This leads to what may be the most needed rethinking of all—that “big picture.” In other words, the importance of being visual.
The Importance of the Visual
As I wrote in The Rise of the Nones, a lesson from history might be in order when it comes to the importance of the visual. The Lindisfarne Gospels, a 1,300-year-old manuscript, is revered to this day as the oldest surviving English version of the gospels. Lindisfarne is a small island just off the Northumberland coast of England. It is often referred to as Holy Island. Tidal waters cut it off from the rest of the world for several hours every day, adding to its mystique as a spiritual pilgrimage.
Produced around AD 715 in honor of St. Cuthbert, largely by a man named Eadfrith, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, the Lindisfarne Gospels presents a copy of the four gospels of the New Testament. But it isn’t revered simply for its age. Its pages reveal curvy, embellished letters, strange creatures, and spiraling symbols of exquisite precision and beauty. During the 8th century, pilgrims flocked to St. Cuthbert’s shrine where it was housed, making the Lindisfarne manuscript one of the most visited and seen books of its day. Its artwork and symbols helped convey its message to those who could not read.
Professor Richard Gameson from Durham University sees it as a precursor to modern multimedia because it was designed to be a visual, sensual and artistic experience for its audience. Michelle Brown from the University of London notes that the book’s impact was similar to those of films and electronic media today. As Gameson adds, “The emphasis was to reach as many people as possible.”
I have written in other places that there are striking parallels between our day and that of the Middle Ages. If Western society is entering a new era that is similar to the earlier medieval era, what Umberto Eco called the neomedieval, what does that mean? One thing is certain: There will be a deep need for communication to be visual in nature. Over the last 20 years, we have decisively moved to a visually-based world. The most formative influences are not books, theater, or even music—it’s video.
Consider the suggested parallel to the Middle Ages. During the medieval era, there was widespread spiritual illiteracy, as well as actual illiteracy. People couldn’t read. This is why pilgrimages mattered so much to the pilgrims. Beyond the relics and holy places they thought might bestow grace, usually the cathedrals they visited told the story of faith through a medium they could understand: stained glass. In other words, pictures. So, while people couldn’t (or didn’t) read, they couldn’t help but see, and from seeing, understand.
It’s no different today.
We are spiritually illiterate and are visually oriented and visually informed. Only now, instead of stained glass we have TikTok.
An entire subgenre known as “Christian TikTok” exists where Christian TikTok influencers publish everything from sermonettes to best Bible study practices. And many of the young content creators “are on a mission to spark revival among Generation Z.”
But that, of course, is what any church can be doing as well.
Sources
Ben Cost, “The 12 TikTok Trends That Defined 2021: From Hilarious to Terrifying,” New York Post, December 21, 2021, read online.
Joseph Pisani and Theo Francis, “These TikTok Stars Made More Money Than Many of America’s Top CEOs,” The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2022, read online.
James Emery White, Meet Generation Z (Baker), order from Amazon.
“Meet Generation Z: Forget Everything You Learned About Millennials,” Sparks and Honey, June 17, 2014, read online.
On attention span lengths, see the National Center for Biotechnology Information, as well as the U.S. National Library of Medicine, as reported by Statistic Brain Research Institute online here.
For internet browsing statistics, see Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer, “Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use,” in the ACM Transactions on the Web, vol. 2, no. 1, February 2008, article #5.
On “eight-second filters” see Jeremy Finch, “What Is Generation Z, and What Does It Want?” Fast Company, May 4, 2015, read online.
James Emery White, The Rise of the Nones (Baker), order from Amazon.
Alex Williams, “Move Over Millennials: Here Comes Generation Z,” The New York Times, September 20, 2015, read online.
Flavia Di Consiglio, “Lindisfarne Gospels: Why Is this Book So Special?” BBC Religion and Ethics, March 20, 2013, read online.
Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper Reality: Essays, trans. William Weaver (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986).
Rachel Seo, “Meet the TikTok Generation of Televangelists,” Christianity Today, October 20, 2020, read online.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
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