of God pointing to their ultimate fulfillment in the eschaton. For Christians, the practices of the liturgies of the hours and the church year as well as the meditation upon works of art attune us to the great realities within which our daily, embodied life is lived.
Finally Bilbro considers the communities to which we belong–not nebulous, online communities or political tribes, but the local communities of our physical place, our congregations, and those we join in deeply shared interests. This is why the safeguards commonly proposed to dealing with media are not enough. They do not engage the atomization of community into amorphous “public spheres.” Here he commends the forming of real communities that cross ideological line in addressing localized and practical concerns such as has occurred with the Catholic Worker Movement and the Bruderhof, and notes the publishing efforts that arise from these that provide redemptive alternatives to much of our media. He notes the examples of both Frederick Douglass and Dorothy Day, whose writing came out of and was sustained by the communities of concern of which they were part. Bilbro shares the example of his own efforts in local culture, reflected in the website Front Porch Republic. He argues we ought both support and engage in such efforts in real community.
There is much I like in what Bilbro proposes in having our lives grounded in attention, aware of the kairos moments of God amid the stream of events, and real belonging to our local communities–even to the point of walking in them, which many of us have rediscovered in the pandemic. I would have appreciated some discussion about distinguishing between redemptive and toxic communities. White Citizens Councils and abolitionist and civil rights organizations both functioned at local levels and published. What is the difference between a community that draws one into a dark place, and one that strengthens and calls out the better angels of our nature?
What I most appreciate is that Bilbro proposes that the shape of Christian faithfulness as we engage the news is really one of bringing our reading of the news into a richly textured life of attention, of awareness of the grander story in which our lives are embedded, and of the communal life of those with whom we walk through life. Bilbro offers both fresh perspective and practical steps that help us read both the Times and the Eternities in our lives.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
February 26, 2021
I was excited to read this book, as I had not seen anything else like it. The concept of knowing how to take in and interpret the news saturated environment that we currently live in. The author explains that we are constantly bombarded by news snippets (or "snacks") with all the "clickbait" that is available. While this isn't entirely bad, we as Christians should be careful to take those "snacks" and go further. We should investigate these themes that catch our attention and look deeper into them, by reading more thoughtful essays or books on the subjects, by seeing how this theme interacts with the world & times, how does it relate to the gospel. These were wonderful suggestions. The book was laid out in a very organized manner, I knew where it was going and what to expect. In fact, there is much from this book that I will ponder and use to curate my news consumption in the future.
This author was a very well-read person. I found that in the book he whetted my appetite to read other authors such as Thoreau. That being said, in Reading the Times, I found that there were almost too many quotes. For example, if I wanted to read what Thoreau thought about a certain subject - i would read Thoreau (which I may well do). I would have preferred slightly less quotes and more articulation on the subject. i greatly enjoy a more "conversational method" of writing.
So while the subject matter interested me, I was slightly disappointed in the way this information was presented. i would give this book 3.5stars
This author was a very well-read person. I found that in the book he whetted my appetite to read other authors such as Thoreau. That being said, in Reading the Times, I found that there were almost too many quotes. For example, if I wanted to read what Thoreau thought about a certain subject - i would read Thoreau (which I may well do). I would have preferred slightly less quotes and more articulation on the subject. i greatly enjoy a more "conversational method" of writing.
So while the subject matter interested me, I was slightly disappointed in the way this information was presented. i would give this book 3.5stars
March 11, 2021
While I will be writing up a more in-depth review for Conciliar Post, a couple quick thoughts right now:
1. At first, I expect this book to be a contemporary rehash of Postman and similar thinkers. Instead, Bilbro takes their work and builds on it—presenting several thoughts and perspectives I really appreciated.
2. As part of that building, Bilbro provides several different avenues for application that give solid direction while avoiding being formulaic. That is, they form a starting point, from which the reader should expect to continue to grow, rather than a end all perfect set of steps to follow.
This is an excellent book and will be worth your time to read.
1. At first, I expect this book to be a contemporary rehash of Postman and similar thinkers. Instead, Bilbro takes their work and builds on it—presenting several thoughts and perspectives I really appreciated.
2. As part of that building, Bilbro provides several different avenues for application that give solid direction while avoiding being formulaic. That is, they form a starting point, from which the reader should expect to continue to grow, rather than a end all perfect set of steps to follow.
This is an excellent book and will be worth your time to read.
April 30, 2021
I've never read any book quite like this. It completely changed the way that I think about reading the news and being informed. It is well researched, but still practical. The author interacted with different refrains Christians often give about reading the news in helpful and challenging ways. This is an academic work that should be referred to whenever any Christian writes about reading the news.
Don't read this book if you are expecting lots of stories and life anecdotes about how to read the news better. This is an academic work and it reads like one. The author quotes extensively and builds on the work of previous scholars.
Do read this book if you want a serious theology of how Christians have and should interact with the news. I don't think that it is unreadable for the lay person, but you will have to prepare yourself that it is a more academic work.
I got a free digital copy of this book from netgalley, but I found it so helpful that I am going to have to buy a physical one when it comes out.
Don't read this book if you are expecting lots of stories and life anecdotes about how to read the news better. This is an academic work and it reads like one. The author quotes extensively and builds on the work of previous scholars.
Do read this book if you want a serious theology of how Christians have and should interact with the news. I don't think that it is unreadable for the lay person, but you will have to prepare yourself that it is a more academic work.
I got a free digital copy of this book from netgalley, but I found it so helpful that I am going to have to buy a physical one when it comes out.
July 23, 2023
This book helps Christians consider how to interact with the news and do so in a way that is helpful and not harmful. I found it very useful for me!
Bilbro divides the book into three sections and I found the first section about our attention to the news to be most helpful. He encourages us like Blaise Pascal to be more indifferent towards the news because 'this indifference is rooted in a confidence that God is in control and in a humility about our own ability to discern the workings of Providence in contemporary events.
Another important point he makes is that when we are so focused on national and global news we cease to be able to minister to our neighbors and community well. When we have community, it helps us process news better and put it in the right place in our lives.
The latter half of the book is much more academic and meandering at time, but still useful for the arguments Bilbro is making.
