S7E5 - The Digital Prophet: Marshall McLuhan, with Nick Ripatrazone

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When Wired magazine started, they did the weirdest thing a tech magazine could do—they picked a patron saint. Was Marshall McLuhan a digital prophet?

Chris interviews Nick Ripatrazone, author of Digital Communion: Marshall McLuhan's Spiritual Vision for a Virtual Age (2022). Nick is the Culture Editor for Image and a Contributing Editor for the Catholic Herald.

Find out why McLuhan, in his mid-20s, left his nominal Baptist upbringing for a robust Catholic faith. Plus, are smartphones the new stained glass window?

In the book, Ripatrazone writes, "For McLuhan, mass media was a form of Mass. When we communicate electronically, not only do we send information; we send ourselves." He unpacks this idea more fully in this episode. Afterward, Adam and Chris discuss how digital media provides a kind of "secular" communion, and whether McLuhan's uniquely Christian metaphor ultimately breaks down.

Finally, find out whether Nick thinks the digital age requires us to reimagine the sacraments in a virtual world.

LINKS

Nick’s book is Digital Communion: Marshall McLuhan’s Spiritual Vision for a Virtual Age.

Marshall McLuhan’s books include Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, The Medium is the Massage, and The Gutenberg Galaxy.

Chris mentions the posthumously published, The Medium and the Light, as well as Douglas Coupland’s biography, Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work!

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