In a recent post we briefly discussed the way in which the media we consume shapes to a significant extent what we desire, what we think, and how we feel about ourselves and our society. The issue merits further reflection for Christians studying or working in an academic setting. Christian academics are, so to speak, professional consumers and interpreters of ideas and theories, and so a proportion of our working life is taken up, quite rightly, with reading and assimilating our disciplinary “media”.
Now, if our beliefs are formed in large part by habit and custom, then those ideas to which we are most frequently exposed will, mutatis mutandis, assimilate themselves into our own thinking about all of life, not just our academic discipline. Again, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that per se, but it does pay to be aware of what influences are most actively shaping our view of the world, whether we may be aware of it or not.
So here’s a brief exercise to raise our awareness of how our minds, feelings and dispositions are being shaped…
Think back to everything you have watched, everything you have listened to, and everything you have read over the past fortnight (if we make the timeframe any longer it becomes hard to remember). Include everything: radio in the car, the daily newspaper, music on public transport, books you have read, websites you’ve looked at, films and TV shows: everything. Now imagine that all the media you have consumed during the past fourteen days is represented in a pie chart which comprises the following four categories[1]:
- Non-Christian entertainment. Media not explicitly offering a Christian view of the world, which you have consumed in order to relax or be entertained.
- Non-Christian uni-related. Media not explicitly offering a Christian view of the world, which you have consumed as part of your courses at university or as part of your research.
- Christian uni-related. Media produced with an explicitly Christian view of the world, which you have consumed as part of your courses at university or as part of your research (perhaps one of the books on the reading list on this blog that is relevant to your studies, or a book exploring through a Christian approach to your discipline).
- Christian non-uni-related. In this category, put all you “devotional” reading and any additional Christian books, music or other media you have consumed in the past two weeks.
It can help to make a list of titles (films, books, albums…) for each category. When you have the list, estimate the time you spent on each title, and then draw your own pie chart, either in your head or on paper. Look at the chart, and reflect on the relative proportions of the four categories. Here are some questions to help you analyse the data:
- According to the pie chart what, in terms of brute hours, is the greatest influence on your view of the world, your desires and your thinking?
- To what extent are you actively seeking to develop a Christian understanding of your discipline?
- If the great majority of your Christian reading is related to your academic discipline, are there any conclusions to draw about the general health of your walk with the Lord?
- If the “Christian uni-related” category is blank, what are likely to be the long-term effects on your general spiritual well-being?
- What would be the ideal proportion of non-Christian entertainment for someone in your position? Are you not relaxing enough or—which is more likely—is this category greedily consuming time that could be much better invested in one of the other areas?
Now you have thought a little about your current habits, draw another pie chart to represent the “ideal” proportions you would like to have for each of the four categories. Be ambitious, but also be realistic.
Now ask yourself: where is the single greatest difference is between the “actual” and the “ideal” charts?
Shrinking that single greatest difference is where you can profitably focus your efforts over the next fortnight. Decide what you will (or will not) read, watch or listen to over the next two weeks, to bring the “actual” chart closer to the “ideal”. The reason for choosing only one area to work on is that trying to change everything at once can quickly lead to discouragement and a sense of failure. Changing one thing at once feels much more achievable, and gives an encouraging and motivating sense of accomplishment much more quickly.
After two weeks, repeat the exercise, once more working on reducing the greatest difference between the two charts.
Exercises like this can be more effective when undertaken in pairs or in groups. Why not get together with another Christian at your institution and share your two-week plans with each other? If you don’t know of anyone at your institution, drop us an email at thechristianscholar [at] gmail [dot] com, or leave a comment at the bottom of this post and we will do our best to encourage you along the way 🙂
[1] The four categories suggested in this post are necessarily somewhat arbitrarily divided, but although the divisions between them may not always be hermetic they nevertheless provide a helpful schema for the purposes of the present exercise.
