Technology’s ‘Invisible Hand’?: An Account of Divine Providence and the Techno-scientific Myth of Progress

Last updated on: February 11, 2020 at 8:41 am by Guest Contributor

Technology’s ‘Invisible Hand’?: An Account of Divine Providence and the Techno-scientific Myth of Progress 2020-02-11T08:41:17-07:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This presentation is guided by the question: How do we understand and how ought we understand God’s purposes being realised in history, society and nature alongside what is clearly becoming more apparent today in the way human technological agency is impacting history, society and nature? Simply put, how does an understanding of divine providence relate to the increasing public belief that technology drives history and drives it for the better? The presentation will first provide a brief genealogy of how technology has become implicated in how we understand the shape, direction or purpose of history, society and nature. Part of that genealogy will involve explaining how the doctrine of providence gets transformed and secularised into the ‘myth of progress’ in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and continues to operate today. The ‘myth of progress’ as an ultimate belief of liberal western society depends today on technological production and the goods technology makes possible in those societies. The presentation then turns briefly to how one ought to understand normatively this technological agency in light of divine providence. Should the impact of technology on society, history and nature been seen as a moment within what has been called Heilsgeschichte (holy history or salvation history)? The presentation argues that it really should not even if it might change our perception of particular categories or doctrines in Christianity. Instead of elevating technology to such a sacred place (as many religious and non-religious transhumanists do) it would be better to understand how God might work through creaturely technological forces as a subset of secular history which God enacts as part of His divine plan.

Uncategorized

providence

videos

About Michael Burdett

Dr. Burdett is the Co-Director of the Human Flourishing project, Assistant Professor in Christian Theology, University of Nottingham; Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford; and an Associate of the Ian Ramsey Centre, Oxford. Before becoming an academic, Michael worked in the aerospace and robotics industries for several years with a firm that had contracts with NASA and JPL. He holds degrees in engineering, physics, and theology and has been given academic and professional awards in each field. His academic interests lie at the intersection of science and technology, theology and philosophy. He has published and presented internationally on continental philosophy, transhumanism, the technological society and Christian theology. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

February 10, 2020

Where Tech and Humanity Meet: Practice and Formation in the Church and Posthumanism

Next Post

March 10, 2020 Transhumanism and Human Flourishing: A Critical Engagement

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2018-conference 2019-conference lectures Uncategorized

Select a Month January 2021 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 December 2019 October 2019 August 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz