Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age

“Thirty years after Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, this book takes the impact-analysis of modern media to a new level.”

―John Piper, Founder and Teacher, desiringGod.org

What images should I feed my eyes?

We often leave this question unanswered― because we don’t ask it. Maybe we don’t want to ask it. But viral videos, digital images, and other spectacles surround us in every direction―competing for our time, our attention, our lust, and our money. So we let our lazy eyes feed on whatever comes our way. As a result, we never stop to consider the consequences of our visual diet on our habits, desires, and longings.

Journalist Tony Reinke asked these hard questions himself―critiquing his own habits―and now invites us along to see what he discovered as he investigated the possibilities and the pitfalls of our image-centered world. In the end, he shares the beauty of a Greater Spectacle―capable of centering our souls, filling our hearts, and stabilizing our gaze in this age of the digital spectacle.

–––––––––– Table of Contents ––––––––––

PART 1: THE AGE OF THE SPECTACLE

1. Life inside the Digital Environment
2. Spectacles Defined
3. Distracted Spectacle Seekers
4. Image Is Everything
5. The Spectacle of the Self in Social Media
6. The Spectacle of the Self in Gaming
7. Spectacles of Tele-Vision
8. Spectacles of Merchandise
9. Politics as Spectacle
10. Terror as Spectacle
11. Ancient Spectacles
12. Every Nine Seconds
13. The Spectacle of the Body
14. The Church in the Attention Market

PART 2: THE SPECTACLE

15. Spectackils in Tension
16. Prynne’s Footnote
17. The World’s Greatest Spectacle
18. Is the Cross a Spectacle?
19. Two Competing Theaters
20. Spectators of Glory
21. The Church as Spectacle
22. The Church as Spectacle Maker?
23. A Day inside the Spectacle
24. Our Unique Spectacle Tensions
25. One Resolve, One Request
26. The Spectator before His Carving
27. A Movie So Good It Will Ruin You—Would You Watch It?
28. Resistible Spectacles
29. Summations and Applications
30. My Supreme Concern
31. A Beauty That Beautifies
32. The Visio Beatifica
33. Dis-Illusioned but Not Deprived