Take a moment to consider how you would respond to these questions:
1) What is the biggest issue facing the church today?
2) Where are Christians most tempted to compromise the truth?
3) How should pastors help their people be effective witnesses for the gospel?
Maybe you have answers to each, but you might also notice how vague the questions are. Question 1 gives no indication of what I mean by “the church” or the “biggest” issue. Question 2 doesn’t specify which kinds of Christians or which particular truth might be compromised. Question 3 fails to qualify what kinds of pastors should give what kind of help to which kind of people. Each question is misleading because every Christian, church, and pastor lives in a specific context. They are embodied persons existing in particular places and times. They experience particular needs and crises.
It’s increasingly difficult to remember our particularity in the digital age. The Internet leads to “context collapse.” It places into a space that is intrinsically faceless and lacks geographic borders. That space generalizes language and thought, ignores the very real differences between people and places, and pushes us toward highly generic ways of speaking and thinking.
The
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