Discipling Towards Transcendence in a Distracted Age

The contemporary church in America is faced with the task of discipling believers to recognize the grandeur, wonder, and beauty of the created universe, and therefore the sovereignty, majesty, transcendence, and provision of God. The immanent frame in which modern people live, which is strongly shaped by our mediating technology, creates a barrier for us to perceive what is right in front of us: the goodness of creation. It inclines us to see creation as a purely material phenomenon, measurable, controllable, containable, conquerable, and mundane. To disciple believers towards an awareness of their contingency and God’s majesty, we must teach an attentiveness to creation and a protection of interiority from the encroachment of technology of distraction. We must have eyes to see and minds with space to reflect.

Biography

O. Alan Noble (PhD Baylor University) is Assistant Professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University, and author of Disruptive Witness  (IVP, 2018). He is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Christ and Pop Culture.