***REVIEW LINK TO BE UPDATED IN THE NEAR FUTURE***

People who know me in real life consider me to be an “anti-social media” evangelist. I not only am unabashed in my attempt to encourage people to leave these websites (or at least severely diminish their time on them), but I also have grave concerns regarding the way these websites encourage us to speak and relate to one another. While my critiques span several different areas, I am growing more and more apprehensive as I witness America’s shift in going to social media to read, or rather consume, the news.

This is why I wasn’t surprised when a friend sent me a link about Jeffrey Bilbro’s Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News. To be clear, the entire book is not focused on the “evils” of social media, as Bilbro himself has a Twitter account and recognizes the websites can be used for good. Rather, it’s his concern in how and why we as Christians engage with the events of our time, and he does this by asking some simple, but incisive, questions: “To what [news events] should we attend? How should we imagine and experience time? How should we belong to one another?”

In other words, how do our news consumption habits determine the way we love and serve God and our neighbors?

To keep his arguments clear and focused, Bilbro separates Reading the Times into three parts dedicated to the aforementioned questions. Each section then consists of three chapters: the first chapter highlighting how “our current contemporary media ecosystem offers inadequate answers to these questions”, the second focusing on how to solve the problem theologically, and the final chapter honing in on liturgical practices we can embody to better read and discern what’s happening in the world around us. While I didn’t find any of the topics to necessarily be complex, this approach serves the book well as Bilbro lays the initial foundation and continues to build on top of the previous points until the conclusion.

By and large, as we saw in the questions he asks of his readers, Bilbro is concerned about the things we pay attention to, how we perceive ourselves in regards to history, and what our participation in the public sphere says about, again, how we perceive ourselves and others. For example, think about how easy it is to log into Twitter and scroll through your timeline, witnessing the mess that is your newsfeed. You might see a Fox News article about President Biden’s foreign policies, followed by an Atlantic essay on capital punishment, a few memes sprinkled in between, and, to top it all off, another aspiring author getting harassed by the online mob for not writing the correct things in her debut novel. Chances are, what might be substantial in all of this will be, most likely, scrolled past in lieu for the easily consumable, the “mental junk food” that might scratch an itch for a moment, but does nothing productive for us long term.

Not only is Bilbro concerned about the time we might be wasting here (especially how it’s more likely we’ll spend an hour going down a drama rabbit hole rather than actually clicking on and reading a long-form essay), but the majority of these news pieces are not nearly as important as we make them out to be. Part two of Reading the Times challenges Christians to worry less about being on the “right side of history,” and to focus more on “history’s true meaning emerg[ing] only in the light of Christ’s life.” He doesn’t downplay the difficulty in doing this; in fact, I found bringing up the fall of Rome in 410 to be a helpful anecdote, reassuring 21st Christians this is not a new problem we face. Rather, if we look at the Old Testament prophets and the Incarnation, “[i]nstead of searching for the meaning of our lives in some historical arc, we can look for God’s hand in the news of our day and seek to discern how he might be calling us to participate in his ongoing work of redemption.”

Of course, none of what Bilbro argues for matters without a proper understanding of how we participate in the public sphere. As he demonstrates, unfortunately, even Christians are not immune from partisanship, finding more in common with those who watch the same news channels or vote for the same candidate compared to those who also profess Jesus is Lord. This is why, instead of focusing on “diversifying our newsfeeds” or “fact-checking,” Reading the Times asks an important question, which in itself provides a way forward: “Is our belonging in the public sphere dictating our interactions with our fellow church members, relatives, and neighbors, or are we entering the public sphere on the basis of our commitments to our neighbors, the least of these in our community, and our fellow parishioners?”

