Newsletter #69
On Two Notable Deaths
Happy Mothers’ Day! (It still counts if you didn’t see the people on Sunday to tell them.)
Unlikely Influences
In the past month, two people notable in my spiritual and intellectual development died: Charles Stanley (d. April 18) and Albert Borgmann (d. May 7).
These were significant men, though for quite different reasons. Readers most likely have heard the voice of the former but never the name of the latter.
Stanley was perhaps the most recognizable conservative evangelical preacher in radio and television for decades. He pastored the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia for nearly 50 years.
Borgmann was an academic—a longtime philosopher at the University of Montana. He was arguably the most insightful philosopher of technology in the last thirty years.
Remembering Charles Stanley
My experiences with Stanley date back to my childhood. My Grandaddy Elbert was a devout follower of Christ. He was one of the most faithful Bible readers and prayer warriors I’ve ever known, and a committed member of his church, one he served as a Deacon on and off for over 40 years. Grandaddy was my entry-point into Stanley’s ministry.
It wasn’t uncommon to stay with my grandparents on a Saturday night. I'd wake up Sunday morning (first to French toast!) and go to church with them. Before we’d leave the house, Charles Stanley’s Sunday broadcast would usually be on television. It wasn't a substitute for their own pastor’s sermon. Perhaps an appetizer.
Years later I had a bad car accident and have to be taken to town during the summer months for physical and occupational therapy. Who else but Grandaddy would take me? As we drove down Highway 301, we would take in Adrian Rogers, Chuck Swindoll, J. Vernon McGee, and of course, Charles Stanley. I remember thinking how similar and yet different each of these men were in their homiletical approach. I also remember thinking, “Grandaddy listens to a lot of sermons!”
The roles would be reversed before long as Grandaddy Elbert would undergo treatment for lung cancer. I sometimes drove him to town for his appointments. (For some reason, I remember sitting in one waiting room reading The Gagging of God, one of the best Christian books you never hear anything about anymore.) But on the way to and from the appointments, the same line-up of preachers mentioned above would grace the airwaves.
As I developed theologically, I learned more about the differences between Southern Baptists and Free Will Baptists. This made my ears more attuned to Stanley frequently given defense of the eternal security. That annoyed me. I also thought his delivery could use some work, mainly, in stopping to pause more. (Chuck Swindoll was better at that.)
As I moved through my college years I learned a bit more about some of the controversy surrounding Stanley’s ministry, particularly, his divorce in the late 1990s, and what was often a strained relationship between him and his son. I didn’t know enough about either to know what to make of them. I didn’t stop listening to him because of them. I had already moved on to different authors and preachers for other reasons.
But when I heard of Stanley’s death recently, it gave me pause. I read a few of the tributes, but I didn’t go hunting down Stanley sermons to take a trip down memory lane. His voice already echoes in my memories. To be completely truthful, his preaching has impacted my own preaching. The ease and confidence with which he delivered God’s Word were impressive. They're a potent combination. Moreover, Stanley’s ministry constitutes another link in the rich bond I share with my late grandfather.
I will forever be grateful for this unique “television preacher.”
Remembering Albert Borgmann
Albert Borgmann spent most of his career as a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana. The German-born professor’s work spanned everything from postmodernism to embodiment to political philosophy.
Borgmann’s religious views aren’t altogether clear to me, though they seem authentic. He was raised Catholic, but I’m told that he was worshiping in an Episcopal setting by the end of his life. He wrote at times about the intersection of the Christian faith with other areas of thought, was interviewed by more than one Christian publication, and has had his work appropriated by multiple religious writers.
One could reasonably wonder why Borgmann’s work—largely in the continental philosophy stream—was of special interest to people of different Christian backgrounds. It’s because he turned his analysis to the most pervasive feature of contemporary life: technology.
By “technology” I don’t merely mean the prevalence of digital technology, devices, and the Internet more generally. I mean the way in which ideas about technique and the good life collide.
My first encounter with Borgmann was either as an upperclassman at Welch College, or in the first year or two into seminary. By my junior year of college, I had begun to view a lot of modern technological development (and responses to it from the church) with concern. Encountering the works of Neil Postman, and later Marshall McLuhan, Jacques Ellul, Walter Ong, and others exposed me to a world of “tech criticism” that I simply wasn’t seeing in evangelical circles.
I kept digging. Eventually a mentor mentioned Borgmann’s name. I was intrigued and delighted to learn that “philosophy of technology” was an actual thing.
While I haven’t yet made it through the full body of Borgmann’s work—barely a fraction of it really—what I have read has been provocative and rich. Mike Sacasas, one of the most insightful writers on technology today, has shared some reflections on Borgmann and republished an older essay that considers some of Borgmann’s ideas. Readers can find more of Borgmann’s work online. Power Failure is probably the most accessible place to start, though Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life is much more profound and important. A shorter entrée into Borgmann would be this interview which first appeared in The Christian Century some years ago. Finally, Ken Myers has a fantastic interview with Borgmann in a much-earlier edition of the Mars Hill Audio Journal.
Borgmann has helped me and many others think about important concepts like convenience, flourishing, focal things and practices, the device paradigm, and more. (See the Sacasas article above if you’d like to go deeper on any of these.)
Seasons and Needs
I can hardly think of two men more different in terms of interests and vocations than Stanley and Borgmann. Besides their advanced ages and them both being Christians (as far as I can tell for Borgmann), one could be forgiven for thinking them to be in different intellectual galaxies.
Nevertheless, their recent deaths have reminded me of two types of influences (among the many which exist): those who form us in important seasons and those who form us in important concepts. I would identify Stanley with the former and Borgmann with the latter, though my encounter with Borgmann also came in an important season of intellectual development.
Sometimes God sends us key people in a pivotal moment or season. They may not end up being a close friend, mentor, or literary influence once that moment or season is 30 or 40 years in the rearview mirror. For that matter, we may barely even recall them. Yet they met a need in a timely way.
Sometimes God sends us key people to introduce us to something we haven’t yet considered. These can be academic or intellectual in nature, though they need not be. I remember a dear brother who helped me as a 19-year-old think about the centrality of relationships to the entire Christian enterprise. We spoke recently, but we probably hadn’t spoken for two years. I’d say he was a key influence in an important season, but he also helped me think about a concept.
I think of certain authors who I cut my teeth on, yet I seldom ever think of them. Still, they helped me.
Sometimes influences are about time, sometimes topic, but often both. In these days, I’m thankful for the varied influences of Charles Stanley and Albert Borgmann.
Follow-Up:
In an earlier newsletter I reflected on the experience of purchasing a Bible. Yet I continued to try to find a way to repair my damaged Bible. It turns out that book mending is a lost and dying art. However, through my connections to Concordia Seminary, I’ve found a young seminary student learning how to mend books and Bibles. I will pick my old Bible up on Tuesday. I’ll let you know how it turned out.
Currently Reading:
Still catching up on several partially read titles!
Quote of the Week:
And yet 70 percent of Americans — and a slight majority of Democrats — remain remarkably unmoved. They don’t want Biden to run again. That’s even more than the 60 percent who don’t want Trump to run again. And the news this week was dominated not by the president’s bid for re-election, as one might expect, but by a cable host’s sudden dismissal from Fox News. And you can understand why. The thought of a Trump-Biden rematch is soul-deadening and mind-numbing to me and countless others — which is why 38 percent of the country describe themselves as feeling “exhausted” by the prospect. Ask yourself this: if you woke up tomorrow to discover that neither man was going to run next year, how would you feel?
Precisely.
Andrew Sullivan, “The Tucker-Bobby Insurgencies.”