June–July 2007 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. What does Frankenstein have to do with Christianity? Jim Gidley will explain in his fascinating article, "The Soul of Frankenstein." Unless you have read Mary Shelley's 1831 classic, you will be the victim of media distortion-forming an impression based on the visual image, and its commercialization, rather than on a thoughtful reading of the printed word. The book, as they say, is quite different from the several movies. Its insight into the relationship between technology and human nature is profound.

Like fish in their natural environment, we are so immersed in our technologies that we do not notice them, especially the subtly pervasive electronic media. We act as if things have always been this way. Some of us can remember a world without cellular phones, e-mail and personal computers. But anyone born after the middle of the nineteenth century—that is after the invention of the telegraph—has been involved in electronic culture, aware of it or not. How this has shaped culture and the church is a question we should all be intensely interested in. Not being interested opens us up to becoming victims of the liabilities of these inventions. As church officers we cannot afford such indifference.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high quality editorials, articles, and book reviews we will endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic Presbyterianism.