Bilbro divides the book into three sections and I found the first section about our attention to the news to be most helpful. He encourages us like Blaise Pascal to be more indifferent towards the news because 'this indifference is rooted in a confidence that God is in control and in a humility about our own ability to discern the workings of Providence in contemporary events.
Another important point he makes is that when we are so focused on national and global news we cease to be able to minister to our neighbors and community well. When we have community, it helps us process news better and put it in the right place in our lives.
The latter half of the book is much more academic and meandering at time, but still useful for the arguments Bilbro is making.
May 20, 2021
Some books probe a reader’s unexplored territory.
If you have not been in the habit of thinking about your consumption of the news, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Jeffrey Bilbro is likely to land on your brain and your heart with some weight. That’s a very good thing, because our interaction with the events of the day is both formative and consequential.
Bilbro argues that the believer’s chief interest in the news is as a tool for loving our neighbor well. Only as we understand our times in light of the gospel’s meta-narrative are we adequately equippped to respond to current events with excellence and grace-seasoned wisdom. Our embrace of the gospel insists that all points in time be traced to and understood in light of what is timeless and that the truth claims of all words be evaluated in light of the Living Word. I understand that Henry David Thoreau was not a Christian, but he spoke better than he knew when he wrote, “Read not the times. Read the Eternities. Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven.”
Reading the Times was a gold mine for jarring content, richness of expression, and suggestions for future reading. What a gift to be challenged to take up T.S. Eliot’s recommended “occupation for the saint.” I have so far to go before I truly “apprehend the point of intersection of the timeless with time,” but at least now, I know I should be paying attention to it.
Many thanks to IVPress for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
If you have not been in the habit of thinking about your consumption of the news, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Jeffrey Bilbro is likely to land on your brain and your heart with some weight. That’s a very good thing, because our interaction with the events of the day is both formative and consequential.
Bilbro argues that the believer’s chief interest in the news is as a tool for loving our neighbor well. Only as we understand our times in light of the gospel’s meta-narrative are we adequately equippped to respond to current events with excellence and grace-seasoned wisdom. Our embrace of the gospel insists that all points in time be traced to and understood in light of what is timeless and that the truth claims of all words be evaluated in light of the Living Word. I understand that Henry David Thoreau was not a Christian, but he spoke better than he knew when he wrote, “Read not the times. Read the Eternities. Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven.”
Reading the Times was a gold mine for jarring content, richness of expression, and suggestions for future reading. What a gift to be challenged to take up T.S. Eliot’s recommended “occupation for the saint.” I have so far to go before I truly “apprehend the point of intersection of the timeless with time,” but at least now, I know I should be paying attention to it.
Many thanks to IVPress for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
June 22, 2021
A Pew Research Center report about U.S. media polarization and the 2020 election found that “Republicans and Democrats place their trust in two nearly inverse news media environments.” Tell me whether a person watches Fox or CNN, in other words, and I’ll tell you how they likely vote. Victor H. Lindlahr, “You are what you eat,” but when it comes to media, you are what you read.
The fact that partisanship and news sources track so closely is worrisome. Are our opinions shaped by which channels we watch? Then we are too passive. Do our opinions decide which channels we watch? Then our problem is confirmation bias. Either way, we need to engage media more critically.
As Christians, that means we need to engage it more theologically. In Reading the Times, Jeffrey Bilbro outlines “a practical theology of the news.” He focuses on three themes in particular: attention, time and community.
According to a 2021 Nielsen report, the average U.S. adult spends 10 hours daily on media of some form. The amount and variety of information consumed forces the first question Bilbro asks, “To what should we attend?” We cannot read the news theologically without determining what’s worthy of our attention.
A second theme revolves around the question, “How should we imagine and experience time?” Greek distinguishes between kairos (“propitious time”) and chronos (“quantifiable duration”). Bilbro argues that Christians need a “figural imagination” that interprets chronos in terms of kairos. As Karl Barth advised his students, “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”
The final question a theological reading of the news asks is, “How should we belong to one another?” Bilbro argues that “media technologies and institutions have reconfigured social belonging.” Thus, Fox-watching Republicans may feel closer to other Fox-watching Republicans they’ve never met than to their next-door neighbor who’s a CNN-watching Democrat. (And vice versa.)
“If the problem is that our belonging to one another has become increasingly mediated through the media and the public sphere,” Bilbro writes, “the solution may be to root our fundamental commitments outside this space.” A good start would be simply to turn off the TV and go talk to your neighbor.
At 200 pages, Reading the Times is a brief book, but don’t mistake brevity for shallow analysis. Bilbro mines the Bible, theology, classic literature, and history to explain why our media consumption is hurting us, how we came to this crisis, and what Christians can do differently to help make things better.
Book Reviewed
Jeffrey Bilbro, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021).
P.S. If you liked my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.
P.P.S. This review will appear in the summer 2021 issue of Influence magazine and is posted here by permission.
The fact that partisanship and news sources track so closely is worrisome. Are our opinions shaped by which channels we watch? Then we are too passive. Do our opinions decide which channels we watch? Then our problem is confirmation bias. Either way, we need to engage media more critically.
As Christians, that means we need to engage it more theologically. In Reading the Times, Jeffrey Bilbro outlines “a practical theology of the news.” He focuses on three themes in particular: attention, time and community.
According to a 2021 Nielsen report, the average U.S. adult spends 10 hours daily on media of some form. The amount and variety of information consumed forces the first question Bilbro asks, “To what should we attend?” We cannot read the news theologically without determining what’s worthy of our attention.
A second theme revolves around the question, “How should we imagine and experience time?” Greek distinguishes between kairos (“propitious time”) and chronos (“quantifiable duration”). Bilbro argues that Christians need a “figural imagination” that interprets chronos in terms of kairos. As Karl Barth advised his students, “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”
The final question a theological reading of the news asks is, “How should we belong to one another?” Bilbro argues that “media technologies and institutions have reconfigured social belonging.” Thus, Fox-watching Republicans may feel closer to other Fox-watching Republicans they’ve never met than to their next-door neighbor who’s a CNN-watching Democrat. (And vice versa.)
“If the problem is that our belonging to one another has become increasingly mediated through the media and the public sphere,” Bilbro writes, “the solution may be to root our fundamental commitments outside this space.” A good start would be simply to turn off the TV and go talk to your neighbor.
