A Theology of Technology
TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY
Looking for Wisdom in all the Right Places
Technology profoundly impacts every aspect of our vocational, spiritual, relational, and cultural lives. By age 20, a young person will have spent 69,000 hours engaged with digital technology, and the average adult spends over 6 hours a day on devices during their discretionary time. Because its influence can advance either the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Darkness, Christians must think biblically about technology.
Texts: Five Key Texts
- Is 64:8: We are the work of God’s hand.
- Gen 1:28: God intends for humanity to fill, rule, and care for the earth for His glory.
- Psalm 90:16-17: We are to use the work of our hands to accomplish God’s work.
- Psalm 115:4-8: We become like the idols and things we make, mistakenly looking to them for what we should seek from God.
- Phil 4:8-9: Whatever we do must be marked by truth, honor, justice, and purity.
I. The Meaning of Technology – what exactly is it? The term originates from the Greek words techne (skill or artfulness) and logia (systematic study). Tim Challies provides a useful theological definition: “Technology is the creative activity of using tools to shape and use God’s creation for practical purposes”. Takeaways:
- Technology is a tool, and tools are not neutral.
- It extends our reach but reshapes us in lasting ways.
- It can diminish us from creators made in God’s image into enslaved curators.
II. The Mandate for Technology – why does it exist?
- As Image-Bearers, we have the ability and desire to create. Like God, we have the ability to create, communicate, and relate, resulting in technology.
- The Cultural Mandate, gives us the Responsibility to create. Fulfilling God’s command to subdue the earth and support human flourishing requires tools.
- The Fall exacerbated our need to create. The curse made survival difficult, so God granted tools (like medicine and weapons) to navigate a hostile planet.
- Redemption gives us a motive to create. While fallen humanity used technology (like the Tower of Babel) to try and escape judgment, God uses “technology”—such as animal skins, a wooden cross, and written language—to accomplish redemption and allow us to spread the gospel.
- Consummation gives us the hope to create. Our destiny moves from the Garden of Eden to a future City built by God, allowing us to use technology now to advance the world to come.
III. The Model for Technology – how does God employ technology?
God’s greatest technological display is the universe, which He uses to bring Himself glory and to do good to His creation.
He employs it to reveal truth, provide for our eternal and temporal good, and demonstrate mercy.
IV. The Misuse of Technology – what went wrong?
God established intentional boundaries for human flourishing: space (our biological bodies and gender), place (the physical world), and time.
What went wrong is that fallen men resist every one of those Divinely ordained realities.
- We use technology to try and escape these limits, altering our bodies, retreating into cyberspace, and numbing our pain.
- Furthermore, we use technology to pursue power, curate false realities, and avoid the hard work of authentic relationships, opting instead for comfortable, convenient online engagement.
- In short, technology has allowed us to become our own god, and that is why we worship it. We look to technology for salvation, satisfaction, and security that only God can deliver.
V. The Mission of Technology – what is God’s divine intent? We should use our technology for the same purposes God uses His:
- For the glory of His name and the extension of His kingdom.
- For the good of others.
- To proclaim the truth God has revealed.
- To advance true biblical human flourishing/enjoyment and Shalom.
VI. The Mastery of Technology – what will this demand from me?
Look for wisdom in the right place: Pursue real truth from Scripture, maintain responsibility in a consumer culture, and build authentic identity and engaged relationships.
Which will demand this of you: It requires the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control—rather than self-centered idolatry, comparison, or outrage.
Conclusion To develop a missional focus for technology, we must evaluate our use of it through the four pillars found in Acts 2:42:
- Devote yourself to the serious study of the Apostles’ Doctrine.
- Devote yourself to advancing the gospel through present, personal partnerships.
- Devote yourself to genuine, life-on-life fellowship.
- Devote yourself to engaged, corporate worship.