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Christianity Today, March (Web-only), 2009 |

Theology in the News

Blogs: A Window to Our Souls

What does your Internet personality say about you?

Collin Hansen | posted 3/09/2009 10:49AM

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Even so, not even Jacobs could stay away from blogging. Since we can't ignore the Internet's opportunities, we must learn to minimize its vices. That starts with asking whether our Internet personalities reveal more about ourselves than we'd like to admit.

Collin Hansen is a CT editor at large and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists.

Related Elsewhere:

Other recent Christianity Today articles on blogging and related media include:

An Entertaining Saboteur | Facebook promises to connect us to one another. Is that what you are doing right now? By Mark Galli (February 5, 2009)

Abandoning the Outpost | Joe Carter wonders about the future of standalone blogs. From the Christianity Today Liveblog (September 11, 2008)

Censured Southern Baptist Critic Resigns | Wade Burleson resigned Tuesday after International Mission Board suspended him over blog's criticism. (February 1, 2008)

The Death of Blogs | Well, some of them, anyway. By Ted Olsen (September 25, 2007)

Previous Theology in the News columns are available on our site.

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March (Web-only) 2009, Vol. 53

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Patrick Gann

Posted: March 19, 2009 7:21 AM

It's interesting to see people who act one way, in "real" life, put on an entirely different face when they sit down to the computer. I first picked up the concept that this HAPPENS at all in the late '90s from the anime "Serial Experiments Lain" (worth watching, I might add). Creating an "online" persona that's different from how you act in face-to-face interactions usually reveals more of our inner thoughts and ideas, since we're more comfortable putting that information out there for a faceless crowd to see than we are telling our best friend (strange but true, ne?).

Gary Sweeten

Posted: March 15, 2009 1:26 AM


Perhaps we are seeing the least reflective aspect of Christianity and politics in blogs. Reading the comments of most blogs on most issues reminds me of how many people out there are emotionally un stable and who have short fuses. It also reminds me of how much we need to help people grow in the fruit of the Holy Spirit and learn how to debate sensitive issues in a democracy.

Mike Morrell

Posted: March 12, 2009 11:24 PM

The funny thing about the neo-Reformed's shocked & indignant reaction to McKnight is that they routinely tar their theological foes as not giving a rat's you-know-what about the Bible. I think McKnight & (for that matter) Wright back up their claim quite nicely. As Michael Spencer says, we're headed for a bit of an evangelical meltdown...and that might be okay. For what emerges (sorry, couldn't resist) might be all the healthier because of it. I do agree with you, though - I hope what grows next out of the compost of our dying institutions is a bit more gracious than the blogosphere tends to be.

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