At 200 pages, Reading the Times is a brief book, but don’t mistake brevity for shallow analysis. Bilbro mines the Bible, theology, classic literature, and history to explain why our media consumption is hurting us, how we came to this crisis, and what Christians can do differently to help make things better.
Book Reviewed
Jeffrey Bilbro, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021).
P.S. If you liked my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.
P.P.S. This review will appear in the summer 2021 issue of Influence magazine and is posted here by permission.
dnf
June 12, 2022I have a rule about books that claim, whether implicitly or explicitly, to transcend partisanship in order to make a broader analysis or get at some bigger truth: if the issues or examples used are one-sided, I stop reading the book. To me, it communicates that the author sees his own pet issues as being above the fray but won't grant the reader (or some readers) the same allowance. I was willing to let it go the first few times because I like Bilbro and, for the most part, I liked what I was reading, but when I came to a really egregious example of what I describe above, I decided that this book isn't for me. On top of that, I'll only add that, as others have noted, the book does lack depth; it reads more like a lengthy blog post than a "literary and theological inquiry." It's not bad; Bilbro has good thoughts and this is an important topic for Christians, but it doesn't seem to rise above him providing commentary on a few passages from past writers and thinkers he likes.
February 11, 2021
Jeffrey Bilbro forces readers to consider the nature of the news we consume. For those of us who are wrapped up in a 24-hour news cycle, it can be hard to step back and consider what habits and attitudes our viewing has instilled in us, often times unconsciously. Bilbro breaks his book into three parts: attention, time, and community. Each section is broken into three chapters which provide a kind of overview of the topic, a theological perspective on the topic, and then practical applications of the theological principles which he refers to as liturgies.
I am very sympathetic to many of the concepts in this work, so I think I am exactly the kind of reader that this book was written for. I do believe that, for example, our concept of chronological time lends itself to the secular progressive narrative that the future is always going to be an improvement on the past. I do believe, as another example, that subscribing to good publications and supporting them is important as well.
Bilbro is a thoughtful, clear writer who is a pleasure to read. This is a book I will recommend in our media saturated yet media frustrated culture.
I am very sympathetic to many of the concepts in this work, so I think I am exactly the kind of reader that this book was written for. I do believe that, for example, our concept of chronological time lends itself to the secular progressive narrative that the future is always going to be an improvement on the past. I do believe, as another example, that subscribing to good publications and supporting them is important as well.
Bilbro is a thoughtful, clear writer who is a pleasure to read. This is a book I will recommend in our media saturated yet media frustrated culture.
April 6, 2023
I found Bilbro's work refreshing and reflective. As I deal with the cacophony of social angst that is seemingly ubiquitous in communication outlets, this book provides a paradigm of engagement that is biblically sound without subsuming to cultural isolationism.
A distinctly philosophical tone can be found in certain chapters (i.e., figural imagination and the opening chapter on Macadamized Mind), yet the book offers a viable vision that readers can begin applying to life. Bilbro is authentic in his cultural engagement and he maintains fidelity to the tenets of his faith with a grace that befits the message of God's love.
For those desiring to live in community regardless of impasses in creed, politics or socio-economic convictions, this is a book worth reading. Never has the demand been greater for disciples with thinking minds to take their place in the public square. There is a mission to be undertaken in our world of competing ideas, whereby humble souls offer an intellectual coherence that glorifies God. Books such as Reading the Times help prepare those willing servants to effectively respond to such a prescient calling.
A distinctly philosophical tone can be found in certain chapters (i.e., figural imagination and the opening chapter on Macadamized Mind), yet the book offers a viable vision that readers can begin applying to life. Bilbro is authentic in his cultural engagement and he maintains fidelity to the tenets of his faith with a grace that befits the message of God's love.
For those desiring to live in community regardless of impasses in creed, politics or socio-economic convictions, this is a book worth reading. Never has the demand been greater for disciples with thinking minds to take their place in the public square. There is a mission to be undertaken in our world of competing ideas, whereby humble souls offer an intellectual coherence that glorifies God. Books such as Reading the Times help prepare those willing servants to effectively respond to such a prescient calling.
October 7, 2023
As a believer how is the news affecting and changing you? What should the news be for Christians? Questions like these and many more are answered in both theological heady answers and in practical steps and examples.
In less than 200 pages the author does a masterful job doing an inspection on what has the news been for Christians historically and what should it be for us now in a post Trump America.
One of the best books I’ve read this year I cannot recommend this enough!
In less than 200 pages the author does a masterful job doing an inspection on what has the news been for Christians historically and what should it be for us now in a post Trump America.
One of the best books I’ve read this year I cannot recommend this enough!
July 15, 2021
Overall, this an excellent dive into the ways in which the never-ending news cycle forms us, and not for the better. Bilbro offers key insights into the theological underpinnings of society’s obsession with the news, and offers an ideological framework for crafting an alternative path of engagement. His last section on community is particularly insightful.
However, he falls woefully short in application. Most of his applications seem like afterthoughts, as if he created a more theoretical treatise and the publisher asked him to go back and add some practicality. It’s not that the applications he argues for are bad, per se - they just seem like a drop in the bucket when you consider the far-reaching implications of his theory.
However, he falls woefully short in application. Most of his applications seem like afterthoughts, as if he created a more theoretical treatise and the publisher asked him to go back and add some practicality. It’s not that the applications he argues for are bad, per se - they just seem like a drop in the bucket when you consider the far-reaching implications of his theory.
October 18, 2022
Certainly worth the read as it addresses the relevant issues surrounding things that feel new (like "fake news" and infotainment) but are in many ways (according to the author) the logical progression. Revealing the framework for which we often view history and how it shapes how we assign "newsworthy-ness" is worth the read all by itself!
February 5, 2022
“Instead of looking to the news to create better communities, we should be looking to strengthen communities to make better news” (121).
Our habits and intake form our souls. Bilbro examines this reality and encourages habits of life that conform to Christ’s cruciform story instead of the frantic and angry pulse of daily headlines.
Three take aways for me are 1) finding the issues I feel most called to read about and address in my work, 2) the importance of institution building, and 3) taking more regular walks around my neighborhood.
Our habits and intake form our souls. Bilbro examines this reality and encourages habits of life that conform to Christ’s cruciform story instead of the frantic and angry pulse of daily headlines.
Three take aways for me are 1) finding the issues I feel most called to read about and address in my work, 2) the importance of institution building, and 3) taking more regular walks around my neighborhood.
May 27, 2021
As we believers view the media landscape of our times, we get a certain sadness of what mess we are looking at. Some of us their gets turn off of the ugliness or get caught up fighting against its currents. We comment sharing but it spills over to became debates on either the news itself or the media outlets. As the digital age progress it seems that the news has turned into this monster that we Christians want to get rid off or should we? Maybe we should get a little bit of boost on how we deal and navigate the news. Perhaps learning to read it with the lense Jeffrey Bilbro wants us to wear?
Will a book on helping us make sense of the news for our neighbors give us insights on what mess we have? Does it really matter? Will the advice of Bilbro’s friend on writing a book on reading the news becomes a reality that the author “just ignore” it?
Getting on Reading the Times is a bit rough, with this kind of issue being discussed in this book you’ll turn to every page. There are jargons and a few concepts that are not easily digested but as you push through you’ll catch up. As you go on all the discussions that are turning a bit academic. The length of the book got me hooked to get this one, thinking that it’s easy read (well what do you expect from a book by InterVasity Press ACADEMIC). Then again, I know I can handle this type of book. Towards the end of the chapter, I’m a bit disappointed with the practical applications that makes you say “So that’s it?” because of its “common senseness”. I’m expecting the author to take us to the next level. So by now, you’ll say that Bilbro’s friend is right to drop this issue? Well we are not yet finish with the review.
The section on Time is much better than Attention. I like the chronos and kairos discussion (which I also picked up on another book, Hinge Moments: Making the Most of Life's Transitions). References and citations are solid but I think the author rely too much to them. Don’t know if its a wise move but to end the section with a story about a painting is okey for me but still I’m looking for the author’s own stories. That will truly make the author really own this book by not getting too much stuff from other sources.
The finale of this book makes me love it despite of the things I see. What he promise in the beginning of the book, Bilbro satisfyingly gave it here. As I meditate on what I have just read, I think what lacks in this book is his own story. I think it will solidify what he is trying to push and I might give it a five on my rating. It took me a long time to think about what will be my verdict and I think it’s fitting to give this book that rating. Given that Reading the Times, is well researched and short, that something to consider. But I didn’t just sit down and just enjoyed the ride. The book left something on me to think of and reflect. I hope it will do that to you too.
My verdict:
4.5 out of 5
Purchase the book by clicking here.
Read my favorite quotes from the book here.
Will a book on helping us make sense of the news for our neighbors give us insights on what mess we have? Does it really matter? Will the advice of Bilbro’s friend on writing a book on reading the news becomes a reality that the author “just ignore” it?
Getting on Reading the Times is a bit rough, with this kind of issue being discussed in this book you’ll turn to every page. There are jargons and a few concepts that are not easily digested but as you push through you’ll catch up. As you go on all the discussions that are turning a bit academic. The length of the book got me hooked to get this one, thinking that it’s easy read (well what do you expect from a book by InterVasity Press ACADEMIC). Then again, I know I can handle this type of book. Towards the end of the chapter, I’m a bit disappointed with the practical applications that makes you say “So that’s it?” because of its “common senseness”. I’m expecting the author to take us to the next level. So by now, you’ll say that Bilbro’s friend is right to drop this issue? Well we are not yet finish with the review.
The section on Time is much better than Attention. I like the chronos and kairos discussion (which I also picked up on another book, Hinge Moments: Making the Most of Life's Transitions). References and citations are solid but I think the author rely too much to them. Don’t know if its a wise move but to end the section with a story about a painting is okey for me but still I’m looking for the author’s own stories. That will truly make the author really own this book by not getting too much stuff from other sources.
The finale of this book makes me love it despite of the things I see. What he promise in the beginning of the book, Bilbro satisfyingly gave it here. As I meditate on what I have just read, I think what lacks in this book is his own story. I think it will solidify what he is trying to push and I might give it a five on my rating. It took me a long time to think about what will be my verdict and I think it’s fitting to give this book that rating. Given that Reading the Times, is well researched and short, that something to consider. But I didn’t just sit down and just enjoyed the ride. The book left something on me to think of and reflect. I hope it will do that to you too.
My verdict:
4.5 out of 5
Purchase the book by clicking here.
Read my favorite quotes from the book here.
May 9, 2022
SUMMARY: From newspaper fact checkers to evaluation methods such as S.I.F.T. to diversifying one's news feeds, there is a tremendous amount of time and energy devoted to debunking lies and conspiracy theories. Despite the trend to provide more quality information to the public, according to a 2022 PPRI poll, 60% of white evangelical Protestants believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump while QAnon conspiracies ravage large swaths of churches in America. While fact checking methods and diversifying one's news feed can be helpful, it seems to do little in the way of moving people from yelling at each other to holding respectful conversation. How did the church get here? Is there a theological way of consuming the news? How can we think and act Christianly to the news?
In Reading the Times, author Jeffrey Bilbro doesn't give Christians a list of websites to visit or not visit or topics that Christians should give priority to, but challenges Christians to reorient how we view and interact with the news, how we relate to time, and how to live in community to shape the news.
"As consumers of the news, we need to re evaluate the light we rely on to understand our times and discern how to respond," Bilbro writes.
The first three chapters are devoted to attention. The vast majority of media is geared towards "news-as-spectacle" where we are informed about events, such as a terrorist attack, that we can do little about. This trains us to be passive consumers of the news, susceptible to "advertising jingles, political slogans, and hashtags."
Bilbro often references Henry David Thoreau who, back in the 1860's, wrote about "macadamized minds" where our intellect has been ground to bits with trivial information. Thoreau's visionary writing describes social media and internet news organizations that provide quick emotional hits but do little to change how we live with and love our neighbors.
"When our experience of the world is filtered through the news media, the tragedies that play out on our screens can seem more pressing than the ones that happen closer to home," Bilbro writes. "In this condition, we risk being like the priest and the Levite, who passed by the wounded man on the side of the road, rather than the Samaritan who saw, had compassion for, and took action to help his neighbor (Lk 10:25-37)."
