My appreciation (or appropriation) of media and cultural studies.

I appreciate media and cultural studies.

What I mean by that is not that I study it - although as someone who reads a lot of theology I come across a lot of the same thinkers and discourses. Here I want to focus on MacLuhan's "The medium is the message". I'm not going to analyze and explain but to suffice to say it is something important for Christians. The message we are trying to spread, or at least owe loyalty to, is the gospel. The gospel might be expressed differently in different circles of sub-traditions of Christianity but it is still the gospel.

But "the medium is the message" has challenged. The medium I use the most, academic theology books, usually talk about things related to or around the gospel. Yet if "the medium is the message", a belief that I think is justified, have I turned the medium of theology books into the message of the gospel? In more practical terms have I defined discipleship not as serving the Risen Christ so much as reading books?

Cultural studies plays a helpful role in this too. Where as media studies analyzes the characters and effects of media and media technology cultural studies looks at the social consequences of economic structures. It uses the metaphors of production and consumption for culture, useful metaphors in my estimation. I have to admit besides being the medium of books that which I read, and possibly define as my message as indicated above, is also tied into the economic forces of business. Grands Rapids is my cultural capital in economic terms since almost of all my favourite authors and books are published by Eerdmanns .

Have I defined my discipleship, then, as an intellectual pilgrimage through Grand Rapids?

These are questions I am dealing with.