HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies ISSN: (Online) 2072-8050, (Print) 0259-9422 Page 1 of 9
Original Research
The Bible in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: ‘What’s in it for me?’ Author: Willem H. Oliver1 Affiliations: 1 Department Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology, School of Humanities, College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa Corresponding author: Willem H. Oliver, erna.oliver@outlook.com Dates: Received: 01 Apr. 2020 Accepted: 07 July 2020 Published: 08 Sept. 2020 How to cite this article: Oliver, W.H., 2020, ‘The Bible in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: ‘What’s in it for me?’’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 76(4), a6020. https://doi.org/ 10.4102/hts.v76i4.6020 Copyright: © 2020. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
The society in which we currently live and operate is globally the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and locally our (unique) environment or community. Although we are still in a lag period between the 3IR and 4IR, the 4IR already has a global disruptive effect, with artificial intelligence being gradually implemented, with fluid contexts, and where nobody agrees on anything. Deep learning, unlearning and relearning must take place on a daily basis. The question could well be asked if there is any place for the Bible and Christianity in this new vibrant global community. All theology is contextual. Although theology deals with what is most absolute in reality, citing Mellert, it is also relative in that there is never a final or last answer to most religious questions. The handbook and norm for our theology and religion is still the Bible – a compendium of books written approximately 2000 years ago with no new information added to it ever since. The challenge of the church is to make that information contextual in this ‘disruptive’ era and to bring the gospel in a new and fresh way to everybody without compromising the basic truths and normativity of the Bible. This article argues that the Bible should still take centre stage in the academic training of our theological students, in our preaching of the gospel on a daily basis, in our engagement with people in need and in the transformation of our societies in general. As the centre of Jesus’ preaching on earth was the (coming of the) kingdom of God, he also acted as the perfect example of how to establish the kingdom of God and the flourishing life on earth. Contribution: This is a more practical article and puts the notion of the significance of the Bible within the environment of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As this is a disruptive era, it requires from us to also present the word of God in a ‘disruptive’ way. We will have to present the ‘old’ word of God in a brand-new way so as to make sure that the people of this era will grasp it. Keywords: Bible; Fourth Industrial Revolution; Authority of Bible; Relativity of Bible; Contextual theology; Flourishing life. It’s easy to say that Christ is the answer. But what exactly is the question? (cf. Green 2009:3).
Introduction – The Fourth Industrial Revolution The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is dawning – but has not yet completely dawned – on the third decade of the 21st-century post-postmodern1 global community, being susceptible to any disruptive object or action coming its way. Penprase (2018:210) calls this transition time between the 3IR and the 4IR a ‘lag period’, in which people experiment with and are trained in the new technologies that are disseminated throughout the world. In this lag period, the line between the digital and physical worlds is becoming more and more invisible, with digital technologies being used more frequently, like artificial intelligence (AI),2 the Internet of things (IoT)3 and Big Data4 that are blended with our daily lives (cf. Mohapi 2017). Although many members of the previous generations are very sceptical or totally ignorant about this imminent era, the youth and young adults are very susceptible to it and embracing it, literally with both hands. Smartphones and tablets are visible everywhere, with the adolescents 1.Already in 2012, Jeffrey Nealon started to refer to a post-postmodern society (Nealon 2012). 2.Artificial intelligence, also called machine intelligence, is the development of a computer system or systems that would have the capacity to execute tasks that normally requires human intelligence, such as decision-making, doing translations and speech recognition and having a visual perception.
Read Read online: online: Scan Scan this this QR QR code code with with your your smart smart phone phone or or mobile mobile device device to to read read online. online.
3.Internet of things is a system created to inter-relate computing devices with each other in which they can automatically identify each other and transfer data from and to each other without the interaction of a human being. 4.Big Data analyses very large and complex data sets on computers and extracts information from these large data sets. Note: Special Collection entitled The use of the Bible in Theology, sub-edited by Willem Oliver (UNISA).
http://www.hts.org.za
Open Access