Text Me

de Jeffrey Schein, Brian Amkraut

Common sense tells us that technology can either be a blessing or curse in our lives. The assertion flows easily but deceptively from us. Beneath the flowing assertion, lay many cross currents and much complexity. These complexities are named and laid out for individual and group exploration throughout the book. They provide mirrors for the reader and groups of readers to discover their own affirmations and arguments with their own digital profiles based on Jewish/humanistic religious values. The iterative analysis points back to the double-entendre in the book's title, "text me" can be a command to engage in the famously quick communication as in receiving a text on our smart phones and "text me" can also serve as an imperative to explore the wisdom contained in Jewish texts. The synergies, gaps, creative tensions, and paradoxes living within this double use of "text me" permeate the volume. Though rooted in Jewish sources the tools of analysis can be used by Christians, Muslims, and people who describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious." Indeed, the book is an invitation to all who live in the digital age which is to say all of us. Commentaries provided by scholars of all three of the western, monotheistic faiths highlight this universal dimension.