Seven Principles of Technogesis
By Douglas Groothuis | Plus, Helpful Resources
Seven Principles of Technogesis
by Douglas Groothuis
“If you want to know what water is, don’t ask a fish.” So goes the Chinese proverb. By extension, if you want to understand the strengths and weakness of American culture do not ask an American. Why is this? To walk through life, we must take some things for granted, such as driving on the right side of the road or standing in line at the grocery store. However, God calls us to be discerning citizens of heaven and earth. Worldliness is a constant danger. To paraphrase theologian David Wells, worldliness makes the godly look odd and the ungodly seem normal. The way of the fallen world is the way of the unregenerate flesh and its works. Apologists must never be captive to the spirit of the world, but should rather be transformed through the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:1-2; see also 1 John 2:15-17). Paul warns us to avoid the works of the flesh by being filled with the Spirit.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).
Acts of the flesh can become habitual patterns of life and so recede into the background. They seem normal. Everyone does them. For example, selfish ambition is often seen as the engine of success: sell yourself, put yourself first. The humble are the losers. They do not inherit the earth.
Worldliness may also throw its invisible net around us through the uncritical use of technologies, particularly communications media. Facebook, for example, might make us jealous or feed illicit erotic desires. The sinful may become normal for us.
Media may dull our senses to things divine and may enmesh and ensnare us in habits of the heart and mind that are earthbound. Marshall McLuhan, the media theorist (trained in rhetoric and literary criticism), wrote that “We become what we behold.” Or, as Scripture says, we resemble the idols we worship or we resemble the God we worship.
To avoid worldliness and to embrace godliness, we ought rightly to evaluate the cultural givens, testing them for truth-worthiness and asking how they may be used for human flourishing and the expansion of God’s Kingdom. Technological awareness also makes life more interesting and is another fun way to annoy your friends. Consider several principles of interpreting technologies in light of Christian character and Christian mission. I call this technogesis.
1. Every technology both extends and contracts human communication. The telephone extends the voice over distances far greater than a shout or even the stentorian capacities of a George Whitfield or Dwight L. Moody. However, the visual presence is removed. Thus, all nonverbal aspects of communication vanish. Skype allows us to project our images around the world, but it still cannot bring the whole person with it.
In light of this, consider what the best form of media may be for particular kinds of communication. Hearing a sermon with other Christians in a church involves the whole person. Hearing the sermon on the radio or a podcast does not—useful as that may be. You should not only send a text when you should shed a tear with someone who is suffering.
2. Each medium has biases and prejudges. The text message or tweet has a bias toward speed and brevity. It is prejudiced against developed exposition and argument. Donald Trump releases many of his ideas and even policies on tweets. Had he lived to see it, this would have even shocked Neil Postman. The printed page has a bias toward recording thoughts through words in a linear fashion. Of course, the page can be filled with incoherence and randomness, but those values are better served by the Internet.
3. With the development of technologies, there are always winners and losers. The carriage industry suffered with the advent of the automobile, as did the blacksmith. The original radios were large and took a central place in the home. They were well-crafted pieces of furniture. Now they are relics, and how many families gather around a radio to listen to news and entertainment? Earbuds have radically individualized and miniaturized entertainment. With the coming of computer writing, typewriters became relics, whatever their virtues may have been. I wrote half of my first book on an IBM Selectric, the King of automatic typewriters in the 1980s. I could feel and hear the impressions of the letters on the paper. I could see most of the workings of the machine. It was not a black box, about which I could know nothing about its inner workings. What did I lose when I stopped writing on typewriters (as I did for all my many undergraduate papers) and switched to a computer?
4. Technologies cater to extant assumptions and help reinforce them. Since Americans like to take technology with them, cell phones became smaller and more portable. However, that boomeranged when they became too small to manipulate. Now they are larger and some opt for even larger tablets for most of their communication. Since Americans love screens, technologies have put them everywhere—even on phones and watches. Many years ago, there was a cartoon called Dick Tracy that featured a detective who sported a small screen on his wristwatch!
5. Technological innovation is always a tradeoff. Consider e-books. What is gained in portability is lost in presence and heft. A book is a discrete object in the world. It has a history it carries with it. I have the first edition of Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who Is There, which I purchased from the University of Oregon bookstore in the fall of 1976. I have the same information in other tokens of the type of this book. Yet there is only one artifact that carries the meaning of this book. E-books are electronically searchable, a great boon to research. You can add notes. And yet…the book possesses virtues untranslatable into digital forms.
6. Many media encourage the passive consumption of its content as opposed to the creative engagement of culture. Amazon video gives me access to myriad films and television programs. Watching (some of) these may be relaxing or touching. Some of the films may be great art. Because of my wife’s dementia, watching videos and some old TV shows was one of a small number of activities we could share. Since Becky’s mental abilities were decaying, she could not create or engage very much. She used to read, write, edit, sing, and more. I am grateful for the availability of this entertainment. It also made me weep when I saw her sitting in front of the screen by herself. Since her passing in 2018, she is beholding something far greater, the eternal God himself.
7. In Culture Making, Andy Crouch argues that we should try to create more culture than we consume. Play catch with a kid instead of buying him a video game. Enjoy no-tech meals with your family, paying attention to the preparation of food and the setting of the meal. Write a personal card instead of posting factoids on Facebook.
8. Communication technologies encourage using culture instead of receiving it. According to C. S. Lewis in An Experiment in Criticism, to use a book or an image or a song is merely functional and utilitarian. One may read to “kill time,” God help them. Contrariwise, to receive a book or an image or a song means to submit to it, to consider it for what it is in itself. You pay your respects to a cultural artifact, such as a Mark Rothko painting in The Denver Art Museum. You linger at leisure. The Internet has a prejudice against receiving anything—although it is possible, say if you are watching a masterful jazz performance by Pat Martino.
My seven reflections are more suggestive than detailed. There are, doubtless, other principles for technogesis. These, however, should serve us well as we try to be in the world and for the world, but not of the world.
Recommended Reading
1. Sven Birkerts, The Guttenberg Elegies.
2. Andy Crouch, Culture Making and The Tech-wise Family.
3. Douglas Groothuis, The Soul in Cyberspace. First Christian critique of the Internet—which no one read.
4. C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism.
5. Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death and Technopoly.
6. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: Extensions of Man.
7. Jacques Ellul, The Humiliation of the Word, The Technological Bluff.
— Douglas Groothuis is Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary, where he has served since 1993. He is the author of twelve books, including Philosophy in Seven Sentences, Christian Apologetics, and Walking Through Twilight. He has also authored over thirty academic papers.
This post originally appeared at douglasgroothuis.com and is reproduced with permission.
Image credit: Gerd Leonhard
Helpful Resources
The items below were recently mentioned on the blog of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Many of us have benefited from Dallas Willard’s theological and philosophical work over the years.
In November, Biola's Scott Smith released a paper on Dallas Willard's Disappearance of Moral Knowledge (DMK) which seeks to contribute to ongoing discussion on Dallas' posthumously published work.
Scott's paper is titled, "A Spiritual Issue with the ‘Disappearance of Moral Knowledge.’"
Dallas argues that due to various philosophical and institutional factors, we have lost a body of moral knowledge in the West. Scott's paper considers one institution, the church, and a related, spiritual aspect to the loss of moral knowledge. The paper then explores what Christians can do about that particular aspect.
The full-text of Scott's paper is available for FREE by clicking here. For more of Scott Smith's reflection on Dallas Willard, see his remarks at the EPS blog.
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Dallas Willard Ministries (DWM) recently released some interesting video presentations at a Center for Christian Thought hosted symposium on Dallas Willard's Disappearance of Moral Knowledge, which we are also happy to promote here. The symposium is part of DWM's recently launched Moral Knowledge Initiative. Introductory papers were presented by Gregg Ten Elshof on an "Overview of the Issues Presented in the Book" (see the Westmont 2018 presentation) and by Steve Porter “The Primacy of the Individual in Reclaiming Moral Knowledge."
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