Documents, Sermons, and the Paperless Society

Chapter 7 of The Social Life of Information by Brown and Duguid opens with a wonderful story by Duguid of an allergy inducing experience while working with an archive of dusty letters dating back about 250 years. One day he was joined by a fellow researcher who would open a letter, look at it briefly, hold the letter to his nose, take long, deep sniff, put the letter back in the envelope, make a note on his legal pad, open another letter and repeat the process. After observing this for several hours, Duguid finally asked about the olfactory fascination with each letter. Turns out the researcher was sniffing for traces of vinegar used to disinfect letters before they were mailed during outbreaks of cholera in order to prevent spreading the disease. Thus, he was mapping a chronological trail of cholera outbreaks in Europe.

Brown and Duguid relate the story to make the point that there is much more to a document than letters on a piece of paper. The chapter is a thought provoking essay on the dynamic tensions between the fixed and fluid, mutable and immutable, nature of documents. The printing press was hailed as a means to fix information content against the potential tampering inherent with hand-written copies of documents. At the same time, the printing press made the information fixed within a document fluid by allowing for quick and affordable copies for wider distribution. The technology of the telegraph, radio, television, and the web all pull society in the direction of fluid information, supposedly at the expense of printed documents such as books, newspapers, and office memos. Books, newspapers, and the use of office printers continue to thrive in the face of several decades worth of predictions of their demise as we supposedly evolve in a paperless society.

Brown and Duguid argue that fixed documents continue to exist because they create community by providing a common reference point for people by which they can read, refer to, and discuss. While documents as fixed products will continue to exist, the technology makes it increasing difficult to control ownership of fixed products and the economics are starting to focus on service and performance (fluid) rather than copyrighted product (fixed). Musicians are adopting economic models based on musical performance rather than musical product even if their recording companies are loath to do so.

The point of this long introduction is to argue that sermons have been in the middle of this fixed-fluid document dynamic for hundreds of years. The sermon as performance serves as a fluid expression and potential discussion starter focusing on a particular portion of fixed Scripture text. Scripture as a fixed document is an important resource of common experience for a vast number of communities. Yet the Scripture is also fluid and inconsistent. In one passage we are told it is acceptable to take an eye for an eye, in another passage we are told to turn the other cheek.

Scripture is read during a worship service so that everyone present is "on the same page" and the text is then interpreted in such a fluid way as to apply to the life and times of persons living many centuries removed from the time of the Scripture writer. The sermon is understood as a fluid, customized, message from God for a particular group of people at a particular place in a particular time. Yet for all this fluid leaning, Scripture is understood as the fixed authority on how one should live and what one should believe. Who knew such an ancient document was so current to the dynamic issues of modern life?