Bilbro may not be an Anglican, but between his call to let the Christian calendar help direct our rhythm of life, multiple references to the importance of liturgy, and the evident dedication to putting the Gospel story first and foremost in how we interact with contemporary events, this is a book I believe all Christians, especially Anglicans, will benefit from. Reading the Times doesn’t present a step-by-step chart on how to read newspapers and how to connect current events to eschatological symbols, but it does call us to focus on the meaningful, on heavenly things, rather than be swayed by what is trivial and designed to distract and amuse us. In fact, one might say Reading the Times is the spiritual successor to Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death as both authors are capable of seeing when the news can be helpful, and when it needs to be critiqued. “Reading the news will not save a single soul,” Bilbro concludes, “but journals and the vibrant communities of wayfarers they gather can be indispensable guides as we seek to faithfully enact God’s divine drama of redemption in our particular place and time.”

An interesting, in depth read on how to read the news as a Christian. This was written for a niche group, and I would recommend it to other Christians.

A balm in this time of constant garages of news and other media. This book presents an insightful history of humanity's interaction with time, place, and news, showing how we slowly transformed from small, close-knit communities united by common goals and the rhythms of life to world-wide ones intent on constant progress. Bilbro then pulls from a variety of Christian and classical voices to offer a way to try to reverse that trend in our own lives.

When I first picked up Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Dr. Jeffrey Bilbro, I expected to learn how to better engage with the news which surrounds us via our social media feeds and constant access to the internet. What I found was that this recently published book from InterVarsity Press provided so much more.

After an introduction on "Reading the News in Order to Love Our Neighbors," which is worth the price of the price of the book, Dr. Bilbro, an English professor, focuses on the concepts of attention, time, and community and how they related to our new consumption. Each part contains three chapters which describe the concept, how it relates to our news consumption, and then addresses how to incorporate these new habits into our lives in chapters titled "Liturgies of" the concept. This pattern allows Bilbro, and his readers, the opportunity to dive deep into the concept and then determine how the concept can be implemented in their life. The thesis throughout the book is that Christians should interact with the news seeking to discover how should we love our neighbors and how should we live faithfully in light of eternity. Approaching news with this mindset, allows us to focus on what truly matters but also requires us to reconsider who is our neighbor and where or what is our community. While not anti-technology or social media, Bilbro reminds readers that too often community is formed based on what news media you consume and devolves into taking sides rather than being based on where you live, who are your neighbors, and how can you show Christ's love to them.

Bilbro draws from a variety of interdisciplinary subjects including philosophy and history as well as literature and theology to explore attention, time, and community. He pulls in examples from history and current events and his research is well-documented via extensive footnotes. As such, this book could be used as a textbook or supplementary reading in a variety of courses. Beyond the classroom, Reading the Times is highly recommended to any Christian who wishes to read the news, and the times, from a theological point of view.

I received a complementary copy of Reading the Times from InterVarsity Press via NetGalley. I am not required to provide a positive review.

In a world which exists a 24-hour news cycle; a constant pull toward the consumption of more headlines, outrage, and anger; and never ending social media feeds which perhaps reached their crescendo during the prior two presidential elections, there could not be a more timely book being published from one of the leaders in Christian publishing (IVP Academic) than Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Jeffrey Bilbro.

In this text, the author formulates what he calls a theology for consuming the news where he teaches, amongst other things, the dangers of consuming too much media and the ill effects in the consumerism of news has on those around us and even how we relate to them. To prove his point, he interweaves Henry David Thoreau and Thomas Merton while citing the latest research in neuroscience. Consequently, in one’s quest for satisfying news consumption, people consume more news in order to attain the highly charged emotionality which the previous headlines gave. News consumption appears more like a substance-use disorder than anything else.

What the author advocates for, amongst other things, is an indifference toward news about stories originating in far off countries which hold no weight or bearing on one’s own existence where we take stock as to whether or not a particular news story requires an extreme emotional response; if any at all. And in so doing, news consumers can then focus more on their communities which have tangible needs that can and should be met by those who would have been previously preoccupied with the news.

