A View From the Keyboard

Thomas S. Buchanan on The First Church of Cyberspace

As you enter the sanctuary you look out a window and see a sailboat gently gliding across a lake. A quote beneath the window is from St. Anselm: “Free will is like the sailor adjusting tiller and sheets. Though it is sometimes a struggle, we can choose to hold the boat of our life steady into the wind of the spirit.” As you listen you notice a single guitar playing Luther’s A Mighty Fortress is Our God. As you look about you see a soprano readying her special selection of You Are So Beautiful, while three homilists are preparing their messages.

Welcome to the First Church of Cyberspace (http://www.execpc.com/~chender)—an interactive multimedia gathering place that is “seeking colleagues interested in collaborating with us as we envision those new forms of faith community that are emerging at the dawn of a new millennium.” The First Church offers many amenities to its virtual parishioners: an art gallery with works from the Sistine Chapel, a multimedia Bible, a library, movie reviews, animated presentations, and discussion groups. All this, and the three sermons—complete with graphics—are just a mouse-click away.

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Thomas S. Buchanan is the George W. Laird Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware. He has studied at UCSD, Northwestern University, and MIT, and has held visiting professorships at the University of Western Australia and the University of Aix-Marseille. He has served as department chairman, deputy dean, and institute director, president of the American Society of Biomechanics, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Biomechanics. He is on the Board of Trustees of Saint Katherine College, the editorial board of Touchstone, and the board of The Fellowship of St. James.

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