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Is Our "Info-glut Culture" Becoming Wiser?

James Billington currently (as of January 2014) serves as the 13th Librarian of Congress, overseeing the largest library in the world. The Library of Congress was established by an act of Congress in 1800. In 1815 the Library accepted 6,487 books from the library of Thomas Jefferson. As of 2012, the Library of Congress had a collection of more than 155 million items, which included more than 35 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages and nearly 120 million additional items in various formats.

But in the midst of managing this enormous collection, Billington argues that it's even more difficult for our nation to know what to do with all of this information. Describing the contemporary world as "an info-glut culture," Billington asks a probing question: "But have we become any wiser?"

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Wisdom—How do we live a life of wisdom in our "info-glut" culture? (2) Bible; Scripture—35 million catalogued books in the Library of Congress, but one book is the divinely inspired Word of God. (3) Conversion; Salvation—We're not saved by accumulating more and more information; we're saved by the power of Christ through faith. (4) God, Omniscience of; God, wisdom of—Everything in the Library of Congress is a drop in the bucket compared to God's omniscience.

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