A THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY
PROSPECTIVE SKETCHES
Keywords:
Autonomy, Ethics of Technology, Jacques Ellul, Lynn White, Bible and TechnologyAbstract
This article is a modest attempt to outline some of the essential components of a theology of technology. Before doing that, it makes a very brief survey of the field and explains why there should be a theology of technology. The essential themes proposed in a theology of technology are using the sources of a theology of technology; ethics of technology; technology within the scheme of creation; redemptive task of technology; theology of work; technology and power.
References
Michael W. De Lashmutt, Sketches Towards a Theology of Technology: Theological Confession in a Technological Age, Glasgow: Univ. of Glasgow, 2006.
Paul C. Heidebrecht, Beyond Cutting Edge? Yoder, Technology, and the Practices of the Church, Eugene: Picwick Pub., 2014.
Carl Mitcham, Thinking through Technology: The Path between Engineering and Philosophy, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994.
Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe, Vol. I, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1979.
Carl Mitcham & Jim Grote, ed., Theology and Technology: Essays in Christian Analysis and Exegesis, Lanham: Univ. Press of America, 1984.
Lynn White Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” in Carl Mitcham & Robert Mackey, ed., Philosophy and Technology: Readings in the Philosophical Problems of Technology, New York: The Free Press, 1972.
Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization, New York: Harcourt, 1934.
Kelly De Vries, Medieval Military Technology, New York: Broadview Press, 1992.
David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, ET, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964.
Brent Waters, From Human to Posthuman: Christian Theology and Technology in a Postmodern World, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.
David W. Gill, “Prolegomena to a Theology of Technology, Bridges: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Theology, Philosophy, History, and Science 5, 3/4 (Fall/Winter 1998).
William B. Jones & A. Warren Matthews, “Toward a Taxonomy of Technology and Religion,” in Frederick Ferré, ed., Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol. 10: Technology and Religion, London: Jai Press, 1990.
Theodore Robinson, A History of Israel, Vol. 1, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1932.
David Novak, “Technology and Its Ultimate Threat: A Jewish Meditation,” in Frederick Ferré, ed., Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol. 10, Greewich, Conn.: Jai Press, 1990.
W. Norris Clarke, “Technology and Man: A Christian View,” in Carl Mitcham & Robert Mackey, ed., Philosophy and Technology: Readings in the Philosophical Problems of Technology, New York: The Free Press, 1972.
Jacques Ellul, “The Relationship between Man and Creation in the Bible,” Carl Mitcham & Jim Grote, ed., Theology and Technology.
Pius XII, “Technological Concept of Life,” Text from: The Irish Ecclesiastical Record 83 (April, 1955).
Brent Waters, From Human to Posthuman: Christian Theology and Technology in a Postmodern World, Burlington: Ashgate, 2006.
Whitney Bauman, Theology, Creation, and Environmental Ethics: From Creatio Ex Nihilo to Terra Nullius, New York: Routledge, 2009.
Peter M. Scott, Anti-Human Theology: Nature, Technology and the Post-Natural, London: SCM, 2010.
Ulf Görman, Willem Drees, Hubert Meisinger, ed., Creative Creatures: Values and Ethical Issues in Theology, Science and Technology, London: T&T Clark, 2005.
Paula Jean Miller, “Technology and the Theology of Earthly Realities in M.D. Chenu,” Chicago Studies 40 (Fall/Winter, 2001).
Hugo Assmann, “Technology and Power in Liberation Theology,” Theology Digest (Fall, 1980).