Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age

It’s summer, which means my musical work slows down. I always plan to spend the long, warm days reading, writing, and studying—enjoying refreshment through contemplation and creativity.

But then, it happens: the twitching fingers. The urge to check my phone, answer a few emails, and maybe scroll through reels for a minute on Instagram. Or perhaps just to Google a word in a book I’m reading and glance at the news while I’m at it. And I might as skim Facebook and make myself horribly depressed about all the missing animals in my city, right?

As I determine how to spend my summer days, I am grateful for the insight of Tony Reinke’s 2019 book, Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age. Reinke is a Senior Teacher for Desiring God and host of the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper. He is the author of seven solo books, including 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, which I highly recommend. (That book inspired my post, “12 Ways Your Headphones are Changing You.”) Reinke’s most recent book projects center on helping Christians flourish in a technological age.

About

Competing Spectacles is meant as a companion for Christians as they go through “digital detoxes,” which Reinke defines as “the now necessary periods of our lives when we voluntarily unplug from pop media, news media, and social media in order to de-screen our eyes and reorder our priorities.”¹ Throughout Competing Spectacles, Reinke aims to consider how Christians can spiritually thrive in in the age of spectacle, “this ecosystem of digital pictures and fabricated sights and viral moments competing for our attention.”²

The first part of the book focuses on defining and describing the various types of spectacles that crowd our days. Reinke devotes short chapters to the following:

The Spectacle of Self in Social Media
The Spectacle of Self in Gaming
Spectacles of Tele-Vision
Politics as Spectacle
Terror as Spectacle
The Spectacle of the Body

There are profound insights in each of these sections. I was particularly struck by Reinke’s section on terror as a spectacle. Anytime I check social media, I am bombarded with images and clips of destruction, and devastation. Whether it’s war across the world or unrest closer to home, it is impossible to escape these terrifying images and difficult not to react to them immediately. Reinke’s concluding paragraph offers good counsel for those who, like me, might be tempted to respond to such spectacles emotionally without first gathering truthful information and discerning the wisest course of action:

“Images trigger response. Images create impressions. But images are ambivalent. Images cannot carry an argument or imply a critical interpretation. We must bring the criticism ourselves. So every time we see spectacles of military power, or terror-driven bloodshed, we can ask ourselves: What do these images want from me? And who grows more powerful if I give it?”³

Reinke continues to include a small chapter on ancient spectacles, making the point that human beings have always been glory-seekers—and are prone to seeking such glory in all the wrong places. After describing the violent spectacles of Ancient Rome, Reinke transitions to talking about the cross of Christ as the spectacle. He argues that our craving for spectacle can only be satisfied by beholding Christ—that only Christ’s glory is enough to captivate our gaze and fill our hearts forever. After a brief consideration of the church standing in contrast to a world of cheap spectacles, Reinke concludes by providing practical steps to help Christians live wisely in this age.

Review

Competing Spectacles contains many gems worthy of careful consideration and application. I admit that I preferred 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, which is more cohesive and practical. While I understood Reinke’s overarching point—that there is a spiritual competition between the spectacles of the world and the Spectacle of Christ—the organization and argument were not clear. The book could have done better with more developmental editing to tighten up its structure and clarify its thesis.

I also am not sure how comfortable I am calling Christ and the church “spectacles.” Certainly, Christ crucified was a spectacle because crucifixion was meant to be one; the public, shameful nature of this death is notorious. However, “spectacle” is a loaded term. It is rarely used to describe something or someone of real value—let alone genuine glory. I understood what Reinke was going for and appreciate the effort, but extra caveats would have been helpful.

As I am diving into an extended research project on Christians and digital platforms, this book was a good launching point. It draws on excellent sources and its footnotes provide many avenues for further reading. On the whole, though, I would encourage readers who are new to the subject of Christian wisdom for the media age to consider one of Reinke’s other books, Scrolling Ourselves to Death, or Digital Liturgies by Samuel James.

Purchase Information

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