Thoughts in response to Bolter Ch 2

Bolter's ideas of new media reinterpreting previous forms are interesting to me in relation to discussions going on now in my church tradition regarding changing forms and expressions of worship. There is some significant tension in this process.

As a relatively young person in the church, and especially now becoming part of the hierarchy, it seems likely I'll need to engage this process, and I would like to do it in a productive way. I found Bolter's thoughts helpful, particularly on how remediating an older form involves both some homage to the old forms and some rivalry with them. It's important to realize this is normal, and conveying that to people involved in the struggle may be a little helpful.

In creating resources related to the diaconate, this is very relevant. The diaconate is itself an aspect of that remediating process. It is taking some from very old forms and some from newer forms and also seeking to re-order some long-standing traditions in the process of reviving what is in some ways an even older form - but placing it in a current context.

Another idea that comes up in this chapter is that of "transparent" media - the idea that people want to look through the media to an objective reality. In this way, the media is simply a window through which people can see something else. It struck me how similar this language is to the way iconography is described. People who write icons (and it's interesting that the word is 'write' and not 'paint' or 'draw') consider them to be windows to the divine. When someone prays using an icon, the idea is not to pray to the person pictured but, looking at the image of this person who lived out some aspects of divine love, perhaps it becomes possible to see, through them, a glimpse of the reality of divine love itself. This type of prayer is contemplative - it doesn't involve asking for things. The purpose is just to look closely to try and learn something about God and thereby know God a little better.

The idea of an icon being a transparent sign is very important in relation to the diaconate as I am coming to understand it. The deacon is supposed to be an icon of Christ's service to the poor - a living image of that aspect of divine love.

The familiarity of the term 'icon' in the sense of an image on a computer screen that represents and gives access to a greater reality (a program, application, file, etc) - can be connected to this older use of the word to help explain a concept (the diaconate) that will be new or at least not very familiar to a lot of people.