Regis Debray has attempted something quite monumental, a theography-a map of the idea of God. He arges that the idea of God, a directing diety, is quite peculiar, absurd even. But Debray is not out to debunk the idea of God so much as to give an account. He brings lots of things under scrutiny, beginning with the Bibl, a book he says that "fabricates an origin in order to invent a destination." Again, he is not simply out to trash scripture, he just wants to re-orient how we might think about it, "What matters and what has preserved it is its function as scripts for a drama. It offers stories that everyone can take part in. It provides a stage where we can find ourselves. But who we find depends to a large extent on our imaginations, and these are shaped by technology."
Technology feautures heavily in Debray's theory--and by technology I dont just mean media or information technology. He starts with the wheel, arguing that the wheel allowed us to travel and opened us up to the vastness of the world and its similarities--prior to this he says that each place had its own god etc. He talks about the new mobilites of the body, of work, of address via the transport revolution. "The railway and the car accelerated urbanization, which had as a corollary de-Christianization, since our Church was rural in its structures (diocese, province, parish) and its rituals were based on agrarian rhythms."
He also addresses the technology of noise-"God, we have seen, breathes better in deserts sheltered from greenhouse emissions (less CO2 and CH 4, whereas there is methane in swamps). Similarly, we sense His presence when canticles - or - silence - can be heard. Just as He prefers candles to flashbulbs, He chose murmurs as opposed to shouts, and music against noise."
It is a provocative view of things divine and worth an exploration I think. There is a payoff but I will leave that for you to discover for yourselves shold you choose to read. I resonate with much of what he has to say and find it quite fascinating. In fact, much of it, I think I had come to before I read the book, but his connections are much more refined and expansive than mine.
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