Books about technology, social media, our brains but most of all our spiritual lives impact me, I enjoy this kind of material very much because I like every kind of spectacle and I admit I need to focus on the important things, not just the shiny ones. This book helped me realize this is going to be a battle of every day not just for me, but for my children and their own children. Generations are changing, but our deceitful little hearts don't, devices improve, so our minds and hearts need to be ready to find nutritious food and not just candy. I recommend this book to anyone who lives in this era, anyone who wants to keep their eyes on Jesus and grow in this aspect of life.

A spectacle is something that captures human attention, an instant when our eyes and brains focus and fixate on something projected at us. In an outrage society like ours, spectacles are often controversies-the latest scandal in sports, entertainment, or politics. A spark bellows, grows into a viral flame on social media, and ignites the visual feeds of millions. Whether it's true, false, or fiction, a spectacle is the visible thing that holds together a collective gaze. And that's the focus of this book.

Spectacles come in many shape or forms. Social media, news, even in a gathering as many pastors use media to hone in on a message. The text breaks downs those spectacles that become death to our souls or bring life. What is grabbing our attention and why? I think this is what I loved about this book. The reason is just as important as the what. This is not a text that slams social media but how is it used is what is in question. What do we need to let go and die. Spectacles have been around since Christ. The gladiators, the practice of Crucifixion and now we have social media where we can tear people apart. Nothing is new in the sun.

Why a study on spectacles? That is a good question and from what I can see in my own life is worship. It affects how we view God and others. When we get caught up on a feed on facebook, do we see people or do we see our way is the right way. Do we see others that need the gospel? Or do we see ourselves as better. Do we see God's glory or mans?

Spectacles can reveal what is in the heart of people. The hypocrisy, the shame. But can spectacles reveal something glorious? I think that is the best message of this text is that spectacles can make others beautiful. Can give us hope and a way to worship.

Highly recommend

A Special Thank you to Crossway Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

Wow. This book is so needed in the digital-era we find ourselves in. Competing Spectacles by Ton Reinke provides a prophetic criticism of our cultural moment that is defined by "spectacles." He defines what he means by this, and proceeds to outline and expand upon a variety of them (The Self, Merchandise, Politics, and more). Chapter 28 stuck out to me in particular as it highlighted how spectacles can be resisted, and akin to the wood and silver idols of ancient times, they are meaningless unless we give them meaning. I recommend this book for all people, young and old, because it is a truly needed message for our time.

First sentence: Never in history have manufactured images formed the ecosystem of our lives. They do now.

In Tony Reinke's newest book he seeks to answer a timely question, "in this age of the spectacle, in this ecosystem of digital pictures and fabricated sights and viral moments competing for our attention, how do we spiritually thrive?"

Reinke defines the word spectacle and clarifies his use of the word for this book. It does have two meanings; but the definition he is using is this one, "a moment of time, of varying length, in which collective gaze is fixed on some specific image, event, or moment."

Another definition one might find helpful is attention which he defines as, "the skill of withdrawing from everything to focus on some things, and it is the opposite of the dizziness of the scatterbrained spectacle seeker who cannot attend to anything. Thus, attention determines how we perceive the world around us."

Here's a scary thought to process: "We are creatures shaped by what grabs our attention—and what we give our attention to becomes our objective and subjective reality. We attend to what interests us. We become like what we watch." He also mentions that human attention can be split into nine-second intervals which can lead to our attention being "willingly shattered into a million pieces."

He spends the first half of the book on worldly spectacles--for better or worse. The things that grab our attention and provide endless distractions. The things that shape us because whether we are mindful or mindless of the process we are captivated and consumed by the spectacles around us.

He spends the second half of the book on spiritual spectacles--namely on Jesus Christ our ultimate treasure. If our attention is Christ-centered, if we are captivated by the glory of Christ, then our hearts, minds, souls can be renewed and transformed. We 'become' by 'beholding.'

I liked the first half. I did. I found it relevant. But I really enjoyed the second half. I found it a compelling read. I'd just recently finished John Piper's God Is The Gospel. So I made an almost immediate connection between the two books. Here Reinke is encouraging his readers to see and savor Christ above all.

Reinke writes, "His glory is the centerpiece of our daily spectacle appetites. Into every age of spectacles—from biblical Colossae, to imperial Rome, to Puritan London, to our digital world today—the recelebration and rearticulation of the glory of Christ must be set before us, over and over, and fed to our souls day by day. Christ feeds our faith through words written and proclaimed."

Later he concludes, "We are called to recognize what is worthless and develop personal disciplines to resist the impulse to fill our lives with vain spectacles. The message of the cross tells us that we are free in Christ to live for something greater! We are free to center our lives on him, to enjoy him, and to glorify him by fixing our attention on things above, where we find our superior Spectacle, our greatest treasure."