Book assesses impact of technology on Americans' faith experiences

In "Technology & Spirituality: How the Information Revolution Affects Our Spiritual Lives," Stephen Spyker asks a vitally important question that too few ask themselves -- what the impact of digital technology may be on the faith and spirituality of Christians. Essentially, Spyker cautions us to remember that only relationships with God and other people can satisfy the deepest cravings of the human heart.

"Most of us are not terribly reflective about the technologies we use," declares Spyker, director of information technology at Earlham School of Religion and Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind. "We may be hesitant in our approach or slow to adapt, but sooner or later we blindly accept whatever technology comes along, acting as if we believe, however skeptical we might have been at first, that it will make our lives easier, better, more interesting or rewarding, that we will be better and happier or more valued human beings because of some newfangled way of doing something."

Simultaneously, Spyker writes, we tend to pooh-pooh the technological gadgets we use as if they really have no significant impact on us at our deepest levels where we relate to God, our loved ones and the other people in our lives. Nice pipe dream, Spyker says, but we shouldn't kid ourselves. For just as we are what we eat so the digital doohickeys we use daily also make us who we are.

Spyker's purpose in writing is not to encourage us all to become Luddites. Rather, his goal "is to help us gain a deeper understanding of how emerging technologies affect our spirituality, how we can learn to live with (or without) them better, and how we can develop a relationship to technology that will help nurture our spiritual being."

Spyker writes as an evangelical Christian, so we might not be surprised if he were inclined to discuss digital technologies first of all from a classical Calvinist "everything-is-first-of-all-corrupt" perspective. On the contrary, his view is quite compatible with a balanced Catholic perspective where grace can be found even in the most mundane things, places and circumstances.

"Technology & Spirituality" suggests that we take seriously the ideal of Christian simplicity as a starting point. We could learn a few things, Spyker says, from the Shakers and the Amish, and be more choosy when it comes to modern technologies.

Maybe your life would be enriched rather than impoverished if you didn't own and use a cell phone, microwave oven or the latest version of some particular computer software. Maybe you would benefit more from writing in longhand in a daily journal that no one else is likely to read instead of keyboarding your thoughts into a blog that anyone with access to the Internet, anywhere, can read if he or she wants to.

Is participation in a "virtual community" in cyberspace as good as participation in a real community? Is a "virtual" faith community as good as a real faith community? Is learning from Internet resources as good as taking a class with other people in a classroom, from a human teacher? In all those instances Spyker recommends not giving up the former for the latter, at the very least.

"Technology & Spirituality" is a nonfiction book that will, if read reflectively and taken to heart, do things for your faith and your spirituality that you may not be expecting but for which you will be thankful. Don't miss it.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops