5. THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF TECHNOLOGY
At the central core of Christianity is the question of the relation between man and God. As Christianity has developed it has begun to question the relation between man, nature and God. What does God think of nature, what should humans think of nature in relation to God? This second order relationship will be one of the primary concerns of the church in the coming decades. But there is a third order relationship only now beginning to emerge, which is: what is the relationship of technology, nature, man and God? What does God think of technology? Is it good, evil, or neutral? If some technology can be evil, then can some technology be holy?

We swim in a sea of ever changing communications technology. We are immersed in a flood of voice, data, text, images, sounds, music, signals, icons, symbols, idols, and intangible entities that seem almost other worldly. Scientists in our research labs come out muttering strange things about quantum effects in matter that seem at first glance to be magical – time travel, black holes, curved space – findings that turn our ordinary understanding of the world upside down. And tomorrow there will be more of it, and even more the day after. If God is absent in this technological world, modern Christianity will have a hard time.

Of all the challenges one can imagine Christianity facing in the next 1000 years, at least 95% of them will be driven by new technologies. Current hot topics such as contraception, abortion, stem cell therapies, the mainstreaming of pornography are all issues forced by new technologies. These challenges are tame compared to the ones coming.

Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, SMS – these are solutions, and these are problems. The next generations of Christians will talk this language as easy as we speak English. It took several centuries for Christianity to embrace capitalism and markets, to interpret them in terms of freedom of worship and work, when on the face of it, communism seems more Christ-like. The long-term trend is more technology in the Christian culture; what is missing, and what may take several generations to supply, is an understanding of the spiritual meaning of technology.

6. RELATIONS WITH OTHER BELIEFS
Christianity will have difficulty balancing its deep intolerance of other beliefs and its world-changing tolerance for freedom of belief. Pluralism is in large-scale ascendance around the globe. Intolerance is one of the few qualities not tolerated by civil society. This rising plurality will test Christian allegiance to an eternal truth. Ubiquitous information on the always-on internet, and a direct line to any of the 6 billion souls on earth, make a marketplace of contrasting, if not conf licting, opinions and testimonies. Questioning authority is no longer the rebel’s role. It’s mainstream. There hasn’t been a Hollywood action movie in three decades where the hero did not question authority.

Everything in the future of media tilts it toward questioning and doubt. If Christianity is to swim in this emerging culture and yet keep its certainty of salvation, it has to develop a cultural practice of positive questioning, of active holy doubt, and a clear articulation of what is eternal and what is in flux. This is likely to be constructed not by theologians, but by the members of the world-wide church in a distributed social media context. The wiki-church.

Chief among the other beliefs to be dealt with is Islam. Islam is rising through population growth, rather than converts. In Europe a dying Christian community is being replaced by a growing Islamic community. It is easy to imagine a scenario where Europe becomes Eurabia – mostly Muslim, and only marginally Christian. In other parts of the world Islam has turned radical and militant because of tyrannical politics in the Mid-East nations, and consequential miserable economies, some heavily distorted by oil, which have bankrupted the current generation of youth. Would Islam continue to be militant if these social ills were healed? We don’t know. The millions of non-militant moderate Muslim communities of the world, however, suggest an alternative scenario worth considering. On many social issues moderate Islam and conservative Christianity agree.

They are both people of the book. They both honor many of the same prophets. They agree on many religious issues like prayer, sexuality, sin, and family. It is not impossible to imagine Muslims and Christians becoming allies in the inevitable culture wars of the future. It is no more impossible than imagining Christian and Jews would be allies a thousand years ago. One hundred years from now a conservative Christian-Islam alliance might be a serious global political force.

HERE AND NOW

Of course nothing like this may happen, or maybe something even more unimaginable will happen. The point of scenarios is to explore the present. We consider the future in order to design institutions that will do well and good over many generations. To do that we have to have a firm grasp of what is happening now. Sometimes it takes an exercise of extrapolating to a thousand years from now to see what is happening tomorrow. Only by extending a trend can we see if it might endure, or survive in the face of other trends, or if it might provoke an awareness of a trend we could not see before.

The world may end tomorrow in the Rapture. We should be prepared. But the world may not end for another 1000 years. Are we prepared for that? A lot can happen in 1000 years. The web arose and took over our culture in only 15 years! How many of the unmade inventions promised by science fiction will be real in only one century? Yet we can reach into that distant unknown future of 1000 years with only 13 generations.

The bounty of change we reap from science and technology has its roundabout roots in the Christian perspective. Unlike any other ancient book, the Bible aimed our attention from the past into a novel and non-cyclic future. Christianity invented the “Future” with its linear sense of history running from the alpha to the omega, from genesis to the end. A plain reading of the Bible makes it clear that believers should prepare for what comes, and not just in heaven. If you need to reduce it to a bumper sticker try this: The future is what happens until the Rapture comes.

If anyone takes a generational concern for the future of mankind, it should be Christians. If not the followers of Jesus, then who will contemplate that place we are headed? It is written in Joel 1:3: “Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.” The future always begins right now.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

The premise of this essay is that Christ may not come back tomorrow. Discuss the tension of living as if Christ were coming back tomorrow as well as being an active part of forming the future if He does not. How does this tension affect vocations, relationships, cultural influence, and the church as Christ’s representative?

Kevin Kelly shares about the progression of generations. How did that change your view of history and the future?

Technology has already transformed this generation’s culture. How has technology directly transformed your daily life (perhaps in comparison with your parents)? What ways would you like technology to affect your daily life in the future? For instance, inexpensive robots who do all the laundry and clean the house or smart cars that drive themselves so that you are free to do other things while “driving.”

“We consider the future in order to design institutions that will do well and good over many generations.” Given the plausible scenarios, how do you prepare yourself and your church for the future?

In an essay that is filled with futuristic thoughts, what can you personally take from these provocative thoughts and apply to your life today?

END NOTES

1 See http://www.nationalreview.com/dreher/dreher040502.asp for a brief history and explanation of the current relationship between conservative Christians and Jews.

2 1 Chronicles 6:4-9 (NIV)

3 The Asian Tigers refers to the economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. See Wikipedia for more information.

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