The second part of the book is devoted to kairos time and chronos time.
"Kairos refers to...time that is right for a certain act--the time to plant or harvest a crop, for instance. Kairos time is rhythmic, cyclical, seasonal. Chronos...is closer to our modern understanding of time period. This is time as quantifiable duration, as something that is linear and sequential."
Chronos time dominates American culture. Our news cycle is based on chronos time. It is so embedded in our culture, it is difficult to conceive, much less adopt, an alternative view of time. Yet kairos time provides us the opportunity not to let the daily headlines drive our mood and how we interact with people. It pushes us toward humility and faith that God is in control--no matter who wins an election or wins a war.
"Because Christian hope is rooted not in historical time, but, rather, in the eschaton, the drama of the Daily News is relativized and muted. We are freed from seeing the news as representing a series of existential crisises and can instead take up a posture of sancta indifferentia (holy apathy/indifference) from which we can respond in love, prayer, and hope."
The final three chapters of the book focus on community where Bilbro postulates many Americans live in disembodied, market-driven communities that put the commodification of words and people above all else. Despite our best intentions, we self-select into groups that already agree with us. And even if we try to get outside our information bubble, websites are incentivized to keep us in our bubble and on their website, delivering us ads as we retweet or repost the sins of those we disagree with.
"We respond to events primarily based on prejudices and hunches--feelings formed in large part by the communities we imagine ourselves belonging to. In this way, the news primes our affective responses, shaping the intuitive heuristics we rely on to judge the affairs of our day. It is these almost instinctual, gut feelings that lead us to respond to a story with protests, praise, prayer, or lament and to act on this response by volunteering, by rallying around a need in our community, by writing a legislator, or by attending a city council meeting."
For Christians, this should simply not be so.
Fortunately, Bilbro departs from the critique stage in the final chapter of each part where he provides suggestions on ways Christians can engage with the news from a distinctly Christian point of view.
To refocus our attention, he suggests employing the practice of sancta indifferentia (holy apathy/indifference) where the goal of the news "is faithful action that's not concerned with the results." He suggests paying more attention to the news of our neighbors where, "the news of what our neighbors are going through invites us to enact our solidarity with them." (Some have termed this "hyper-local" news, read News as Spiritual Formation for more.)
To reorient how we view time, he suggests following a liturgical calendar and viewing art. Art and following a liturgical calendar (we recommend the one in Common Prayer: Pocket Edition ) reminds us we are creatures of two times. That tension is part of what should make a Christian's approach to life and news distinct.
In his final chapter, he suggests taking a walk in your neighborhood to get to know your neighbors . Here he quotes writer Gracy Olmstead.
"Walking is a slow and porous experience...To walk is also to be vulnerable: It forces us into physical interaction with surrounding streets, homes, and people. This can delay us, annoy us, even put us in danger. But it connects us to community in a way that cars never can."
Ultimately, Bilbro suggests walking in humility in an embodied community not marked by the latest headlines but by the history-changing event of the incarnation of God.
KEY QUOTE: "What we really need is to be shaped by embodied communities that are rooted outside the public sphere and its unhealthy dynamics. Our engagement in the public sphere can only be redemptive to the extent that it is predicated on prior commitments--most fundamentally, commitments to loving God and our neighbors. If these are indeed our primary commitments, we may learn about and respond to current events from a posture characterized by loving attention to the needs of our places and by a profound sense of our participation in God's ongoing drama."
MORE: Visit SundaytoSaturday.com where we curate topics for a disillusioned church.
In Reading the Times, author Jeffrey Bilbro doesn't give Christians a list of websites to visit or not visit or topics that Christians should give priority to, but challenges Christians to reorient how we view and interact with the news, how we relate to time, and how to live in community to shape the news.
"As consumers of the news, we need to re evaluate the light we rely on to understand our times and discern how to respond," Bilbro writes.
The first three chapters are devoted to attention. The vast majority of media is geared towards "news-as-spectacle" where we are informed about events, such as a terrorist attack, that we can do little about. This trains us to be passive consumers of the news, susceptible to "advertising jingles, political slogans, and hashtags."
Bilbro often references Henry David Thoreau who, back in the 1860's, wrote about "macadamized minds" where our intellect has been ground to bits with trivial information. Thoreau's visionary writing describes social media and internet news organizations that provide quick emotional hits but do little to change how we live with and love our neighbors.
"When our experience of the world is filtered through the news media, the tragedies that play out on our screens can seem more pressing than the ones that happen closer to home," Bilbro writes. "In this condition, we risk being like the priest and the Levite, who passed by the wounded man on the side of the road, rather than the Samaritan who saw, had compassion for, and took action to help his neighbor (Lk 10:25-37)."
The second part of the book is devoted to kairos time and chronos time.
"Kairos refers to...time that is right for a certain act--the time to plant or harvest a crop, for instance. Kairos time is rhythmic, cyclical, seasonal. Chronos...is closer to our modern understanding of time period. This is time as quantifiable duration, as something that is linear and sequential."
Chronos time dominates American culture. Our news cycle is based on chronos time. It is so embedded in our culture, it is difficult to conceive, much less adopt, an alternative view of time. Yet kairos time provides us the opportunity not to let the daily headlines drive our mood and how we interact with people. It pushes us toward humility and faith that God is in control--no matter who wins an election or wins a war.
"Because Christian hope is rooted not in historical time, but, rather, in the eschaton, the drama of the Daily News is relativized and muted. We are freed from seeing the news as representing a series of existential crisises and can instead take up a posture of sancta indifferentia (holy apathy/indifference) from which we can respond in love, prayer, and hope."
The final three chapters of the book focus on community where Bilbro postulates many Americans live in disembodied, market-driven communities that put the commodification of words and people above all else. Despite our best intentions, we self-select into groups that already agree with us. And even if we try to get outside our information bubble, websites are incentivized to keep us in our bubble and on their website, delivering us ads as we retweet or repost the sins of those we disagree with.
"We respond to events primarily based on prejudices and hunches--feelings formed in large part by the communities we imagine ourselves belonging to. In this way, the news primes our affective responses, shaping the intuitive heuristics we rely on to judge the affairs of our day. It is these almost instinctual, gut feelings that lead us to respond to a story with protests, praise, prayer, or lament and to act on this response by volunteering, by rallying around a need in our community, by writing a legislator, or by attending a city council meeting."
