Can you translate the Bible into emoji? 😂. Some Christian leaders say No Way. But we ❤ this idea. Here’s why.

Some people 👀 emoji as just 😜 cartoons that make texting more fun, but they offer a crucial way to recover our humanity and share our ❤ with others. Could they help us know God better too?

Adam and Chris look at the multi-faceted world of emoji:

• the surprising value of their playful style

• emoji keyboards as cultural battlegrounds 💻

• the history of emoji 📜

• representing gender, sexuality, and politics ✌

• the 🤔 of images . . . and words

• God’s use of images . . . and words

• and, yes, whether the Bible has a place for emoji.

By the ⏭ of this episode, the next emoji you 🤳 will be more than a cartoon. You will 👀 yourself, others, and the world a little bit differently. And you just might 😍 God a little bit more too.

Links

Big shout out to Paddy Johnson whose Gizmodo article, “Emoji We Lost,” started us thinking about emoji in a deeper way. Worth your time if you want to dig in a bit more.

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is awesome. A fast, entertaining, and smart read. More than an introduction to comics, it’s a study in how we perceive, communicate, and represent the world we live in.

Here’s McCloud’s spectrum of faces, realistic to iconic.

To see the Google blob/💃 emoji Chris mentions, go here.

Daniella Zsupan-Jerome discusses the idol vs the icon in her paper: “Virtual Presence as Real Presence? Sacramental Theology and Digital Culture in Dialogue.”

News: No new emoji next year, thanks to the global 😷. But here’s the new emoji for 2020.

Send us your favorite Bible verse in emoji (on Twitter or Facebook). ✍ your own, or use the Bible Emoji translator.

The Atlantic reviewed the Emoji Bible. Read it here. 📘

Submit your own emoji to Unicode here, but beware, the process is *intense.*

Academics aren’t above studying emoji. Here’s research on how people use the 🔫, and on the inherent ambiguity to all emoji(s).

TALK BACK

Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter.

Support Device & Virtue. Learn how.