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

Purchase Options:

MP3 Download - $22.99
MP3 CD - $33.99
CD - $45.99

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

Related Audio

Details / Buy

The Laing Lectures 2019: Imagining the Kingdom: Parable, Poetry & Gospel

Speaker: Malcolm Guite

Details / Buy

The Laing Lectures 2018: Theological Existence Today

Speaker: Stanley Hauerwas

Details / Buy

Lunchtime Discission on Stanley Hauerwas

Speaker: Jeff Greenman, Jonathan Wilson

Details / Buy

The Laing Lectures 2016: God, the Brain, and Paradox

Speaker: Iain McGilchrist

Details / Buy

Settling in to a Decadent Decline (2014 Laing Lectures)

Speaker: Ross Douthat

Details / Buy

Christian Theology as a Guide for the Emotions

Speaker: Ellen Charry

Details / Buy

Margaret Visser on The Meaning of Saints

Speaker: Margaret Visser

Details / Buy

The Words We Use (2010 Laing Lectures)

Speaker: Susan Wise Bauer

Details / Buy

The Church in Joyous Obedience: Biblical Expositions (Laing Lectures 2008)

Speaker: Walter Brueggemann

Details / Buy

Love and Justice (The Laing Lectures)

Speaker: Nicholas Wolterstorff

Details / Buy

A Voice of One's Own: Public Faith in a Pluralistic World (Miroslav Volf)

Speaker: Miroslav Volf

Details / Buy

Where Do We Go from Here? The Quest for Narratives in a Technological Society -Laing Lectures 2000

Speaker: Neil Postman

Details / Buy

Globalization, Religion & Culture (Laing Lectures 2002)

Speaker: Peter Berger

Details / Buy

History, Secularity and the Nova Effect (Laing Lectures 2001)

Speaker: Charles Taylor