For Christians, this should simply not be so.
Fortunately, Bilbro departs from the critique stage in the final chapter of each part where he provides suggestions on ways Christians can engage with the news from a distinctly Christian point of view.
To refocus our attention, he suggests employing the practice of sancta indifferentia (holy apathy/indifference) where the goal of the news "is faithful action that's not concerned with the results." He suggests paying more attention to the news of our neighbors where, "the news of what our neighbors are going through invites us to enact our solidarity with them." (Some have termed this "hyper-local" news, read News as Spiritual Formation for more.)
To reorient how we view time, he suggests following a liturgical calendar and viewing art. Art and following a liturgical calendar (we recommend the one in Common Prayer: Pocket Edition ) reminds us we are creatures of two times. That tension is part of what should make a Christian's approach to life and news distinct.
In his final chapter, he suggests taking a walk in your neighborhood to get to know your neighbors . Here he quotes writer Gracy Olmstead.
"Walking is a slow and porous experience...To walk is also to be vulnerable: It forces us into physical interaction with surrounding streets, homes, and people. This can delay us, annoy us, even put us in danger. But it connects us to community in a way that cars never can."
Ultimately, Bilbro suggests walking in humility in an embodied community not marked by the latest headlines but by the history-changing event of the incarnation of God.
KEY QUOTE: "What we really need is to be shaped by embodied communities that are rooted outside the public sphere and its unhealthy dynamics. Our engagement in the public sphere can only be redemptive to the extent that it is predicated on prior commitments--most fundamentally, commitments to loving God and our neighbors. If these are indeed our primary commitments, we may learn about and respond to current events from a posture characterized by loving attention to the needs of our places and by a profound sense of our participation in God's ongoing drama."
MORE: Visit SundaytoSaturday.com where we curate topics for a disillusioned church.
April 21, 2021
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
I actually really like the core message of this book, but I think the execution falls short. I have a lot of THOUGHTS and will likely write a full review soon, but here are my main takeaways:
- I like the overarching idea of evaluating how we keep time, especially in terms of kairos vs chronos
- It has great ideas on attention, habits, and engagement in public spheres.
- It quotes too much and I can't figure out the author's original and personal ideas. Also, those references are so old??? Thoreau fanboy???
- Though much more nuanced than I expected it to be--then again, I have a low bar for this--it still is rooted in an unexamined place of privilege.
- The author starts this off with an anti-social media bias, and though there are great attempts to analyze the online landscape, his take lacks depth.
- Where are the verses?????????????????????????? For a book that is supposed to be about theological standpoints with regards to reading the news, much of the framework is based on works by Thoreau, Melton, Griffith, Pascal, and more. I read this to hopefully gain more insight into how the prophets engaged with the news, for example, but not much is here. Its only notable Scripture reference is Psalm 1 which forms the meat of Chapter 2, but it does not resurface in later parts of the book.
I like it and would recommend it if you live in the US, but take its discussion with a grain of salt.
I actually really like the core message of this book, but I think the execution falls short. I have a lot of THOUGHTS and will likely write a full review soon, but here are my main takeaways:
- I like the overarching idea of evaluating how we keep time, especially in terms of kairos vs chronos
- It has great ideas on attention, habits, and engagement in public spheres.
- It quotes too much and I can't figure out the author's original and personal ideas. Also, those references are so old??? Thoreau fanboy???
- Though much more nuanced than I expected it to be--then again, I have a low bar for this--it still is rooted in an unexamined place of privilege.
- The author starts this off with an anti-social media bias, and though there are great attempts to analyze the online landscape, his take lacks depth.
- Where are the verses?????????????????????????? For a book that is supposed to be about theological standpoints with regards to reading the news, much of the framework is based on works by Thoreau, Melton, Griffith, Pascal, and more. I read this to hopefully gain more insight into how the prophets engaged with the news, for example, but not much is here. Its only notable Scripture reference is Psalm 1 which forms the meat of Chapter 2, but it does not resurface in later parts of the book.
I like it and would recommend it if you live in the US, but take its discussion with a grain of salt.
April 14, 2021
Reading the Times was an intriguing and fascinating read. As someone who is deeply disappointed with the way news and social media often negatively impacts our culture, I expected that Bilbro's writing would be comforting while also putting words to my frustration with news. I was not expecting, however, the significant focus on our cultural understanding of time contrasted with how humanity has historically interpreted time.
Bilbro pulled from famous authors, writers, journalists, such as Henry Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and Wendell Berry, to challenge the reader's view of time, how it passes, and how that view affects the way we hear news. Bilbro argues that our view of time highly affects how we seek and interpret news, therefore it is not only our consumption habits that need to be corrected, but our philosophy of how time functions. I found this book a delight to read, a healthy challenge to my intellect, and an encouragement towards living with rhythms of rest and renewal.
Thank you to the author for your dilligent work in producing this work and to IVP and NetGalley for granting me a free electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.
Bilbro pulled from famous authors, writers, journalists, such as Henry Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and Wendell Berry, to challenge the reader's view of time, how it passes, and how that view affects the way we hear news. Bilbro argues that our view of time highly affects how we seek and interpret news, therefore it is not only our consumption habits that need to be corrected, but our philosophy of how time functions. I found this book a delight to read, a healthy challenge to my intellect, and an encouragement towards living with rhythms of rest and renewal.
Thank you to the author for your dilligent work in producing this work and to IVP and NetGalley for granting me a free electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 28, 2023
This book was well-written, and it’s clear Bilbro is a broad reader with a deep knowledge of Western history. It is fairly academic, so don’t pick it up for a quick read.
The book was redundant. The same few ideas were reiterated in every chapter. The author has been influenced by secular narratives about immigration and the climate, so his analogies were often off-putting or shallow to a reader who is more critical of today’s political and cultural landscape. His rhetoric struck me as coming from the perspective of a Christian who is trying hard to remain within orthodoxy while courting popular and unbiblical ideologies at the same time. Bilbro offered an indistinct worldview that claims to adhere to Scripture but has been influenced by progressivism.
