Technology and Missions: How Technology is Changing our Lives and Why it Matters for the Great Commission

Introduction

We live in a rapidly changing technological world. Globally we are beginning to understand some of the impact of technology on our world. But in some ways humanity seems to lag behind due to the sheer speed of technological development and the excitement that surrounds it. Things we read about in science fiction have become science fact in the last 100 years. Inventions like the laser, internet, space travels, and genetic engineering were not technological possibilities at the beginning of the 20^th century. Today, however, they are established research areas – invisibility cloaks, nanotechnology, quantum computing, self-driving cars, and mood-altering devices are all areas of scientific investigation and innovation.

Technological inventions and tools are central to what it is to be human. Even the Christian church has employed crucial technologies for its mission and life. Think, for example, of how the advent of book publishing (scrolls and codices) and the printing press allowed premodern Christians to spread the Gospel with more efficiency. Since the twentieth century, radio, TV, and the Internet can be added to the list of media technology available for Gospel communication.

How should the Christian and the Christian church view the use of technology as part of her mission, especially in light of the Great Commission? What follows is a four-part critical reflection on how the Christian should (or, should not) respond to modern technology. 

A Brief Theology of Technology

I want to begin with a fundamental question: “What is technology?” We may answer the question by pointing to concrete examples of technology, like airplanes, computers, or smartphones. But pointing to any of these things does not really tell us what is common to all.

The word technology derives from the Greek, techne, which refers to the art or activity of making something. Technology can also refer to the resulting products of that activity. What binds airplanes, computers, and mobiles together is that they are the result of humans applying their knowledge to make something. Inventions of various kinds have historically emerged as solutions to real-life needs and to some extent, for enjoyment and play. Primarily it was the need to make our surroundings a habitable place that motivated innovation. Technologies thus become extensions of our otherwise limited abilities to shape and be in the world. For instance, through the invention of the wheel and the internet, humans have been able to reach much further in terms of travel and communication than she would have without these tools.

Ultimately, technology is rooted in the being of God who is the supreme Creator. God’s creational activity, however, does not depend on tools. God spoke and creation came to be (Gen. 1:2; John 1:1-4). However, it pleased God to create a world where tool-use can reveal himself. Humans can divinely participate in creativity by the making and use of tools.

Technology is thus an expression of our imaging God (imago dei). And as image bearers, we participate in God’s care of the earth. Technology is implied in the creation mandate given to our first parents, Adam and Eve, to be stewards of the earth. In the pre-flood genealogy of Genesis we find Cain who was the first to build a city (Gen. 4:17). Cain’s descendant, Tubal-Kain, was a blacksmith “who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze” (Gen. 4:22; NIV). Thus, in the overarching plot of Scripture’s narrative, we move from the garden to the heavenly city. In other words, the development of technology is part of and not opposed to the Christian worldview. As disciples of Christ, in whom all things were created (Col. 1:15-20), we are thus called to participate in the Creator’s activity as stewards and use technology as a means to proclaim the kingdom of God in all aspects of life.

In Genesis, we read the story of how human beings, though originally created to live in harmony with God, ended up in rebellion against God. And though technology was to be a theater of our glory and dignity as creatures, it also became a theater of our sin and rebellion. Because technologies extend our natural abilities, allowing us to shape our surroundings (and ourselves as well), there exists the risk of technology doing greater harm. As the old Roman saying goes, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

As we reflect on our current technological stage in history, we must reckon with both the dignity and depravity of human beings due to the enormous impact technology can have.

Beyond a Purely Instrumentalist View of Technology

The English Christian writer J.R.R. Tolkien belonged to a generation of thinkers who tried to understand modern technology. This generation had seen the devastating effects of war technology during two World Wars and the growing techno-optimism when Europe was rebuilt from the ashes. Their analysis did not focus on particular technologies or machines but on the nature of technology itself.

In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Sauron and the Orcs are imaginative examples of the perils of modern technology. Their lust for power through technology is contrasted with other creatures, like the agrarian and carefree Hobbits and the lofty Elfs. Compared to these two groups, humans are portrayed as morally weak. Thus, Tolkien’s Christian imagination can help us get a glimpse of our own condition.

