I have been asked to write an article on technology and theology for Outcomes, a magazine for leaders published by the Christian Leadership Alliance.
The timing of this request seems to be providential. The cover of this week’s Time Magazine features an iPhone that features a tweet (a Twitter entry). That tweet proclaims: “I’ve written this week’s TIME cover story about how Twitter is changing the way we live–and showing us the future of innovation. Buy a copy!”
The iPhone is making its own news today, not only as a platform for Twitter. Apple announced the released of the iPhone 3GS for 3GSpeed. Now the wildly popular iPhone will process information even more rapidly, as well as offering improved photography and video capabilities.
And so it goes, day after day after day. Like it or not, technology is changing the way we live.
So how should we think about this from a theological perspective? Is technological development good, evil, or a mix of the two? How can we know?
A few weeks ago Time included a story on the use of Twitter in church.  Increasing numbers of churches are encouraging worshipers to twitter during church. Congregational tweets are projected on a screen during the service. How should we evaluate this from a biblical perspective?
(A note on Twitter vocabulary.”Twitter” is the name of the whole deal.  You’ll often see the participle “Twittering,” which implies that “to Twitter” [or lower case, “twitter”] is the verb that describes one who uses Twitter to post information online. A “tweet” is a Twitter post. You’ll also see the verb “to tweet” as in “to put up a Twitter post.” Right now there seems to be a battle between the verbs “to twitter” and “to tweet” for the best verb to use for Twittering. One of Twitter’s founders said that “to twitter” was better because it was clearer in meaning.)
In the days to come, I’ll share with you some of my thoughts about technology and theology. I will not put up my article for Outcomes, since that needs to be a previously unpublished piece. But I will let you in on some of my musings.
At this point, however, I’m interested in your musings. How should we think theologically about technology? Given that the Bible doesn’t have much to say about Twitter, or the Internet, or computers, or transistors, or electricity, or, well, you get the point, what biblical themes might be relevant to our use of technology?
As always, I’m encouraging you to contribute your thoughts by way of adding comments to my blog. If you prefer, you can email me. Let me know what you think about technology and theology.