God, Technology, and the Christian Life
God, Technology, and the Christian Life
By: Tony Reinke
[This was on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022]
“Human innovation is a wonderful gift but a disappointing god.”
“We are entering a new technological revolution that’s impossible to predict. It’s a good time for Christians to think about God’s relationship to technology as we ask questions about the origin of our gadgets. What technologies are helpful or destructive? And how can we walk by faith in the age ahead?”
This was a good book for me to read as technology continues to pervade the world.
Tony Reinke, author of 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You (on my TBR), speaks of two groups of people: tech optimists and tech pessimists. Those who believe technology is evil and will only lead to destruction, and those who believe technology will save us.
Obviously we don’t have to place ourselves into one of these groups.
But is there one you lean more toward?
As Christians, how are we to think about technology?
Reinke says of himself:
“I land somewhere in this mix, not a dystopian and not a utopian, but a Bible-believing creationist, Reformed in my theology, trusting in God’s providential orchestration over all things. I’m a city dweller concerned with the selfish motives at work in Silicon Valley, yet I’m also a tech optimist, eager to see and experience the future possibilities that lie ahead. In both cases, I’m sobered by a revelation that reminds me that the storyline of human tech will get fumbled and end badly too.”
This book was good for me to read because as I reflect on myself, I think I tend to be a tech pessimist. I use a decent amount of tech and see its advantages, but more often I feel like I have a curmudgeonly attitude towards innovation. Why can’t we just be content with where we’re at? The world is technologically advanced enough right now. Don’t people know that AI never ends well with humans?!? Watch ANY sci-fi movie.
I don’t need my car to drive itself. I don’t want to put my consciousness into a computer. I don’t want to live on Mars. Half the time technology doesn’t even work the way it’s supposed to! Why is it so hard to pair two bluetooth headphones to the same ipad?! Why can’t we connect to the airplane’s wifi for longer than two minutes? (Can you tell I’ve flown recently?) And also… if we’re so ‘advanced’ then why are colonoscopies still a thing? So, yeah I have some mixed feelings about technology.
My husband is more of a tech-optimist. He is intrigued by the possibilities of innovation and the creativity and intelligence it takes to innovate. Advancements are more exciting to him than to me. He’s often a visionary. I’m a bit of a skeptic.
Reinke isn’t arguing to enthusiastically promote all technology. He isn’t advocating to protest it either.
This is a thoughtful book that grounds us in our worldview and helps us to discern the positives and negatives of tech, to keep God in his sovereign position, and to keep humans wary of how certain tech affects us.
“As Paul Virilio noted, ‘When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane, you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution… Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.’”
A proper view of technology will require wisdom.
The Basics
His book is organized into six chapters that talk about where our tech comes from, what God’s relationship is to it, what the limitations of technology are, and how we should use it today.
By looking at 9 different Bible passages and engaging with 9 different voices (John Calvin, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, Jacques Ellul, Wendell Berry, Kevin Kelly, Elon Musk, & Yuval Noah Harari) Reinke writes to dispel 12 different myths:
Human innovation is an inorganic imposition forced onto the created order.
Humans set the technological limits and possibilities over creation.
Human innovation is autonomous, unlimited, and unchecked.
God is unrelated to the improvements of human innovation.
Non-Christian inventors cannot fulfill the will of God.
God will send the most beneficial innovations through Christians.
Humans can unleash techno-powers beyond the control of God.
Innovations are good as long as they are pragmatically useful.
God governs only virtuous technologies.
God didn’t have the iPhone in mind when he created the work.
Our discovery of atomic power was a mistake that God never intended.
Christian flourishing hinges on my adoption or rejection of the technium
Later he goes through 14 ethical convictions Christians should have about technology. (I won’t list them all here, but it’s a good framework to build a worldview)
I love how upfront Reinke is in writing this book:
“As a tech optimist, I know that this book would market better as an alarmist, doomsday warning about how Satan hijacked the electrical grid, controls us through our smartphones, and wants to implant us with the digital mark of the beast. I would sell you a vast conspiracy coupled with a theology of a powerless god who doesn’t know what to do… Fear sells books, but my theology— what I know about the gloriously sovereign Creator and his incredible creation—forbids me from stoking more fear. So I’m optimistic— not optimistic in man, but in the God who governs every square inch of Silicon Valley.”
This is a refreshing perspective on technology. It reminds me that I am wise to not blindly implant all technology into my life, but challenges me to remember that God is sovereign over all technology and it’s okay to view innovation as gifts from our Creator.
Technology in the Bible
Something I found really interesting was the thread of Babel throughout the discussion of technology.
In Scripture, the tower of Babel was the story of man creating the first ‘city’ and attempting to build a tower to reach heaven. He offered some interesting statistics on how religion decreases as you get into bigger cities. There is a certain arrogance and self-sufficiency found in urban centers that are built on convenience and ease.
Reinke is not trying to make judgements about people who live in cities (he is a city-dweller himself) but it’s interesting to see the ways city-living elevates and promotes the self, humanity, a refrain from Babel echoing into modern day. The removal of dependency on God and innovating the need for him out of their lives. Even just the fact that to build cities requires demolishing nature. The rural world of agriculture has major dependency on weather conditions out of their control. They may recognize their limitations easier than someone in the human fortresses of the city.
“Babel was the new global epicenter of human worship. All of humanity gathered together, with religious intent, with what appeared to be the goal of opening a portal in the sky, storming heaven, dethroning God, and enthroning humanity in his place.”
“Babylon is allegorical of the idolatry that any nation commits when it elevates material abundance, military prowess, technological sophistication, imperial grandeur, racial pride, and any other glorification of the creature over the Creator.” — Bruce Manning Metzger
This was when God scattered the people around the globe, creating new cultures and languages. Not because he was trying to thwart technology for technology’s sake. But to protect humanity from itself.
“By multiplying cultures [spreading people across the globe with different languages] God coded into the drama of humanity different ways of thinking about and engaging with the world. These differences are so potent that they will help restrain us from adopting any one, single technology.”
“In the face of human self-glory, he introduced the tensions that utterly thwarted human collaboration.”
We know that God is not against technology. Shortly after the tower of Babel, God instructs Noah to build the ark. A preposterous endeavor for the time. But using the innovation of tar to water-proof the boat, God instigates the use of technology, building the unimaginable, to save Noah and his family.
Again, we see the sovereignty of God’s hand on technology in the cross.
“The cross was designed to kill criminals, insurrectionists, and disobedient slaves, and to do so slowly by exhaustion and asphyxiation… But this awful tool of torture doubled as the hinge on which all of God’s redemptive plan turned.”
God governs all technology, even in the hands of those who reject him, in order to bring about his purposes.
Babel, the ark, the cross…. electricity, cars, the iPhone, Alexa, SpaceX. Whatever technologies are developed in this world, they are not out of the control of God. Therefore, we do not have to fear them.
God’s Governance
Isaiah 54:16-17 says: “Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed…”
This verse, hidden away in Isaiah, was somewhat of a revelatory verse for me. It tells us that God creates the creators of weapons, the ones who wield them, and he is in control of the outcomes of those weapons.
“The world’s greatest threats, even at their most technologically outfitted, can only wield a power given and a purpose governed entirely by God.”
“Whether you love God, hate God, or ignore God; and whether you seek to meet the needs of humanity in your work, or whether the only thing that gets you out of bed each morning is the promise that you’re going to plunder this world of as much wealth as you can, with a sword or a startup, God wields you for his final purposes. God made you for an end that he set in place.” (Rm 9)
Reading this book reminded me of the power of our God! When we fear technology or its affects, we have forgotten the Creator. He is not surprised by anything humans do.
I recently read the book The Bomber Mafia, and the incredibly intelligent inventor during WWII who created the bomber sights allowing planes to drop bombs on pinpointed locations says that no one invents anything. Only God invents. “He would say he’s just one who discovers the greatness of God, the creations of God; that God reveals truths through people who are willing to work hard and to use their minds to discover God’s truths.”
And Reinke echoes those thoughts here. He likens it to a sandbox or a box of Legos in which God has given us boundaries and materials to create. Only God creates ex nihilo (from nothing). And so even in the materials we have available to us, those have been put in place and proportioned and given properties that God alone ordains. We merely discover what he has given to us, materially or in the form of knowledge.
I appreciate that within all of this praise of God for his sovereignty, Reinke doesn’t let evildoers off the hook. This is part of the mystery of free will and the sovereignty of God. The Bible teaches both that God ordains and is in control of everything, yet we, humanity, are responsible for our choices, actions, thoughts.
God may work through the builders of the cross. Of guns. Of the atomic bomb. But those wielders are responsible and held accountable for every sin they commit with their inventions.
It’s a mystifying thing to think about, but the Bible teaches both, so we accept both, even if it boggles our mind to try to understand them.