A commonsense view of technology is that technology in itself is neither good nor bad, but neutral. It is the use of technology that poses a problem. Surely, we should strive to make and use technology as instruments for the good. But in reality, modern technology is not used as a mere instrument.

Slogans like “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” are true as far as they go. In Tolkien’s literary world, some kinds of technology possessed a form of magical power. The ultimate invention, the Ring of Power, could potentially control minds, enslaving its owner and in the end, the whole world. Today there are real-world analogies. Think of how quickly artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have entered our lives. AI is not a mere tool but could be understood as a total environment in which we live. Algorithms are altering human preferences, moods, and choices in subtle ways through our interaction with social media.

AI is indeed a key technology today. It is powerful because it can help systems function autonomously in many areas of human competence. Humans have used tools and machines for centuries to do things they could not otherwise do. AI can perform cognitive human tasks, such as making decisions and producing texts, pictures, and music in ways that seem to get to the core of what it is to be a human. AI will not just radically change the nature of many jobs in the coming decades. What is at stake here is what it is to be a human being. Here is an irony: the more a human gives up her autonomy to automatic machines, the more her place in the world tends to change to that of an instrument.

Technology and Bioethics

In the twentieth century, difficult discussions regarding medical ethics emerged. This field is referred to as “bioethics” (bios is Greek for life). New medical treatments and interventions were made possible through a combination of scientific discoveries and technology. Think for instance of technology applied to the beginning of life – in vitro fertilization, birth control, genetic scanning, and the manipulation or even deletion of the unborn child, to name a few. Such technologies immediately raise questions about the sanctity of human life.

With powerful medical technologies now at hand, there is serious debate about whether we should be allowed to extend and enhance human life. Some technologies clearly cooperate with the body to restore its normal functioning, like hearing aids and pacemakers. There exists, however, practices that now seem to go beyond simple medical treatment. Let me give two examples.

First, in many countries, unborn children with Down’s Syndrome run a significant risk at being aborted since screening tests can detect genetic variance at an early stage in pregnancy (10 to 14 weeks). In other words, medical care allows parents to select what kinds of human beings that mothers give birth to. This obviously also reflects and affects public preferences and opinions regarding what kinds of humans lives that are desirable and valuable. Second, in China, a pair of gene-edited twins, Lulu and Nana, were born in 2018 with a resistance to HIV (and perhaps other “enhanced” qualities). This was the unlawful and ethically dubious work of the rogue scientist He Jiankui’s use of the so-called “genetic scissors” CRISPR, which made it possible to edit the genetic code of the embryo. Although this caused an international outcry from the medical community, the He Jiankui affair illustrates that similar things will probably happen again as powerful technologies continue to develop and open the door for even more problematic experiments.

And as scientific discovery and technology progress, public opinion will concomitantly change, which in the end will affect both political and scientific policies. Why shouldn’t parents be able to edit their babies so that they are smarter, healthier, and more beautiful? The moral intuition behind such sentiments is something like this: If something is possible to do, it can be, and sometimes should be done. In other words, if we are able to make our children more intelligent or healthy, are we not allowed or even obliged to make that choice?

Christians have not responded with one voice here, partly due to basic differences of theology and ethics and partly due to perceived ambiguities between treatment and enhancement in particular cases. Evangelicals, by and large, hold common ground with many Christian brothers and sisters from the Global Church as well people of other faiths. Even if the distinction between biology and technology will become blurred by the application of new medical technologies, Christians should strive to defend – in theory and practice – a creation-centered distinction between treatment and enhancement. What is at stake here is human dignity and the sanctity of life. 

Technology and Worldviews

Examples from bioethics illustrate that technology is not merely an external tool but a force that deeply shapes us and gives rise to new ways of viewing the world. As the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger pointed out, modern technology has become our way of viewing the world. Creation, according to this analysis, becomes an endless supply of raw material for human power to bend the world according to humanity’s own ends.

