Welcome to now. Our technology has greatly improved much of our lives, but in the process our brains are being rewired on a daily basis, and our capacity to be centered in our souls, in our lives, is at risk.
Brain scientists are aware of this unprecedented change, but the solutions aren’t found in science: They’re found in the ancient practices of the faith. Tricia McCary Rhodes reintroduces us to the classic disciplines of Scripture reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation, not just as technologies to aid our faith but as tools to keep us focused and mindful in an increasingly disorienting digital age.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Wired Souls in a Digital World
PART ONE: LECTIO
2. Slow Reading and Deep Thinking
Practice: slow
reading
3. Eat This Book
Practice:
receptive reading
Practice:
retentive reading
PART TWO: MEDITATIO
4. May I Have Your Attention, Please?
Practice:
god-focused deep breathing
5. Meditation—the Laboratory of the Soul
Practice:
biblical meditation
PART THREE: ORATIO
6. Praying the Texts of Our Digital Lives
Practice:
examen regarding corrupted desire
7. Alone . . . Together
Practice: a
brief and prayerful assessment
Practice:
table-talk connections
PART FOUR: CONTEMPLATIO
8. The Contemplative Life
Practice:
contemplation in solitude
Practice:
contemplation in action
ENDORSEMENTS
“Tricia Rhodes’s The Wired Soul is a beautifully written
book for digital immigrants, natives and second-generation net-surfers. She
uses the four movements of Lectio Divinato invite the reader to unplug, slow
down, single-task, and begin to override unhealthy behavioral habits, settling
into a leisurely, transformative relationship with God.”
---GARY W. MOON, Executive
director of the Martin Institute and Dallas Willard Center, Westmont College; author of Apprenticeship with Jesus
“Technology is like a present: It
can be either a gift or bait. Here is a book mature in wisdom and rich in
interactive resources to help us discern what augmentations enhance life and
what amputations drain away the blood and reduce the soul to stubs of ones and
zeros.
---LEONARD SWEET, Bestselling
author (leonardsweet.com), professor (Drew University, George Fox University,
Tabor College), and founder of preachthestory.com
“Like so many others, I long for
a more contemplative life. I know it’s in my best interest. Yet my desire and
my experience, born out of my choices, don’t often seem to be on the
friendliest of terms. Rhodes offers a practical (yes!), fascinating, and
insightful set of explanations, encouragement, and tools. This is a useful book,
very much worth digesting.
---MARK OESTREICHER, Partner at
The Youth Cartel, author of A Parent’s
Guide to Understanding Teenage Brains