Also, people that idolize Wendell Berry make me nervous…
The book was redundant. The same few ideas were reiterated in every chapter. The author has been influenced by secular narratives about immigration and the climate, so his analogies were often off-putting or shallow to a reader who is more critical of today’s political and cultural landscape. His rhetoric struck me as coming from the perspective of a Christian who is trying hard to remain within orthodoxy while courting popular and unbiblical ideologies at the same time. Bilbro offered an indistinct worldview that claims to adhere to Scripture but has been influenced by progressivism.
Also, people that idolize Wendell Berry make me nervous…
April 13, 2025
Do you suffer from bouts of anger or depression when reading or listening to the news?
I reread this book because my relationship with the news recently has not been healthy. It helped me to diagnose the problem. It may help you too.
I reread this book because my relationship with the news recently has not been healthy. It helped me to diagnose the problem. It may help you too.
October 23, 2023
This is one of those books that’s really good at identifying a problem, but is not so good at providing a solution. Not that Bilbro’s solutions were terrible, just that he’s done a good job of teasing the problem out but the solutions are not up to the task of engaging the problem (not that they are detrimental.) Which, is a bold thing for me to say, because it’s not like I have a solution to the problem either. So what is the problem? The problem is the political tribal division over news and politics that has infiltrated all parts of our society.
This is, of course, not a difficult thesis to prove. One only has to look on their social media feed for a few minutes to see it. And the strength of Bilbro’s book is his breakdown of that satanic part of our culture. I actually found his genealogy of that development and the struggle between a kairos view of time vs a chronos view of time extremely enlightening. I agree with Brilbro that the kairos view adopted by Christians is better than the presentism that dominates our way of thinking in a post-enlightenment age. Shocker, the pastor thinks Christians do it better. But when we are right we’re right, what can I say?
Of course, we can’t just live in a view of time completely detached from the world because God calls us to care about our brothers and sisters. And in brass tax in order to evangelize effectively we must know what moves the people of our time. So we have to read the news. It’s when Bilbro gives his recommendations for that is when I found the book a lot less compelling.
His suggestions were not in themselves bad. Walk around your neighborhood so you actually know your neighbors, read local papers and one’s that are outside of the big money media stream and clickbait. All wise, but the problem is that doesn’t deal with the root issue. I think that if we are to deal with this problem which is as endemic in the church as it is in our society, we need to start the way Bilbro did: with breaking people’s conceptions. Bilbro says that partisan papers are good (and I agree) but I’m much less hopeful than he is that they will help restore a sense of community. I think the very nature of politics is often divisive. So if we are going to tear down these idols we need to break the power that presentism (chronos) has on our way of thinking.
Lots of good food for thought in this book. Definitely a helpful read for a scholarly minded Christian who wants to challenge themselves and other in how they view the news.
This is, of course, not a difficult thesis to prove. One only has to look on their social media feed for a few minutes to see it. And the strength of Bilbro’s book is his breakdown of that satanic part of our culture. I actually found his genealogy of that development and the struggle between a kairos view of time vs a chronos view of time extremely enlightening. I agree with Brilbro that the kairos view adopted by Christians is better than the presentism that dominates our way of thinking in a post-enlightenment age. Shocker, the pastor thinks Christians do it better. But when we are right we’re right, what can I say?
Of course, we can’t just live in a view of time completely detached from the world because God calls us to care about our brothers and sisters. And in brass tax in order to evangelize effectively we must know what moves the people of our time. So we have to read the news. It’s when Bilbro gives his recommendations for that is when I found the book a lot less compelling.
His suggestions were not in themselves bad. Walk around your neighborhood so you actually know your neighbors, read local papers and one’s that are outside of the big money media stream and clickbait. All wise, but the problem is that doesn’t deal with the root issue. I think that if we are to deal with this problem which is as endemic in the church as it is in our society, we need to start the way Bilbro did: with breaking people’s conceptions. Bilbro says that partisan papers are good (and I agree) but I’m much less hopeful than he is that they will help restore a sense of community. I think the very nature of politics is often divisive. So if we are going to tear down these idols we need to break the power that presentism (chronos) has on our way of thinking.
Lots of good food for thought in this book. Definitely a helpful read for a scholarly minded Christian who wants to challenge themselves and other in how they view the news.
June 28, 2021
When I first picked up Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Dr. Jeffrey Bilbro, I expected to learn how to better engage with the news which surrounds us via our social media feeds and constant access to the internet. What I found was that this recently published book from InterVarsity Press provided so much more.
After an introduction on "Reading the News in Order to Love Our Neighbors," which is worth the price of the price of the book, Dr. Bilbro, an English professor, focuses on the concepts of attention, time, and community and how they related to our new consumption. Each part contains three chapters which describe the concept, how it relates to our news consumption, and then addresses how to incorporate these new habits into our lives in chapters titled "Liturgies of" the concept. This pattern allows Bilbro, and his readers, the opportunity to dive deep into the concept and then determine how the concept can be implemented in their life. The thesis throughout the book is that Christians should interact with the news seeking to discover how should we love our neighbors and how should we live faithfully in light of eternity. Approaching news with this mindset, allows us to focus on what truly matters but also requires us to reconsider who is our neighbor and where or what is our community. While not anti-technology or social media, Bilbro reminds readers that too often community is formed based on what news media you consume and devolves into taking sides rather than being based on where you live, who are your neighbors, and how can you show Christ's love to them.
Bilbro draws from a variety of interdisciplinary subjects including philosophy and history as well as literature and theology to explore attention, time, and community. He pulls in examples from history and current events and his research is well-documented via extensive footnotes. As such, this book could be used as a textbook or supplementary reading in a variety of courses. Beyond the classroom, Reading the Times is highly recommended to any Christian who wishes to read the news, and the times, from a theological point of view.
I received a complementary copy of Reading the Times from InterVarsity Press via NetGalley. I am not required to provide a positive review.
After an introduction on "Reading the News in Order to Love Our Neighbors," which is worth the price of the price of the book, Dr. Bilbro, an English professor, focuses on the concepts of attention, time, and community and how they related to our new consumption. Each part contains three chapters which describe the concept, how it relates to our news consumption, and then addresses how to incorporate these new habits into our lives in chapters titled "Liturgies of" the concept. This pattern allows Bilbro, and his readers, the opportunity to dive deep into the concept and then determine how the concept can be implemented in their life. The thesis throughout the book is that Christians should interact with the news seeking to discover how should we love our neighbors and how should we live faithfully in light of eternity. Approaching news with this mindset, allows us to focus on what truly matters but also requires us to reconsider who is our neighbor and where or what is our community. While not anti-technology or social media, Bilbro reminds readers that too often community is formed based on what news media you consume and devolves into taking sides rather than being based on where you live, who are your neighbors, and how can you show Christ's love to them.
