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Wash. Post Article about Online Worship
Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 11:15 AM by Jason Barker
Via a link from GetReligion (headed by Orthodox Christian religion columnist Terry Mattingly), I read an article in The Washington Post about Hindus using the Web to commission offerings at temples in India. As Mattingly laughingly notes, this type of article is very up-to-the-minute - if this were 1995.
Despite the decidedly dated reason for the article - that the Internet has become a hub for religion - the article nonetheless caused me to think about an issue about which I've written before: the fact that Orthodox Bible study is a communal activity. Despite the fact that the Post's article focuses on Hinduism, the individualistic approach to worship covered in the article is of great concern to Orthodox Christians. We of course do not adhere to the Hindu concept of local deities (which drives the desire of the people in the article to commission offerings at specific distant locations), but we nonetheless must avoid using the Web as a proxy for worshipping and studying in community.
I will repeat what I wrote earlier about Bible study being a communal activity:
Orthodox Bible study is not an isolated activity, but instead is one that intricately relates the individual to all other Christians - past, present and future - who have engaged or will engage in the study of Holy Scripture. A individual Christian teen's spiritual development must be understood and promoted within a community of peers and leaders who know and love this person, and can support and guide this person in his or her life. It is for this reason that I regularly encourage teens to not rely solely on my Bible study applications as personal tools, but also to take this material and discuss it in an Orthodox youth group. I further encourage adults to participate in these groups, both for the good of the teens and for their own growth.
Individual study is, of course, very important, but it must never be the entirety of a person's Bible study. I try to design my Bible studies so that they are effective for individual study (which is where people will have the greatest amount of time for thorough reading and reflection), while always driving the individual toward then taking what he or she has read and studying the text and worshipping God within the local parish.
Posted in Miscellaneous