BOOK REVIEW
Book – Faith For Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon
Authors: David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock
Ancient Babylon was the pagan-but-spiritual, hyper stimulated, multicultural, imperial crossroads that became the unwilling home of Judean exiles. When referring to digital Babylon, there is not much of a difference; this non-physical space is also a pagan-but-spiritual, hyper stimulated, multicultural, imperial crossroads that has become the unwilling home of anyone with wi-fi and a cellphone – which is mostly everyone.
There is no doubt that technology has changed the reality of the world we all live in. We can agree that making disciples in the early 90’s is very different than making disciples in the Digital Babylon we all live in now. But how do we begin to wrap our minds around the complexities of faith in this new era? Faith For Exiles, written by David Kinnaman, breaks down five thoughts on faith-building and Jesus-following in this digital age. I recommend this book to anyone who is a leader in the Church or interested in building their faith in cyberspace.
Sprinkled all throughout this book are facts from studies that have been done on this topic of Christianity and specifically, young adults. As a young millennial woman, it is important for me to look at Christianity not as it had been taught to me when I was young (when the church looked very different than it does today), but to let reality and Jesus to inform my perspective of what it should be in Digital Babylon. Life is more complex, but the gospel of Jesus is still the same. Christianity is not merely a religion of attending a building on a Sunday, adhering to man-made rules of modesty, and then carrying on with our lives. This digital age has taught us that resilient Christianity is not partial to the physical gathering or digital gathering, but it is the living and loving as Christ would regardless.