Bilbro (2021) rightly states that “What we attend to reveals and shapes our loves, so if our attention is fixed on the thin stratum of the daily news, then we are guilty of a kind of idolatry, of misdirecting our love and even worship” (Loc 194). Furthermore, when persons preoccupy their minds with temporal news, no matter how trivial or apocalyptic, a macadamizing of one’s self takes place which can produce a whole host of problems for persons who are called to be eternally minded on the things above.

*This ebook was provided free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

I've never read any book quite like this. It completely changed the way that I think about reading the news and being informed. It is well researched, but still practical. The author interacted with different refrains Christians often give about reading the news in helpful and challenging ways. This is an academic work that should be referred to whenever any Christian writes about reading the news.

Don't read this book if you are expecting lots of stories and life anecdotes about how to read the news better. This is an academic work and it reads like one. The author quotes extensively and builds on the work of previous scholars.

Do read this book if you want a serious theology of how Christians have and should interact with the news. I don't think that it is unreadable for the lay person, but you will have to prepare yourself that it is a more academic work.

I got a free digital copy of this book from netgalley, but I found it so helpful that I am going to have to buy a physical one when it comes out.

I actually really like the core message of this book, but I think the execution falls short. I have a lot of THOUGHTS and will likely write a full review soon, but here are my main takeaways:

- I like the overarching idea of evaluating how we keep time, especially in terms of kairos vs chronos
- It has great ideas on attention, habits, and engagement in public spheres.
- It quotes too much and I can't figure out the author's original and personal ideas. Also, those references are so old??? Thoreau fanboy???
- Though much more nuanced than I expected it to be--then again, I have a low bar for this--it still is rooted in an unexamined place of privilege.
- The author starts this off with an anti-social media bias, and though there are great attempts to analyze the online landscape, his take lacks depth.
- Where are the verses?????????????????????????? For a book that is supposed to be about theological standpoints with regards to reading the news, much of the framework is based on works by Thoreau, Melton, Griffith, Pascal, and more. I read this to hopefully gain more insight into how the prophets engaged with the news, for example, but not much is here. Its only notable Scripture reference is Psalm 1 which forms the meat of Chapter 2, but it does not resurface in later parts of the book.

I like it and would recommend it if you live in the US, but take its discussion with a grain of salt.

Reading the Times was an intriguing and fascinating read. As someone who is deeply disappointed with the way news and social media often negatively impacts our culture, I expected that Bilbro's writing would be comforting while also putting words to my frustration with news. I was not expecting, however, the significant focus on our cultural understanding of time contrasted with how humanity has historically interpreted time.

Bilbro pulled from famous authors, writers, journalists, such as Henry Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and Wendell Berry, to challenge the reader's view of time, how it passes, and how that view affects the way we hear news. Bilbro argues that our view of time highly affects how we seek and interpret news, therefore it is not only our consumption habits that need to be corrected, but our philosophy of how time functions. I found this book a delight to read, a healthy challenge to my intellect, and an encouragement towards living with rhythms of rest and renewal.

Thank you to the author for your dilligent work in producing this work and to IVP and NetGalley for granting me a free electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

A few decades ago, we receive news via the radio or the daily printed newspaper. We hear the daily digest or news bites with the radio and for more details, we open up the editorial pages or the news reports for both local and foreign news. Then comes the Internet. Our hunger for news and information remains but the medium we use differs. This also coincides with the cellphone revolution accompanied by the rise of social media platforms. The new technological landscape has also broken up the dominion of the humble newspaper or printed magazines. Now, we read news snippets via short texts such as Instagram, Tik-Tok or Twitter; and longer pieces via blogs or websites. For information that matters to friends, we might opt for FaceBook. We look for jobs via LinkedIn, read books on electronic devices, do quick updates on Twitter, and watch videos on YouTube, and many more. When freedom of the press meets freedom of individual expression, everybody becomes a reporter, an editor, and sometimes, an expert. In such a decentralized environment, it becomes more challenging to sieve out the truth from falsehood. Even celebrity gossip and news opinions have become so decentralized that the world sees only specific angles from any one social media user. On the topic of news, Bilbro raises several specific questions on reading the news. Underlying these is a growing awareness that our daily habits are more effective than what we say or believe.

