A House Divided: Technology, Worship, & Healing the Church after COVID, by Benjamin D. Giffone. Libertarian Christian Institute, 2025, 240 pages, $19.99, paper.

In the early weeks of the COVID epidemic, many of us predicted that the press would groan in a few years under the weight of manuscripts explaining and interpreting the various public institutions that suffered (some fatally) from either the disease or its cure. The prediction has proven true, and some interpretations of the event are profoundly helpful. Dr. Giffone’s assessment will likely be among the most helpful interpretations, especially because of its intentional discussion of the event’s divisive harm to the church. Giffone is peculiarly capable of addressing the matter: he is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a missionary, and an instructor in theological institutions here and abroad (primarily South Asia and Eastern Europe). In addition to his evident academic ability, he is known for his irenic temperament, a trait not always exhibited by others who assess the COVID difficulty in over-confident or strident terms.

Giffone defines his work as “An Interdisciplinary Public Theology,” explaining that his “aim with this book is to convince the reader that epistemology, theology of worship, communication technology, and the COVID crisis are actually interrelated—and if you care about one, you should care about all of them” (3). His “premise, though, is that the church was already ‘A House Divided’ prior to the pandemic, through uncritical adoption of technology into worship and the life of the church, and through uncritical adoption of scientific ways of knowing” (3–4). Epistemologically, Giffone describes three ways of knowing (especially in the modern West)—knowing through ritual, through Scripture, and through empiricism, asserting that “ritual ways of knowing are undervalued by both Christians and non-Christians in modernity, and that scientific ways of knowing are overvalued” (6, emphasis his).

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 (chapters 2–9) addresses “Technologizing of Worship Before and During COVID: Epistemology, Eschatology, and Presence”; part 2 (chapters 10–15) contains “A Plea for COVID Truth and Reconciliation in Christian Communities”; and part 3 (chapters 16–18) articulates Giffone’s recommendations for “Healing, Repentance, Resilience.” The book is remarkably accessible, especially when one considers that “epistemology, eschatology, and presence” can be difficult or divisive in their own rights. The introductory chapter is helpfully illustrated and lucid and achieves its introductory purpose admirably. At just over two hundred pages, this rich volume amply rewards its readers for their effort.

While much of the conversation about COVID has focused on public institutions such as political institutions or the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), Giffone’s book, while addressing those matters thoroughly and dispassionately, focuses upon liturgical realities both before, during, and after COVID. This makes the book especially important and helpful for church officers who found ourselves somewhat flat-footed when COVID arrived. I myself recall taking no courses on “pastoring during a pandemic” when I was in seminary, and I taught no such courses in my fourteen years of instructing at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, or in over two decades teaching at Grove City College.

Giffone has profound interest in and knowledge of the discipline of Media Ecology, and is motivated throughout to make a compelling theological case “for Embodied Worship and Knowledge through Ritual” (24 ff.). Our Reformed doctrines of incarnation and sacrament compel us to take seriously how we embody (or disembody) our liturgical practices. While Giffone is irenic in tone, and while he demonstrates real sympathy with the plight of church-officers during the pandemic lockdowns and restrictions, he quietly, competently, and thoroughly makes the case that Christian assemblies are Christian assemblies, gatherings of those who corporately celebrate the resurrection every Sunday. Watching a gathering is not gathering; observing an assembly is not assembling; and observing communion is not communing. A House Divided thus denotes two things: that there were “divided” opinions about how to address the COVID crisis, and that we also came to accept non-gathering as normal, and are now, in some cases, physically divided or separated from one another. I recommend that church sessions in the NAPARC communions read and discuss this book together, so that all are on the same page, as it were, as they consider the challenges that COVID thrust upon us.

For the final eighteen years of my teaching career, each fall I taught an introductory course on Media Ecology, so I particularly welcome Dr. Giffone’s recognition that differing media always shape not only the message, but also the messengers and the recipients of the message. Having written several books myself, I wish I had written this one. I commend it heartily to all churchmen.

T. David Gordon is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is a retired professor of religion and Greek at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. Ordained Servant Online, November, 2025