Going Forward
“Human innovation satisfies human comforts but starves human hearts. Sinners are always trying to manufacture a new God-replacement.”
As we continue to encounter new technology, we must always guard our hearts from turning technology into an ultimate, from making technology our god, our savior. God has given us many gifts and will continue to bestow his grace on us, but if we enjoy the gifts without thanking the Giver, we are exhibiting Babel-like attitudes of self-sufficiency.
“Safer tech offers more control, boasts greater predictability, and kills divine thankfulness.”
Going forward we must maintain our awe and thankfulness to the Creator of all things (and all the things that get used to make all the other things).
We must keep our worship focused on God and not our own accomplishments, discoveries, or comforts.
We must use wisdom to make sure we use and promote tech that helps people, not hurts them. This is no easy task.
As a sinful people, we know we will fall short and make mistakes. So must also keep our trust and faith in the sovereign God. Live not in fear, but in faith, in the One who holds all things together. Follow him as best as we can and trust that he is at work to bring about his purposes and his good plans.
“Thus, the ultimate point of technology (in any age) is to point us back to the glory and the generosity and the majesty and self-sufficiency of the Creator himself. And the ultimate goal of technology is to usher us deeper into the creative genius of God, to direct our hearts to God, to adore him and to thank him for our daily bread. God’s glory is the end of creation and the aim of all our innovations. He is worthy of our lives, worthy of our best inventions, worthy of all praise.”
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this book for everyone. It’s easy to read and follow. It’s very relevant. And it takes a very balanced and thoughtful position on technology that does not paint it as evil or as a savior, but positions it in its proper place, under the sovereign watch of God.
Whether or not you’ve formed your ideology on technology, this is a thought-provoking book that is worth your time!
More Quotes
“We critique tech because tech does not self-critique.”
“Tech mastery requires self-limitation.”
“According to the Gospel of Technology, there is no fall of man, only impediments to the rise of man. The struggle is against control over myself, my image, my body, my gender, my living space, my sexual expression, my life span, my productivity, my potential. Whatever hinders self-crafting must be put down. Ultimately, whatever intrudes upon each person’s autonomy is the enemy, and the opposition can be defeated through innovation.”
“In many ways the tech age erodes important biological distinctions between men and women, relativizes gender, makes sex differences malleable, and ultimately washes away the value of the nuclear family.”
“We are not called to find our comfort in controlling this world. Life isn’t about embracing every comfort and controlling every variable. If personal comfort is driving motivation in your adoption of technology, it’s a worship-killing trap.”
Ray Ortlund says, “If we have technology but not wisdom, we will use the best communications ever invented to broadcast stupidity.”
“But without wisdom, we are left in the dark as to whether our inventions are truly helping or hurting human flourishing. We try to invent but not overinvent…We want to hear the Creator’s voice and correct when we overreach, because if we go beyond his voice we will end up polluting the world, maiming others, and accidentally killing ourselves. Some human harm is inevitable in innovation. So we must stay attuned to the fallout of every technology, both physically need spiritually, both through general revelation and special revelation.”
Book Club Discussion Questions:
Are you a tech pessimist or optimist? What has influenced your position?
What are the benefits and dangers of living in a city? In a rural area?
In what ways do you see God’s glory revealed in urban areas? In rural areas?
What do you think have been some of the effects of God spreading people around the globe at the tower of Babel?
Which one of the listed 12 myths do you find yourself believing?
What is the source of authority in your life? When you have a problem, do you find yourself turning to technology in some way?
How does the Gospel of Technology stray from the Gospel of Christ?
What kinds of technology have taken up the most of your time?
What technology stresses you out the most?
What technology makes your life the easiest?
Is it hard to believe God is in control of every past, present, and future invention?
What kind of self-limitation do you need to work on to ‘master’ technology?
When is the last time you thanked God for a piece of technology?
Think about what it means to create. Out of nothing. Imagine what it would be like to create something never before seen out of something never before seen. Now realize that is how God created the earth.
How do we handle technology that can be used for both good and bad? Are there ways to put ‘guardrails’?
Further Reading
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl S. Trueman (Reinke quotes this book; there is crossover between how technology has influenced how we view ourselves and find our identity)
To Hell with the Hustle by Jefferson Bethke (a good book to read when thinking about keeping a ‘Sabbath’ day and how technology leads to busyness instead of rest)
This book released January, 2022. You can use my affiliate link below to order.
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