hands-on intimacy

New Testament scholar Robert Yarbrough was interviewed about his forthcoming commentary on 1-3 John (here). During the interview, he was asked how computer technology has contributed to our understanding of those letters. Here is his extremely wise response (emphasis mine):

One can also do word analyses and various grammatical and syntactical searches of the New Testament or related writings with a speed, ease, and comprehensiveness previously undreamt of. Ease of access to reference works eliminates tedious book hunting and page turning. A downside is that every decade we move farther into computer technology, the greater the danger becomes that younger scholars will lack the hands-on intimacy with the text that pen and paper demanded, and the ingrained, deeply intuitive grasp of the text that a trained memory can arrive at. Voluminous information easily accessible can not only obscure but actually stunt creative and historically responsible scholarship.

I'm not so young any more, nor a scholar, but I think those comments could be helpfully applied to pastors, too, whose calling is to be faithful servants of God's Word.