The Lure of Technology: Understanding and Reclaiming the World (Laing

The Lure of Technology: Understanding and Reclaiming the World (Laing Lectures)

Speaker(s): Albert Borgmann
Date: October 19 - 20, 2011
Length: 5h17m
Product ID: RGDL4124S

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Description

Throughout its history, Christianity has been faced with historical developments that have challenged the very understanding Christianity has had of itself. In our time, the challenge is the culture of technology. Christians have been slow in meeting it because technology looks like a neutral tool that, far from being a challenge, can easily be put in the service of Christianity.

This is a profound misunderstanding. Technology as a rule is always more than a tool. It is inevitably woven into a culture of inducements and compliance that looks superficially congenial and yet is deeply inhospitable to Christianity. Cyberspace competes with grace as the dominant background of life. Hyperreal perfection makes providential burdens look irritating. The displacement of material reality by preternaturally glamorous images dissolves the ground where the life of the spirit can flourish.
The world is slipping away from us. We need to understand the slippage so we can reclaim the world for the good news.
Lectures include:

Lecture I: Grace and Cyberspace
Lecture II: Pointless Perfection and Blessed Burdens
Lecture III: Matter and Spirit in an Age of Science and Technology

See All Audio by Albert Borgmann

Albert Borgmannis an American philosopher born in Freiburg, Germany. He is the Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana, where he has taught since 1970. His work focuses on the philosophy of society and culture, with particular emphasis on technology.
nDr. Borgmann is an influential figure in the philosophical movement to discern and shape thought on the relationship between technology and Christianity. His publications include Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life; Crossing the Postmodern Divide; Holding on to Reality: the Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium; Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology; and Real American Ethics: Taking Responsibility for Our Country . In this latest publication, Dr. Borgmann interprets some of the challenges facing contemporary American society, such as materialism and consumerism, lack of respect for the environment, and indifference towards poverty at home and abroad. He then proposes tangible means for ordinary citizens to make their society more just, ethical, and responsible.
nDr. Borgmann has an MA in literature from the University of Illinois (Urbana) and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Munich (Germany).nn