If you had time to slow down, you’d notice: You’re more easily distracted lately. You forget the details of your life more often than you used to. You get easily agitated and have trouble resting, even though you’re more tired than you remember ever being. Even your spiritual life is not immune: You struggle to pray, to read the Scriptures, to be still and know that God is God.

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