the tindog coffeehouse

This is Part 7 of my chapter-by-chapter analysis of From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology by John Dyer.

Up to this point, it seems like we’ve mostly focused on the corrupting potential of technology. Technology, after all, isn’t neutral. While the raw materials may be (Kline’s “technology as hardware” and “technology as manufacturing”), how they’re used certainly isn’t (“technology as methodology” and “technology as usage”). We saw in Chapter 5 how Adam and Eve used technology in the form of fig lives after sinning and how their son Cain used technology to build the first city. In each case, the point was to separate themselves from God, moving from interdependence to a state of independence.

If the story ended there, it would be easy to conclude, then, that technology is inherently a bad thing. But thankfully it doesn’t.

Redemption.

Before I go any further, I have to say I had a really hard time with this chapter. Not because I disagreed with it, but because of how it’s organized. In discussing the redemptive capacity of technology, Dyer draws on several examples from the Old Testament: Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, the Ark of the Covenant, the Mosaic Law, and the Ten Commandments. All of them are great examples and really well illustrated. However, the section on the Tower of Babel feels very out of place from the rest of the chapter. It almost feels like it belongs more in the “Rebellion” chapter or possibly even as its own chapter. And there were some things I wanted to say about that section but couldn’t figure out how to fit it with everything else, so I may actually come back to it in a separate post.

Anyway…

In illustrating these various examples of redemptive technologies, we see how God chooses to use them to further His plans. God didn’t have to flood the earth, but He chose to, and more importantly chose to save Noah and his family by way of an ark. But He didn’t just tell Noah to build a big boat, He gave him very specific instructions for how to build it. And God was very specific again when it came to the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple, and the Mosaic Law. He didn’t just give His people “technology as hardware” or “technology as manufacturing”, He gave them “technology as methodology” and “technology as usage” as well, leaving nothing to chance.

What’s even more interesting is how God often uses “bleeding edge” technology in ways we wouldn’t expect. Going back to the Garden, God’s gift to Adam and Eve of animal skins to use as clothing was more advanced than anything that had been invented by mankind up to that point. The blueprints given to Noah for the Ark were more detailed than anything he could’ve come up with on his own. And Dyer points out that even the use of a written phonetic language on the tablets of the Ten Commandments was extremely advanced for that time, with the first phonetic alphabet appearing between the nineteenth and fifteenth centuries B.C. and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea around 1444 B.C.

Certainly, the examples of “redemptive” technology don’t end there. Just think about relatively modern inventions such as the flush toilet, vaccinations, pasteurization, antibiotics, and mosquito netting. We may not consider those things to be “technology”, but they are, and they save countless lives throughout the world every day. Before modern toilets and sewer systems, cholera and other diseases ran rampant in cities. Vaccinations have virtually eradicated diseases such as smallpox, polio, and measles. And something as simple as mosquito netting for people living in Africa can significantly reduce their chance of contracting malaria.

But it’s not just the “technology as hardware” that can save people’s lives, it’s what we do with it. Over the Thanksgiving break our church went into the Terry Park neighborhood of north Fort Worth and spent four days fixing up people’s homes: replacing roofs, installing new windows and air conditioning units, repairing holes, putting in new insulation and walls, fixing electrical issues, painting, and doing yard work. Again, we don’t necessarily think of those things as technology, but they perfectly fit our definition of it as “the human activity of using tools to transform God’s creation for practical purposes”. And it’s clear those practical purposes were redemptive ones, meeting the needs of our neighbors and showing God’s love in a tangible way to them.

But here’s my gripe. Yes, God uses these technologies to further His kingdom. Yes, technology can have a “redemptive capacity”. But the problem is, it’s far too easy as 21st-century Christians to believe that it’s technology in and of itself that is doing the redeeming. Instead of seeing those things as a means to an end, we see them as the end itself. We think that as a Church, we just need another website, another Twitter feed, another Facebook page, another video or app or book. If our church isn’t growing enough, maybe we need more multimedia in our worship services or our staff needs to go to another conference. Whatever the next thing is, that’s what we need. That’s what’ll save the world. I had a friend years ago who was a general contractor, and one day in Sunday school he kept repeating that he needed some kind of tool, some thing to help him be a better Christian. In a world where “there’s an app for that”, we’ve fallen for the lie that technology will fix everything.

But that’s not what the Bible says. In Dyer’s examples, God used technology as a means to His end, a bridge from one world to another. But it wasn’t the technology itself that saved His people, it was God working through that technology that saved them. When we chase after technology just for the sake of it — whether it’s “redemptive” or not — we miss the point. In Exodus 25:40, God tells Moses:

“Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”

God wanted Moses to make, to create, to do technology, but it was only by following His blueprints that those things had any real power. In the same way, we as Christians should remember that although technology can be a good thing, although it can save lives and help us be salt and light to a world in desperate need of it, it’s only when we follow God’s plans that it can truly be called redemptive.

Previously:
From the Garden to the City, Ch. 1: Perspective
From the Garden to the City, Ch. 2: Imagination
From the Garden to the City, Ch. 3: Reflection
From the Garden to the City, Ch. 4: Definition
From the Garden to the City, Ch. 5: Rebellion
From the Garden to the City, Ch. 6: Approach