The Bible as a Social Network

January 25, 2011 in Paradigm with 1 Comment

I was a bit surprised by the headline in one of TechCrunch’s posts yesterday. I thought I must have mistakenly looked at a ministry blog. The title of the post was Rethinking The Bible As A Social Book. Apparently a company called Rethink Books has an iPad app called SocialBooks. The app makes it possible to comment on their books through Facebook or Twitter, and the first release for them will be the Bible.

Certainly the Bible has spurred its share of commentary. This isn’t anything really new, besides the fact that people can do it more easily on social networks. The Bible has always been a social book.

Much of the Old Testament was an oral tradition long before it was committed to writing. It captured the stories of God and man and reminded people as they read it what God had done. The New Testament  was a remembrance of what had happened as well, and the epistles were letters to people or churches. It was an old social network.

Not only was it a social network then, it’s still one now. How many people are brought together to discuss and ponder the writings of the Bible? I could begin to imagine. Because the Bible is alive and more than just a book, it continually reflects thoughts and ideas beyond the times in which it was written.

Wikipedia describes a social network as this:

“A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called “nodes”, which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency”

I can’t think of any reason that doesn’t describe the Bible and it’s readers.

Related posts:

  1. Best Books of 2010 pt. 1

About Paul Martin: Paul Martin lives in Birmingham, Alabama and serves at St. Peter's Anglican Church. He has been working in youth ministry for two decades, but his real passion is discipleship.

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  • http://www.joanuptainwatkins.blogspot.com/ Joan Watkins

    I’ve often thought about this fact I am an active part of a couple of networking groups and our stated intent is to purposely connect so that we might edify one another’s professional standing and to bless one another with new business opportunities. As Followers of Christ and students of God’s Living Word, we intentionally align our lives in order to edify, encourage, and bless one another. Both are trusting in the law of reaping and sowing.

    Thanks for feeding my mind and spirit with this post.