Bilbro draws from a variety of interdisciplinary subjects including philosophy and history as well as literature and theology to explore attention, time, and community. He pulls in examples from history and current events and his research is well-documented via extensive footnotes. As such, this book could be used as a textbook or supplementary reading in a variety of courses. Beyond the classroom, Reading the Times is highly recommended to any Christian who wishes to read the news, and the times, from a theological point of view.
I received a complementary copy of Reading the Times from InterVarsity Press via NetGalley. I am not required to provide a positive review.
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June 19, 2021A much needed contribution and hopefully a starting point for further development of a theology of the news.
Bilbro writes in the tradition of people like Neil Postman and Wendell Berry here with a focus on now the news fits into our lives as Christians. He locates crucial issues when it comes to news consumption: how we focus our attention and what we attend to, the relationship between events in chronological time and eternity, and finally how news can shape and fracture our communities. Each section includes practical suggestions, which sometimes felt anemic. Overall, Bilbro quotes past thinkers well and supplies the reader with good examples when he wants to illustrate his points.
I do think his ideas need more development. But that's a small complaint given that there really isn't anything quite like his book in current theological literature. So, I would read this book as a starting point rather than an end point.
One big issue that gets touched on but needs further development is how Christians should apply commitments to truth in an age of information overload. Though Bilbro is correct to say that fact-checking and diversifying news feeds are inadequate solutions to polarization, we do need to acknowledge that if Christians want to be taken seriously in the public square, commitments to truth and factuality cannot be limited to metaphysical claims; we need a robust theology of truth commitment in all spheres of life.
Would highly recommend.
Bilbro writes in the tradition of people like Neil Postman and Wendell Berry here with a focus on now the news fits into our lives as Christians. He locates crucial issues when it comes to news consumption: how we focus our attention and what we attend to, the relationship between events in chronological time and eternity, and finally how news can shape and fracture our communities. Each section includes practical suggestions, which sometimes felt anemic. Overall, Bilbro quotes past thinkers well and supplies the reader with good examples when he wants to illustrate his points.
I do think his ideas need more development. But that's a small complaint given that there really isn't anything quite like his book in current theological literature. So, I would read this book as a starting point rather than an end point.
One big issue that gets touched on but needs further development is how Christians should apply commitments to truth in an age of information overload. Though Bilbro is correct to say that fact-checking and diversifying news feeds are inadequate solutions to polarization, we do need to acknowledge that if Christians want to be taken seriously in the public square, commitments to truth and factuality cannot be limited to metaphysical claims; we need a robust theology of truth commitment in all spheres of life.
Would highly recommend.
July 15, 2021
Over the last few years, I noticed the negative impact of reading the news too frequently. I saw this both in myself as well as in others. I noticed that news made me more anxious, more argumentative and less caring about other people. Reading Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business shed some light on this by revealing the negative impact of the entertaining nature that the news has acquired since the invention of telegraph. This impact was was further amplified in the television and the social media. This book gives further insights by providing a philosophical and teleological perspective on why the news is divisive and distracting.
While news is important, its focus on daily cycles, emphasis on remote rather than local events, as well as its inability to help people forge close relationships makes it detrimental on its own. This book provides the analysis of how and why news does this and how to counterbalance its negative effect. This requires to put the news in their proper long-term context. It also encourages to forge close relationships with people in community, even when they have views differing from us.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has experienced negative emotions and impact of consuming the news.
While news is important, its focus on daily cycles, emphasis on remote rather than local events, as well as its inability to help people forge close relationships makes it detrimental on its own. This book provides the analysis of how and why news does this and how to counterbalance its negative effect. This requires to put the news in their proper long-term context. It also encourages to forge close relationships with people in community, even when they have views differing from us.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has experienced negative emotions and impact of consuming the news.
January 29, 2024
Read not the Times. Read the Eternities. (Henry David Thoreau)
"A movement away from the gossip and trivia of the Times and a movement toward the good, beautiful, complex truth of the Eternities."
"Chewing on rich wisdom articulated in careful language feeds our minds and enables us to discern the nuances of the events happening in our time. If we want to exercise more responsibility regarding what ideas we entertain, we will need to develop the attention and vocabulary required to relate truthfully to a complex world."
"Isn't there a place for amusement and relaxation, you might ask? Sure, but so much of what people do under the rubric of unwinding or self-care doesn't actually re-create or restore; it scratch the itch of our restless souls and, by so doing, keeps the wounds from healing. What we may need is simply silences, long walks, or even a quiet work of washing the dishes by hand. Netflix isn't the balm of Gilead."
"Perhaps it is because we are lonely and detached from our places that we put such outsized importance on the news of the day. Following these stories becomes one of the last opportunities we have to feel like we are in the know, like we belong."
"As much as possible, instead of allowing the news to create our communities, Christians should seek to help their communities create the news."
"A movement away from the gossip and trivia of the Times and a movement toward the good, beautiful, complex truth of the Eternities."
"Chewing on rich wisdom articulated in careful language feeds our minds and enables us to discern the nuances of the events happening in our time. If we want to exercise more responsibility regarding what ideas we entertain, we will need to develop the attention and vocabulary required to relate truthfully to a complex world."
"Isn't there a place for amusement and relaxation, you might ask? Sure, but so much of what people do under the rubric of unwinding or self-care doesn't actually re-create or restore; it scratch the itch of our restless souls and, by so doing, keeps the wounds from healing. What we may need is simply silences, long walks, or even a quiet work of washing the dishes by hand. Netflix isn't the balm of Gilead."
"Perhaps it is because we are lonely and detached from our places that we put such outsized importance on the news of the day. Following these stories becomes one of the last opportunities we have to feel like we are in the know, like we belong."
"As much as possible, instead of allowing the news to create our communities, Christians should seek to help their communities create the news."
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