Course Description
This course covers cyber culture and its impact on contemporary Christian religious understanding and practice. Attention will also be given to the impact cyber culture is making on the world of faith and discipleship, our contemporary engagement with the Bible and other sacred texts in digital form.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of the course the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate understanding of how we think theologically about digital culture
- Apply digital methodologies top their theological thinking
- Investigate how religious practice adapts with a dominant digital culture, and which boundaries are there to that adaptation.
- Apply the use of Geographical Information Systems in missions, and church planting
Course Content
Topics
- Digital Culture: An introduction to the digital revolution, technology, culture and communications.
- Introduction to digital humanities, transhumanism and apocalypticism
- The worlds of the Christian: (i) the physical world on earth, (ii) cyber space, (iii) the spiritual world.
- The History of Bible software development
- Reading the pixelated text: Reading the Bible within digital culture, Digitally mediated Christianity.
- The dark side of digitality
- Security and Privacy in the digital world.
- Digital millennials (digitally savvy youth) and the Bible: Their stance towards the Bible, use of it and what impact the Bible has on their social media networks.
- Digi-church and digital liturgy, setting up a cyber ministry.
- Digital Mapping and geographical and demographic distribution of churches using GPS and GIS.
- Ministry-Focused Website Construction
- Social Media and Theology in Cyber Space
- Cyber-missions: Reaching the unreached in Cyber-space.
- Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and the future of Cyber Ministry
Mode of Delivery
Through lectures, demonstrated examples, laboratory exercises, class interaction, group discussion, reading and assignments.