What do we need to know on how to love our neighbours?
What do we need to attend to on faithful living in our present era?
How do we experience time?
How should we belong to one another?

Part One of the book describes the present news landscape and why they are inadequate for neighbourly living. Bilbro begins with Thoreau's insights of a "macadamized mind," a mind that reeks of fragmented attention, susceptible to advertising gimmicks, and inability to sympathize with neighbors. He traces how "attention" is linked to the same Indo-European roots that mean "to stretch." The danger is that our minds could be altered when we allow them to attend to trivial things. He helps us understand this attention via the example of Marc Chagall's "Solitude" which is a visual expression on one who meditates on the Law day and night. In contrast to the fleeting images of our modern world which comes and goes, meditation is a spiritual discipline that helps us focus and remain rooted in something bigger than ourselves. This calls for cultivating habits of attention and discipline such as avoiding checking social media first thing in the morning or having the TV constantly running throughout the day. Refuse intellectual candy or temporal gratification. Differentiate between satisfying our appetites versus fulfilling deep longings. Filled with suggestions on how to improve our attentiveness, readers will be challenged to go against the status quo of reading modern media uncritically.

Part Two offers a theological response. Part Three suggests some practical ways in which we could read news constructively and respond appropriately. This calls for a paradigm shift from seeing time merely as chronos time but kairos time. This is like observing clock time vs compass time respectively. The former just go through the motions of the day while the latter learns to keep pace according to the level of importance and sense of call. Bilbro fills us in with historical examples that go beyond mere liberalism vs conservatism or the political left vs right battles. Truth is, both sides have glimpses of what is true plenty of biased news that tend toward falsehood. It takes a discerning mind to tell the difference. Gradually, we are guided toward the holy significance of kairos, that the "arc of history" is tilted not toward Roman nor liberal regimes, but captive to the risen Word. He calls us Christians not to replace the Word with the world. They should also resist substituting morning prayers with the newspaper. These are basic practices for the Christian to remain attentive to God's kairos.

Part Three deals with our interactions with the public. Bilbro reminds us that our tendency toward partisanism and superficial relationships is because of our lack of community. Our social belonging is increasingly being molded by the world, especially the news we hear and read. Bilbro sketches a history of how the different media technologies have changed our social links; how we unwittingly fall into the "rationalist delusion" and that truth is found mainly in the news we read or hear. If we are not careful, our "warped dependence" on the news of today will not only tear apart the social fabric of our remaining relationships, it would damage our own sense of perception about what is Truth.

My Thoughts
==============
This is perhaps one of the most important books ever written to pushback on the rising militancy of radical news and social media that feeds on an illusion of "moral majority." Marshall McLuhan's "The Media is the Message" has become more pronounced than ever. The fear is that the media has evolved beyond mere message but is masqueraded as Truth. For believers to spend more time on social and mass media would be indoctrinating themselves subconsciously with the worldly values that seek to disenfranchise oneself and the community. News divides people easily into the left or the right. Even the most centralist person would tend to lean toward one side when pressed. We need to rise up against the falsehood of numbers or democratic overtures that put the benefit of the doubt on the majority. As we have known from the biblical story of the two spies (Joshua and Caleb) who said yes on entering the Promised Land, and the ten spies who said no, the majority is not always right. Jesus himself was in the minority. In fact, he was alone as he went to the cross. Standing up for the Truth is risky, and for Jesus, it is fatal. There is a raging battle going on right now. Christians need to wake up to this reality. They ought to wake up from any slumber and to be equipped with the tools as taught in the Scriptures. whether it is the armour of God, the fruit of the Spirit, the spiritual gifts, etc., the important thing is to be filled with God's Word amid the dizzying array of opinions and pluralistic thoughts. I am glad that Bilbro reminds us about morning prayers, the need to keep the Word above all else, and the practice of spiritual attention to God's timing. His liturgies of attention, of Christian time, and of Christian belonging form the trinity of what it means to read the times of today.

