The computer I am typing this book review on is a marvel of technological innovation and achievement. But what does God have to say about our tech tools and toys? In God, Technology, and the Christian Life, Tony Reinke helps Christians live by faith in the age of big tech.
A Comprehensive Theology of Technology
Reinke’s idea for the book first started as the ten-page introduction to his excellent book 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You. His new book—God, Technology, and the Christian Life—is a comprehensive theology of technology. Broad in scope and Biblical throughout, I was fascinated and captivated by Reinke’s words.
The book’s six chapters ask the important questions:
- What is technology?
- What is God’s relationship to technology?
- Where do our technologies come from?
- What can technology never accomplish?
- When do our technologies end?
- How should we use technology today?
Nine voices pop up throughout the book—Christian and secular. Reinke quotes theologians like John Calvin, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and Jacques Ellul. He also quotes novelist and environmentalist Wendell Berry, editor and conservationist Kevin Kelly, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk, and author and historian Yuval Noah Harari. He introduces and interacts with their ideas.
Applied Science and Amplified Power
Reinke defines technology as applied science and amplified power, illustrating this in the story of David and Goliath. Reinke uses Biblical examples throughout the book to explain technological concepts and God-centered reality. We are shown that God calls each of his children to make faith-based decisions on how we use the available technologies in this world.
I was most interested to read how the Biblical passages of farming and God’s providence still apply to us in our world of modern technology. Reinke states that
- Farming is our primary, fundamental tech – the base that all others build upon
- All tech has ancestors
- Every innovation is patterned by agriculture.
God guides our technological revolutions. Recently, the Coronavirus showed us how scientific innovation, especially in battling diseases, is a divine gift. Vaccines and modern medicine are miracles. Reinke then gives 13 takeaways regarding the relationship between technology and our Creator.
Deliverance and Joy in Jesus
Reinke reminds us that death is our ultimate enemy, but it is something that technology will never be able to defeat. In other words, the Christian Gospel is superior to the Gospel of Technology. After a compelling theology of cities, the book embarks on an excursus: Will there be old tech in the New Creation? Reinke believes that technology continues in the New Jerusalem, and I am convinced to become a tech optimist.
The book ends by calling the reader to consider 14 ethical convictions regarding technology. For example:
- Respect the gifts of science and non-Christian innovators.
- Get comfortable with tech minimalism.
- Commit to wielding innovations in faith.
- Submit our innovations to the wisdom that subverts the powers of man.
The book ends with 9 ways God enforces tech limits, and a call to find your deliverance and joy in Jesus. We should see God as we wonder, stand in awe, and enjoy his gifts of technology.
God’s Governing Hand
This book has changed the way I see the world. I see God’s governing hand behind our greatest innovators and grandest inventions. I see how tech can change us, but also how we can use it with care and courage. I see hope in a New Heaven and New Earth with a generous Creator. I see more of Jesus.
I received a media copy of God, Technology, and the Christian Life and this is my honest review. Find more of my book reviews and follow Dive In, Dig Deep on Instagram – my account dedicated to Bibles and books to see the beauty of the Bible and the role of reading in the Christian life. To read all of my book reviews and to receive all of the free eBooks I find on the web, subscribe to my free newsletter.