Redeeming Technology, Part 1: The Theology of Technology
Technology is everywhere. How does the Bible instruct us to use it?
Arguably, the most frequent questions I receive are somehow related to technology. From parenting to personal usage, our technological age's enveloping and ever-increasing nature leaves many of us bewildered at best and perhaps utterly overwhelmed at worst. We are desperate for a robust and relevant Christian approach to technological progress, which will be the aim of this series.
By way of introduction, I will begin very broadly with a Christian theology of technology. In the most basic sense, technology is the word we use to describe a central component of what God created humanity to do.
In Genesis 1, God's original design for us is explained, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.'"
What does it mean to be created in the image of God? Unlike other creatures, we share certain attributes with our Creator. Love, morality, reasoning, the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness—these are exclusive to the image-bearer experience.
Now, an important manifestation of God's shared attributes is technology. We have the capacity to create like our Creator. Obviously, our creations are not ex nihilo; instead, we are stewards of God's creation, teeming with undiscovered potential, from which we cultivate order, innovation, progress, and so forth.
But notice image bearers are under a mandate to "Fill the earth and subdue it." The original plan was for image bearers to fill creation and rule and reign on God's behalf. Meaning, all we do, including the technology we produce, should bring glory to God and good to creation.
However, this plan goes awry with the sinful fall of image bearers who by nature now follow a new mandate—not God's glory rendering blessing of creation, but our glory unto the harm of creation. In this way, our technology now follows this fallen mandate. Thus, human progress is always a precarious endeavor.
French Philosopher Jacques Ellul, the preeminent scholar on technology, argues the singular goal of technology is always efficiency. Before the fall, technological efficiency was inherently virtuous, as it would overcome our limitations to fulfill our God-given mandate. However, post-fall, technology can now overcome our limitations to spread sin's destruction.
Regarding the morality of technology, ethicists argue its value is determined instrumentally. If used for moral good, it is morally virtuous, but if used for evil, it becomes immoral. However, it is wrong to conclude that technology is thus neutral. While our technology may be morally neutral, its users are not. If the Christian tradition's diagnosis of humanity is correct, then we are inherently bent toward sinfulness. Thus, Ellul contends that the arc of technological advancement in the hands of sinners bends toward more harm than good.
Sinful destruction is curbed by natural limitations, but the efficiency of technology increasingly overcomes these limitations. If the only weapons available in the current Israel/Palestine conflict were swords and spears, then naturally, the violence would be minimized. But via modern weapons technology, death and destruction are magnified exponentially. And this sinful efficiency can be applied in every realm of technological advancement.
However, it is also important to consider not just the harm the user perpetuates via technology, but also the harm technology inflicts upon the user. The fundamental disposition of the fall is our refusal to worship the one true God, and instead, we craft idols to satisfy our worship instinct. We must worship. If not God, then we choose for ourselves idols. And worship always yields obedience because we inevitably serve what we adore. For example, if money is our idol, we will spend our lives in service to money.
Along these lines, we must consider the idolatrous way we approach human advancement. We have always worshiped our own progress, but in a secular age that has rejected God and transcendence, the glory and greatness of human achievement has become preeminent. Thus, as Ellul predicted, we do not just worship our advancements but also live in service to them.
We are no longer independent masters of the machines we create; the machines now master us. Ellul's word for this is technique. The technique of humans more than the technology of humans is the truest danger. Technique is the milieu that technology creates, which has fundamentally remade humanity such that we live in service to the technology we have created.
There is a lot of concern surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) right now, understandably so. The greatest fear being a tipping point of self-awareness, leading to a dystopian future where humans are enslaved by the technology of our own making. But Ellul would argue we have passed that tipping. Though not yet sentient, our technology is still in charge.
For example, the internet was created, in part, to increase human productivity, but does anyone feel more productive? In theory, the internet should aid productivity, but instead, we spend hours upon hours in endless, pointless, wasteful neglect of our precious time. Ironically, the only way to now be productive is to avoid the internet. Simply put, we are slaves to the very screens created to serve us.
I am not a technology alarmist, but we must sound the alarm. These are unprecedented times, and the unprecedented harm is exponentially advancing, as Ellul predicted.
What should be the Christian response? It seems we have three options. We could retreat. Within protesting subcultures of technological regress, we could return to the old ways of doing things before technology achieved its pervasive influence. But for most, this is not practically possible. Nor is it biblically faithful to the moment where God has us. The other option is to simply receive. With an uncritical alignment, we receive and adopt the ways of our modern world such that there is no discernable difference between Christians and the rest of society. Without making that conscious choice, it seems this is what most Christians have chosen and are suffering because of it.
But there is another way between retreat and receive. We can redeem. Remember, technology itself is morally neutral, and its value is determined instrumentally. I believe Christians ought to be the ones who redeem technology by using it the way it was originally conceived, with glory to God and blessings to the world. Navigating this redemptive path is not easy in our ever-increasing technological society, but redemption is always worth it. The aim of this series is to offer redemptive guidance so that Christians are equipped to reclaim the usage of our technology for God's glory and creation's good.