I have always had a love/hate relationship with technology. I feel the need to keep up with the latest trends and innovations, but I am extremely wary of it all at the same time. It’s what I have done for a living for over three decades. While I need to keep up with what’s trending, I’m always acutely aware that things like undisciplined use of cell phones and too much screen time could possibly wreck my personal time with the Lord. I was most assuredly the last person on the earth to get a smart phone and I generally steer clear of much of the social media phenomenon. I’m not an advocate of virtual church or a proponent of Zoom for things regarding faith, whether it’s an elders meeting or a bible study.
But “God, Technology and the Christian Life” by Tony Reinke was helpful for me to see tech in it’s proper light. It showed me the source of all technology with sound Biblical arguments. This book helped me realize that my contributions in the tech world are more than just earning a paycheck. The systems I design, the program code I write, the enhancements I implement… they are all part of building a bigger whole. Something that will benefit society. Some group of people will come along and use my work. Someone else will likely improve it. And eventually my work will become obsolete and disappear like the typewriter and black and white television, all in the name of advancement. But my contribution was necessary to get there; all of it under the sovereign hand of God, giving great purpose to my work.
This insightful book gives the reader a fantastic Biblical theology of technology. Several times, the author makes the point that technology is a gift to man from God to be used in the right amounts to push back the effects of the curse. Advances happen because mankind wants to make the toil a little easier. In agriculture, instead of turning over the soil by hand, man invented tractors to do it. Instead of washing clothes at the nearest river, man invented washing machines and dryers. Each innovation builds on the last, and the next innovation builds on the current. When I was a kid, telephones hung on the wall in the kitchen and we had to dial the number using a circular motion. Now my phone is my alarm clock, my calendar and my mailbox. It can help me do banking, let me listen to music, allow me to order products, photograph my family and tell me how to get somewhere. Oh, and I can even make a phone call on it.
At risk of stating the obvious, the digital age we live in is amazing! But as technology advances, so does the perversion of it. Man somehow finds a way to ruin good gifts from God. There is a temptation to substitute technology for the Giver of it. We worship tech. We misuse tech. We sin with tech. With the exponential advancement of technology in our digital age, I’ve often been crippled with fear that it would negatively impact the church. And heaven forbid that my old-school manual way of doing many things would be changed in any way (I still like to hand write my prayer requests and memory verses, and I still prefer a leather bound bible as opposed to that one on my phone)!
Tony Reinke is a self-proclaimed tech optimist and so he has some helpful advice and encouraging words for someone like me: “None of our innovations are perfect. Every material gift in this life is tainted by the fall. Yet it seems that quite a lot of Christians are withholding their tech gratitude for some future innovation that will drop from the heavens, incorruptible by human nature and misused without any possible side effects. If a tech violates your conscience, abstain from it. But if it doesn’t, and you embrace it into your life, thank God for it. Give him your worship and your gratitude”.
Maybe we pump the brakes just a little as tech hurtles at breakneck speeds in the church, but after reading through this insightful book, we don’t necessarily have to stop on a dime. Looking at technology with a jaded eye might be the wrong approach, at least for me. I can be cautious without being cynical. While tech is often misused, it also can be used to further the gospel and to enhance ones worship experience. Reinke’s thoughtful presentation of how technology is very much a part of our existence as Christians, I don’t feel as though the latest innovations have to ruin my encounters with God. They may, in fact, enhance them if governed properly.
The book was published by Crossway in January 2022. Ironically, a book about technology doesn’t have the quality you’d expect. The cover is ugly and looks like it was produced on someone’s home inkjet printer on a heavier grade paper. The pages inside are nice and the font is pleasing to the eyes, which added to the reading experience. Tony Reinke has an engaging writing style; a journalist who writes for the Desiring God ministry.
Title: God, Technology, and the Christian Life Copyright: 2022 Author: Tony Reinke Publisher: Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois Pages: 316
Establish my footsteps in Your Word ~ Psalm 119:133 