Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age

What images should I feed my eyes?

We often leave this question unanswered because we dont ask it. Maybe we dont want to ask it. But viral videos, digital images, and other spectacles surround us in every directioncompeting for our time, our attention, our lust, and our money. So we let our lazy eyes feed on whatever comes our way. As a result, we never stop to consider the consequences of our visual diet on our habits, desires, and longings.

Journalist Tony Reinke asked these hard questions himselfcritiquing his own habitsand now invites us along to see what he discovered as he investigated the possibilities and the pitfalls of our image-centered world. In the end, he shares the beauty of a Greater Spectaclecapable of centering our souls, filling our hearts, and stabilizing our gaze in this age of the digital spectacle.

Table of Contents:

Part1:The Age of the Spectacle

1: Life inside the Digital Environment

2: Spectacles Defined

3: Distracted Spectacle Seekers

4: Image Is Everything

5: The Spectacle of the Self in Social Media

6: The Spectacle of the Self in Gaming

7: Spectacles of Tele-Vision

8: Spectacles of Merchandise

9: Politics as Spectacle

10: Terror as Spectacle

11: Ancient Spectacles

12: Every Nine Seconds

13: The Spectacle of the Body

14: The Church in the Attention Market

Part2:TheSpectacle

15: Spectakils in Tension

16: Prynnes Footnote

17: The Worlds Greatest Spectacle

18: Is the Cross a Spectacle?

19: Two Competing Theaters

20: Spectators of Glory

21: The Church as Spectacle

22: The Church as Spectacle Maker?

23: A Day inside the Spectacle

24: Our Unique Spectacle Tensions

25: One Resolve, One Request

26: The Spectator before His Carving

27: A Movie So Good It Will Ruin YouWould You Watch It?

28: Resistible Spectacles

29: Summations and Applications

30: My Supreme Concern

31: A Beauty that Beautifies

32: The Visio Beatifica

33: Dis-Illusioned but Not Deprived

Tony Reinkeis the communications directorfor desiringGod.org. He is the author ofLit!: A Christian Guide to ReadingBooks;Newton on the Christian Life; and12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You.