Friday, March 12, 2010

Theology after Google

I am attending a very interesting conference called Theology after Google. It is not at all what I expected but I have found it to be a fascinating journey. The conference has brought together an interesting collection of "progressive techno geeks" from emerging church theolobloggers to networked social activitists and a good helping of theologians. It is one of the most wired events I have been to (so it is a shame my laptop wireless is acting up and not working at the conference site so I can't tweet and blog about it live. They have an active tweet hub going so you follow and back track on the conversation or check out the sessions today via a live stream.

The focus seems to be, as Tony Jones stated on the opening night, an attempt to kick start a conversation on exploring a "progressive populace theology in a new media world". I have found it to be an interesting ride and have been especially provoked by the skype cast lecture from Jeff Jarvis, author of What would google do? and the changes the world of web 2.0 presents to religious communities. While I am still waiting for the theological conversation to get past the level of asking questions to trying answering some of the challenges of authenticity, disembodied mediation and shifting authority with true theological based strategies (there is still today) I have learned lots from hanging out with people like Steve Knight, Barry Taylor, Craig Deitweiler and Jana Riess.

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