Of attention, he urges us to read beyond the times of today and to embrace the significance of eternity. That means learning to be patient and not be distracted by the sensationalism of the modern press. Learn to notice what is important. Learn to read well by cultivating an inner disposition toward significance instead of sensation. Of Christian Time, the first step is to recognize our patterns of dependence to chronos lifestyle. The next step is to move away from this paradigm toward biblical patterns. Appreciate art. Learn from history. Develop a discipline. Of Christian Belonging, take a walk to appreciate the nature of God's creation. Much of our world have been lived online, which is only a snippet of reality.

The famous German theologian Karl Barth used to say: "Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible." That is past wisdom that continues to be relevant today. While traditional mainstream media have been roughly divided into camps on the Right, the Middle, or the Left, it is more challenging to try to classify the diverse voices in social media. Perhaps, we should rise above all of these labels and let God speak. Let God be God and everyone else, liars. May this book be a powerful resource to equip more people to discern from the Bible about Truth. Then and only then, can we truly be set free. Whether one calls this book a wake-up call or a paradigm shake-up, every Christian who uses social media or consumers modern media should read this book. For many of us, it will wake us up to see the flaws of the news we consume. For some of us, we badly need a shakeup to start realizing that the Truth is not out there in the news but to be discerned with the Word of God.

Jeffrey Bilbro is an Associate Professor of English at Spring Arbor University and an editor at the Front Porch Republic.

Rating: 4.75 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of InterVarsity Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

I was excited to read this book, as I had not seen anything else like it. The concept of knowing how to take in and interpret the news saturated environment that we currently live in. The author explains that we are constantly bombarded by news snippets (or "snacks") with all the "clickbait" that is available. While this isn't entirely bad, we as Christians should be careful to take those "snacks" and go further. We should investigate these themes that catch our attention and look deeper into them, by reading more thoughtful essays or books on the subjects, by seeing how this theme interacts with the world & times, how does it relate to the gospel. These were wonderful suggestions. The book was laid out in a very organized matter, I knew where it was going and what to expect. In fact, there is much from this book that I will ponder and use to curate my news consumption in the future.

This author was a very well-read person. I found that in the book he whetted my appetite to read other authors such as Thoreau. That being said, in Reading the Times, I found that there were almost too many quotes. For example, if I wanted to read what Thoreau thought about a certain subject - i would read Thoreau (which I may well do). I would have preferred slightly less quotes and more articulation on the subject. i greatly enjoy a more "conversational method" of writing.
So while the subject matter interested me, I was slightly disappointed in the way this information was presented. i would give this book 3.5stars

Bilbro cleverly helps readers to see how the development of regular news reports, the printing press and other innovations have not only changed what we know about the world, but how we think about the world. Some of the middle chapters are written in a more technical style that is harder to get through, but even then his insights are worth digging through the academic language to understand how our view of time, what qualifies as important in time, and what it means to live well in the time we have, is influenced more by our culture than we care to admit. A terrific case for careful cultural discernment in an age of easy engagement.

Jeffrey Bilbro forces readers to consider the nature of the news we consume. For those of us who are wrapped up in a 24-hour news cycle, it can be hard to step back and consider what habits and attitudes our viewing has instilled in us, often times unconsciously. Bilbro breaks his book into three parts: attention, time, and community. Each section is broken into three chapters which provide a kind of overview of the topic, a theological perspective on the topic, and then practical applications of the theological principles which he refers to as liturgies.

I am very sympathetic to many of the concepts in this work, so I think I am exactly the kind of reader that this book was written for. I do believe that, for example, our concept of chronological time lends itself to the secular progressive narrative that the future is always going to be an improvement on the past. I do believe, as another example, that subscribing to good publications and supporting them is important as well.

Bilbro is a thoughtful, clear writer who is a pleasure to read. This is a book I will recommend in our media saturated yet media frustrated culture.