Question
What Is the Difference Between Formation and Information?
Information is content delivered to the mind. Formation is the slow, embodied shaping of the whole person — and the digital age has trained us to mistake the first for the second, leaving us informed about discipleship while remaining largely unformed by it.
Information transfer is fast and frictionless. We can listen to a sermon while folding laundry, read a theology article between meetings, and follow ten Christian thinkers on social media without setting aside any deliberate time. The result is that many Christians know more about the faith than any previous generation while exhibiting fewer formed habits of prayer, hospitality, generosity, and patient attention. The bottleneck is not access to information; it is the loss of the practices through which information becomes wisdom and wisdom becomes character.
Formation requires what philosopher Alicia Juarrero calls enabling constraints — the limits and practices that shape capacity over time. A musician is formed by scales, a craftsman by repeated practice, a Christian by liturgy, fasting, Scripture meditation, communal worship, and confession. None of these are efficient. All of them are slow. The digital age, optimized for information transfer, often has nothing to offer formation — and may actively interfere with it by replacing slow practices with quick consumption.
Key Takeaways: Information ≠ Formation
Core Concept: Information transfer is content to the mind; formation is the embodied shaping of the whole person.
Scholar: Alicia Juarrero on enabling constraints.
Diagnostic: Have I gained more knowledge of the faith without corresponding growth in patience, prayer, and love?
The “So What”: Christians who confuse information with formation will become well-read consumers rather than mature disciples.
About the Author
James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners. His forthcoming book is Discipleship and Discernment in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.