I first heard of Jay Y. Kim and his book "Analog Church" from a podcast interview, and I was immediately hooked by his thoughts and the thesis of his book. Little did I (or anyone, for that matter) know that it would be released and that I would have the chance to read it while in quarantine, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this unprecedented time, all churches, whether big or small, Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox, are required to meet virtually and in digital ways, for the sake of the most vulnerable of our communities and for the sake of the world. That being said, it is incredibly ironic that this book about "Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age" was released to the public when we could not meet in person, could not fellowship with our church communities, and could not partake of the Eucharist consistently together.

Rather than viewing this current moment in culture and history as evidence that Kim's thesis for his book that we are in need of embodied and incarnational community in our churches is wrong or misguided, however, I realized that I now understand and agree all the more with Kim's work. For the past month, I have not been able to meet with my Church face to face, we have not been able to pray for one another in person, share meals together, or partake of the Eucharist together. While I believe these are good decisions we are making, to make sure that we take care of people during this time of disease and contagion, it proves to me that the Church is an embodied reality, as our God is an embodied reality in the person of Jesus, his suffering and death is an embodied reality in the Bread and the Wine of the Lord's Supper, and the mystery of our salvation and life out of death is an embodied reality in the waters of Baptism.

This extended time of digital connection has taught me that while our digital spaces and our technologies are helpful means to an end, they can never be an adequate substitute for the real thing: incarnation. We should allow the digital age to serve the growth of the kingdom, rather than crafting the Kingdom in a way that ends up serving the digital age that is much more comfortable and convenient. When we approach the Kingdom of God and the Body of Christ in purely digital ways, we begin to approach the beauty of the gospel and the work of the Church as individualistic, disembodied, private, and consumeristic. Kim does an excellent job at laying out the implications (both positive and negative) that the digital age has on Christian worship, the Church community, and our understanding of Scripture. This book is incredibly helpful, and should be heeded by the Church worldwide, but especially in the West, where we have blindingly followed after the digital age in an attempt to be relevant.

Kim's work is very pragmatic, and much of it is written from his first-hand experience of leading churches in Silicon Valley. I would have appreciated there to be more of an emphasis on what theology, Church history, and the Bible say about this subject. His last chapter focuses briefly on the Eucharist, and while it is good, I would have appreciated more of a focus on the Lord's Supper, as I believe it has a lot to say about this specific subject. In the same way, I think it would have been helpful to point to the theology of incarnation, not only in the person of Jesus but also in his united Body of believers; all of our individual bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, coming together to build a much bigger temple for God's Spirit. Kim's book is much needed, and I would recommend it to anyone in the Church, but most especially to Church leaders; I pray it changes the ways in which we approach the Church and the monumental task of shepherding the flocks with which Jesus has entrusted us.