As a consequence of the scientific revolution in the seventeenth century, it became common to view human beings as “machines.” For instance, in English we can still talk about the need to “let off steam,” a metaphor borrowed from hydraulics used in locomotives. Since the 1960s, a leading metaphor for human beings has been that of the computer, based on the assumption that the human brain is like a computer. This assumption was reinforced by the latest version of AI systems that are built like “neural networks.” The result is that human beings are imagined to be no more than algorithms or information patterns, like the characters in the Matrix movie. Even if these observations are examples of our current way of talking, they both affect and express the way modern people tend to think about human life. The metaphors of the machine, the computer, and the information pattern have become a literal truth, describing what human beings are. This way of talking betrays a sort of technologized humanity and worldview.

As previously mentioned, behind this line of thinking is a blurring of the distinction between nature and technology. When viewed as a machine, computer, or information pattern, human (and other kinds of) life tends to be viewed as a project to improve upon just as one can improve on technological inventions. The ideological basis of such a technologization of humanity is exemplified in the transhumanist movement.

Transhumanism advocates the application of technology in order that humans can transcend their current stage in evolutionary history and live longer or forever, become stronger, smarter, happier, and more beautiful. Transhumanism has a radical and unrealistic vision of the future of technological development. All the same, transhumanist ideas and values are constitutive parts of our contemporary cultural imagination.

The Christian Response

Experts are groping for robust solutions to technological challenges, both in short and long perspectives. Some are very optimistic about the technological future whereas some have argued that humanity may not be morally fit to live well with emerging technologies. To a Christian, this problem should not come as a surprise as the world was created good but made to suffer from human rebellion against God (Rom. 8:20 ff). The fight against sin will therefore also be made manifest in the ways we use and develop new technology. The more powerful the technology, the greater the possibilities of good and evil.

How then can emerging technologies be a force for the good of humanity and to the glory of God? There are three common attitudes, prevalent both in and outside of the church. 

The first is the regulative attitude, which says “Put up strict moral and legal regulations or codes of conduct for technological development.” This often takes the form of ethical statements and policies.

The second is the liberal attitude, which says “In the name of scientific freedom, we must let technology develop freely and not hinder it.” If we hinder development, we hinder humanity from developing in positive ways.

Third, there is the Luddite or escapist attitude, which says “We need to flee from and reject modern technological development.” Sometimes, this attitude implies going back to a more primitive technological lifestyle.

None of these three attitudes alone will provide a holistic response to the rapid changes that technology is causing. There is of course a grain of truth in all three, and even a combination of them seems wise, depending on what particular technology we have in mind. There is, theologically speaking, a time to put up policies and rules for the benefit of the church and society. The church has a prophetic call to be a voice for the “transformation of culture,” to use the American ethicist Richard Niebuhr’s category. There is also a place for promoting scientific freedom of innovation due to the potential goods it can bring. And there is a time to say “No!” to a particular technological development, maybe even to escape or distance oneself from it. In other words, there is no single response that will solve all the actual and potential challenges we face.

So, how can followers of Christ preserve their integrity in this complex situation before the watching world? Responding to this question, takes us beyond a simple “yes” or “no” to emerging technologies. There are both great opportunities and temptations involved in the engagement with technologies – and they are not immediately clear to neither non-experts nor experts. Vigilance is needed, both in harvesting the fruits of technology and in making responsible choices that penetrate beyond the often hyped up promises that go along with the new technologies. There seems to be a particular temptation in the use of new technologies because they may, for instance, bring an astonishing efficiency, impact and speed to evangelism. We should be able to both be aware of the urgency of the Great Commission and the perils of technology since the message in subtle ways can be altered by the medium.

Therefore the Church needs to foster a fourth and complementary attitude to technology, one that involves human character. Christ does not call moral saints but ordinary, sinful, creatures, to imitate their Master and gradually be transformed into people that are wise, faithful, daring, discerning and, above all, loving. Growth in character helps us, individually and collectively, to walk faithfully through a complex time like our own. We need Christian leaders and communities who imaginatively can exemplify and discern what character growth in a technological environment means.

In sum, Christians need to retain the moral vision of their mission into this world in order to be able to discern the will of God (Rom. 12:1-2) and not be swayed by every wind of ideology and technology (Eph. 4:13-15).