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Common sense tells us that technology can either be a blessing or curse in our lives. The assertion flows easily but deceptively from us. Beneath the flowing assertion, lay many cross currents and much complexity. These complexities are named and laid out for individual and group exploration throughout the book. They provide mirrors for the reader and groups of readers to discover their own affirmations and arguments with their own digital profiles based on Jewish/humanistic religious values.
The iterative analysis points back to the double-entendre in the book's title, "text me" can be a command to engage in the famously quick communication as in receiving a text on our smart phones and "text me" can also serve as an imperative to explore the wisdom contained in Jewish texts. The synergies, gaps, creative tensions, and paradoxes living within this double use of "text me" permeate the volume. Though rooted in Jewish sources the tools of analysis can be used by Christians, Muslims, and people who describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious." Indeed, the book is an invitation to all who live in the digital age which is to say all of us. Commentaries provided by scholars of all three of the western, monotheistic faiths highlight this universal dimension.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Part I: The Big Picture
Chapter 1: Why This Volume?
Chapter 2: First Master Text: Siyag/ The Fence
Chapter 3: Second Master Text: Two (or Four) Notes in Our Pockets
Chapter 4: PARDES/The Orchard as Acronym for Our Time: Complexity, Judaism, and Technology
Chapter 5: Sod/The Spiritual and Philosophical Core
Part II: The Larger Story of Judaism and Technology
Chapter 6: Scratches, Scrolls, Books, and Blogs: The Long History of Judaism's Relationship with Information Technology (Brian Amkraut)
Chapter 7: The Micro and the Macro: Responding to Brian Amkraut's Portrait of Judaism and Technology
Chapter 8: Judaism, Technology, and the Art of Living in Multiple Civilizations
Part III: Jewish Learning and Living
Chapter 9: The Four Chasidic Pockets: Eighth Graders at Heilicher Minneapolis Explore
Judaism and Technology
Chapter 10: Towards a Brain-Friendly and Digitally Wise Model of Learning
Chapter 11: Jewish and Human Identity: Erik Erikson Meets betzelem elohim /human beings as formed in God's image in the Digital Age
Chapter 12: Jewish Conversation and Community in the Digital Age
Chapter 13: Congregations in the Digital Age
Part IV: Coming Full Circle
Chapter 14: Reprise I: A Personal Perspective on Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik's Adam I and Adam II in the Digital Age
Chapter 15: Reprise II: Waiting for Elijah: Machlakot/Enduring Controversies that Matter, What We Yet Need to Know about Our Relationships to Technology
Chapter 16: Reprise III: Revisiting the Questions
Chapter 17: A Pittsburgh and New Zealand Postscript
Appendix
References
Index
About the Commentators
About the Author
About the author
Jeffrey Schein
Summary
This volume examines the intersection of our digital world and the world of religious faith. The exploration highlights both the creative synergies and the troubling divides between the two worlds. Journaling opportunities for the reader within the book personalize the volume.
