The Sacred Gift of Selfies

Selfies are blessings from God. At least that’s the contention of Craig Detweiler in his new book Selfies: Searching for the Image of God in a Digital Age. Where others see only shallowness and vanity, Detweiler, an expert on faith and social media serving as president of the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, sees the outpouring of creativity and the reflection of a self-imaging God. Pastor and film critic Wade Bearden spoke with Detweiler about the historical lineage of selfies and the spiritual possibilities and pitfalls of social media.

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Selfies is designed to give people permission to wait in those valleys—and perhaps even take photographs that reflect being fallen, fractured, hungry, longing, and lonely.

It can be a form of prayer. It can be a form of praise. It can be a form of marking moments with God that we want to remember. Maybe they don’t need to be shared; maybe they actually should be private. To what degree can our smartphones become a form of journaling, of self-reflection? Can it aid us in remembering where we were, of who we are, and whose we are?

I'm not sure they’ve been given permission to say, “You might need a digital Sabbath each week.” Maybe that’s what Sunday is now, a chance to say, “I’m going to put the phone down and kind of get into a different rhythm and look for different prompts in my life.” Because our clocks are connected to our phones, we probably haven’t thought about the fact that they tend to be the first thing we see in the morning and the last thing we see at night. Instead of checking in with God, we’re checking our notifications and our updates. We need to figure out a new way of praying the hours, in sort of an ancient Christian rhythm, while holding (and then putting down) these devices.