We’re so very excited to say that tomorrow marks the 6th Anniversary of The Two Cities blog! Many thanks to all of you who have read and engaged our blog posts over the years. It really means a lot to us and we’re looking forward to more of it. We’ve recently come off of a brief sabbatical and we’re gearing up for a new and exciting year of musing and reflecting on theology, culture, and discipleship. You can expect new content from us each week with posts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We hope you’ll join in on the conversation and come back often. Please feel free to leave a comment or write us a private email message; as always, we’d love to have you as part of our virtual conversation.
There’s been quite a lot of exciting change among the writing team here at The Two Cities. Some of us moved across the world, started PhD programs, and even got married. For myself, I am happy to say that I accepted a position as assistant professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. Being out here in the Twin Cities as I write my Two Cities blog post is a little funny to me because ever since we started the blog people would sometimes call the blog Twin Cities instead of Two Cities on accident. Sometimes people would joke and say, now which two cities are these again? Are we talking Dickens, or Augustine, or Minneapolis and St. Paul? So it’s kind of fun for me to be living out here now. It’s also personally quite exciting because my Dad grew up out here. So there’s a kind of “coming home” feeling in a way, even though I’ve never actually spent any time in this neck of the woods. There’s one other thing that adds some delightful poetry to my move to Minnesota; it’s funny to me to think that I spent four years reading and researching the writings of St. Paul only to move to a city named in his honor! It all just feels so appropriate.
Getting all set up out here has me thrilled to get back to blogging, and there’s nothing like getting inspired by an anniversary or turn of the year. When reflecting on an anniversary of any kind I tend to get nostalgic. In this case it’s fun to look back at where the blog has come from, with its initial birth as a mere idea among a group of us driving back from a day of cliff jumping at the lake during the fourth of July weekend in 2011. I also think back and reflect on some of our most popular posts, the ones that went fairly viral, and the ones that incited quite a bit of feedback and response from our readers (both the good and the incendiary). Reflecting on our anniversary has also taken me back to the first post we ever had, which has inspired me to approach this new season of life and new season of blogging in a manner marked by intentionality and mindfulness.
Our very first blog post was written on August 15, 2011 by Matt Wilcoxen. It’s called, Technology and the Loss of Poiesis (or, Discipleship in a Nihilistic World). I love thinking that this was the first thing ever published on our blog. There’s an inherent irony in critiquing our (ab)use of technology today through the medium of a blog. If we’re attentive it provides a self-reflective and self-critical ironic rebuke. Of course, here at The Two Cities we’re not Luddites; we recognize the value that technology can add to our lives. But at the same time, it is clear that technology poses a serious threat to our wholeness and well-being, having the affect of making us less human and reducing our joy in the world.
Do you ever find yourself people-watching? I certainly do. I’ve noticed how different it is to people-watch since the advent of the smart phone in particular. In 2011, when Matt’s post first came out, I didn’t own a smart phone yet. I feel like the smart phone craze was just budding its head. Now they’re completely ubiquitous. Even little kids have smart phones. And this had made people watching fairly predictable. How many people in a given public setting aren’t staring at their cell phones? When you’re in line at Starbucks, how many people have their heads down with the glare of a cell phone screen on their face? It’s amazing how less interactive we’ve become in an age of “social media.” We’re becoming more like robots, which, given our affection for technology, shows how true the saying is that we become what we worship.
Looking back at Matt’s post, it’s still just as relevant and poignant today, and perhaps even more so. So as we dive back into regular blogging here at The Two Cities, I hope everyone dives deeper into life and the world that is so full of wonder.
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