Technology & Spirituality: How the Information Revolution Affects Our Spiritual Lives (Skylight Illuminations) - Hardcover

Spyker, Stephen K.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594732183 ISBN 13: 9781594732188

Publisher: SkyLight Paths, 2007

Synopsis

Can you live a spiritual life in a hyperconnected world?

“Technology is part of what defines us; it’s part of what makes us human. More than that, the technologies we adopt affect the very type of humans we become. The tools we choose to use and how we use them affect how we think, how we make decisions, how we relate to one another, how we construct knowledge, even how we think about God.”
―from the Introduction

Every day, new technologies affect your life at home, at work and at play. But how often do you pause to consider how your computer, mp3 player, cell phone, or PDA influence your spiritual life―your beliefs, your faith, your fundamental understanding of God?

With wit and verve, Stephen Spyker leads you on a lively journey through the many ways technology impacts how we think about faith and how we practice it. He explores the role of new spiritual communities, the personal relationships we have with our gadgets, our changing expectations, helping you to think about the many, often subtle, ways technology has seeped into every aspect of our lives and changed the way we “do” faith.

• Can online churches replace traditional houses of worship?
• Will my iPod give me peace of mind?
• Is technological convenience undermining our ability to create community and make commitments?

Whether a technophile or technophobe, no matter your faith or background, this book will entertain and challenge you while encouraging you to take a fresh look at spirituality in our modern world.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen K. Spyker has lived and worked at the intersection of religion and technology for over thirty-five years, most recently serving as director of information technology at Earlham School of Religion and at Bethany Theological Seminary, both in Richmond, Indiana.

From the Inside Flap

Parishes or PCs?

Hymns or Hypertext?

In this age of information, the technology we choose to use and how we choose to use it has become an important part of how we define ourselves. This engaging book invites you to evaluate how the technological tools and conveniences you have become accustomed to can affect not only your daily life, but your spiritual life too. Each chapter examines the relationship between technology and spirituality through a critical lens:

• Simplicity--Traditional communal responses to technology and how we can apply them to our own interactions with emerging technologies.
• Transparency--How emerging technologies can transform our world and the way we think.
• Community--Where is reality along the continuum between the material world and the virtual world?
• Identity--How technology is evolving, and how we might be evolving in response to it.
• Velocity--The role technology plays in addressing our conflicting heartfelt desires.
• Connectivity--What our hyperconnected world does to our spiritual lives.
• Liberty--Does technology set us free, or does it enable our addictions?

Embrace it or bemoan it, technology is a necessary part of our daily lives. Here is your chance to take a careful look at the ways you can use--or reject--technology to enhance your spiritual life.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Technology is part of what defines us; it's part of what makes us human. More than that, the technologies we adopt affect the very type of humans we become. The tools we choose to use and how we use them affect how we think, how we make decisions, how we relate to one another, how we construct knowledge, even how we think about God."

--from the Introduction

Edition details

• Publisher: SkyLight Paths
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594732183
• ISBN 13: 9781594732188
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176