Midweek Musings - May 22, 2024
Architecture as theology, redemptive AI, the YouTube takeover, poison oak for breakfast, and bookstore birthdays
Recently I was sitting at a dinner reception—the kind of catered banquet affair that comes in spades this time of year in universities—and the topic of a particular campus came up, especially its architecture. If my memory is accurate, I believe we were discussing a rather prominent campus there in South Bend, Indiana. My fellow dinner guest was remarking on the rather surprising and imposing architecture of the Fighting Irish, which stands out in rural Indiana. Admittedly, the both of us are somewhat fascinated by the history of American higher education and quickly were swapping book recommendations [BTW, I think Bill Miscamble’s 2019 biography of longtime Notre Dame president Ted Hesburgh should be required reading for any university administrator or board member].
We noted that many of our Protestant institutions, especially those rooted in the fundamentalism of the early 20th century, have a markedly different sensibility. On many of our campuses, it’s hard to conclude that the founding generation had any coherent master plan. Instead, the buildings seemed to prioritize their utilitarian function. Build it fast and cheap, I suppose. In the subsequent decades, most of our institutions have gone to great lengths to steward those buildings well and have attempted to retroactively stitch them together into some kind of campus plan.
My observation to the aforementioned dinner friends was that architecture reflects theology. That thought is hardly original to me, but they seemed a bit intrigued by it. It strikes me as something of a truism, but perhaps its self-evident nature only really becomes apparent when you begin to look for it. It’s especially conspicuous in houses of worship. Enter a cathedral and you’ll see Catholic theology embedded throughout. And the same would be true of a Reformed Protestant chapel or an Orthodox basilica. Step into any of them and it’s hard to miss. Even the furniture reflects theology (pulpits, altars, etc.).
But what perhaps less conspicuous are the broader architectural priorities and imaginations of our college, university, or seminary campuses. My sense is that eschatology is especially embedded in those buildings. For institutions forged in the milieu of dispensational premillennialism, the utilitarian designs bore witness to a sense of urgency, of a leeriness toward worldliness, and a discomfort with expending capital on anything that would presumably not endure into eternity. On the other hand, an institution like Notre Dame, deeply connected to both the immigrant experience of Irish Catholic immigrant communities and to a broader ecclesial connection to Rome, the campus architecture seems designed to communicate, “We intend to occupy this acreage for a very long time.” And so they have.
I suspect that Christian institutions will have an even greater opportunity in the decades ahead to navigate these dynamics more thoughtfully, especially if we are indeed already in an accelerated post-Christian social milieu, one where there is little remaining social capital ascribed to traditional religion and religious institutions. Those changes come with their own challenges and pressures, to be sure. But I suspect they may also open up opportunities, as there may indeed be an appetite for a more thoughtful integration of theology and architecture, one does not see total seating capacity or digital media ubiquity as the ultimate good in design.
So by all means, please do build it on budget. But don’t build it ugly. As one friend put it, “Ugly lasts a very long time.”
Artificial Intelligence and Redemptive Imagination
Like many, I’m a longtime admirer of the work of Praxis Labs and the work the group has done to convene and resource thoughtful Christians in the front line of business, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. So I was especially grateful for their most recent Opportunities for Redemptive Imagination (ORI) thesis outlining the opportunities and risks of AI technologies.
“Like the Internet, electricity, and agriculture, AI is a general-purpose technology that can be harnessed to many ends. Redemptive entrepreneurs can lead the way in demonstrating that AI can be deployed — in fact, is best deployed — in ways that dethrone pride, magic, and Mammon and that elevate the dignity of human beings and their capacity to flourish as image bearers in the world.”
Many of my colleagues here at Biola University are giving focused attention to these very issues, channeled primarily through our new AI Lab. Far too often, current conversation seems to rush either to an uninterrogated embrace of new technologies or a fearful avoidance. I suspect many Christian institutions may also be tempted to simply ignore it. But none of those seem to be especially wise options. Rather, this is precisely when we need Christian institutions leading the charge in the kind of integration of biblical wisdom, historical awareness, and technological innovation. If you lead in a context that is trying to take AI seriously, you’ll want to share this with your team.
It’s All YouTube Now
Time will tell how significant this development is in our media ecology, but it seems noteworthy that YouTube is now the second most used streaming TV platform in American households, as noted in the Hollywood Reporter. Falling right behind Disney’s massive media conglomerate (Disney/Hulu/ABC/ESPN/prettymucheverythingyouwatch), YouTube has reconfigured the industry and a lot of older companies trail behind.
“Finishing a strong second in the distributor rankings is YouTube, which has been the top individual streaming platform for a year, at 9.6 percent. NBC Universal (8.9 percent), Paramount (8.8 percent) and Warner Bros. Discovery (8.1 percent) make up the rest of the top five, and Netflix (7.6 percent) is sixth.”
Somehow now the idea of “57 channels and nothin’ on” sounds about as nostalgic as broadcast network TV and afterschool specials.
I’ll Pass on the Poison Oak Smoothies
It’s not every day the term “anal dermatitis” shows up in the Wall Street Journal. Come to think of it, I don’t believe the possibility of such a condition had ever even occurred to me. But there it was in this past weekend’s WSJ Magazine, a rather unpleasant element in the author’s attempt to gradually develop immunity to the poison oak that is grows rather promiscuously in California. I appreciate journalistic earnestness as much as the next guy, but admit to scratching my head (always preferable to the allergen-induced alternative) at this experiment in immunology.
“Incorporating poison oak into my diet was easier than expected. Its cuttings have an unusually long shelf life, retaining vibrant green leaves for months when placed in water. Chopped up and steeped, the stems recall the haylike flavor of matcha.
Mixed in with lettuce and ranch dressing, a few leaves didn’t detract from a salad, though the mild bitterness made it a poor substitute for spinach in egg scrambles. My preferred vehicle was the fruit smoothie, where the flavor and texture of the leaves disappeared as readily as kale or beet greens. Every week I doubled the quantity I threw in the blender. Every week, I wondered if this would be the moment I received my comeuppance.”
Comeuppance, indeed. I’ll pass. And yes, this goes in every preacher’s illustration file about the futility of exposure to sin as a means of building immunity. Congregants, you’ve been warned. Just steer clear of it, whether poison oak or sin.
Happy Birthday to a Favorite Bookstore
I now live further away than ever before, but one of my favorite bookstores on the planet is Politics & Prose, wonderfully located on the outskirts of Washington DC. For book lovers, it’s a destination always worth a visit. So if you’ll be in the area on June 22, please stop by on my behalf and wish the good folks there a happy 40th birthday.
The P&P birthday also has me fondly remembering my longtime colleague Timothy Kleiser. When I clumsily dropped and shattered my favorite coffee mug one day while serving as dean of Boyce College, he somehow managed to secure a replacement for me and gave it to me as a surprise gift. That one is even more special to me now, having survived the journey to California.
What I’m Reading
Oliver Crisp and Fred Sanders, Confessing the Church: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics (Zondervan Academic)
Salman Rushdie, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (Random House)