As I’ve begun re-tweeting Bonhoeffer tweets (when did he get a Twitter account? Is that an iPad I see in his hand?), I’m wondering how beneficial it is to tweet thoughts of great theologians like him? Is it advantageous to extract from the context and simply post a snippet? Is there a disservice or a re-appropriation which occurs in doing so?
For that matter, is it right to do so with a snippet of Scripture? Do “sound-bytes” do justice to the complexity of thought involved or is there an altogether new sense suggested by extracting statements from their original context?
For me, it is an insight into the quandary of authorial intent and honoring the author with their own sense while still offering (perhaps) a new sense with the abbreviated quote (putting aside for the moment that such “quotes” are actually taken from an English translation of Bonhoeffer or the Bible). What are your thoughts on the tweeting of passages of insight?
Related articles
- Reading Bonhoeffer with Jeff Wheeldon (iheartbarth.wordpress.com)
I Heart Barth 