THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY Information hasn’t always moved at the speed of light. Accustomed as we are to instant communication, it’s hard to imagine that we once had to wait, sometimes for days, for messages to reach us. Before there was email, there was plain old mail that moved from place to place on the […]
Brett Robinson: The power of human compassion
THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY I recently spent a few days visiting the hospital to take care of a loved one who had some complications from a cancer procedure. I marveled at the sophisticated medical technologies that were being used so expertly to treat her. At one point, a doctor came into the room and removed fluid […]
Brett Robinson: Technological awe shouldn’t cloud our sense of God
THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY Technology has a certain mystical quality to it, especially when you don’t understand fully how it all works. I am still amazed when I flip on a light switch or turn on the tap water. Am I God? Did I just create light and bring waters down from the heavens? When I […]
Brett Robinson: Embodied creatures, and part of Christ’s mystical body
THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY Recent events have shifted a lot more attention to our bodies. Temperature checks, masks and compulsive hand-washing have reminded us that we are biological creatures subject to the laws of nature. It all feels a bit heavy (and not just because of all the quarantine weight gain!). There’s an existential heaviness, or […]
Brett Robinson: The spiritual benefits of technology in a time of crisis
THE THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY “Gather ‘round the TV, kids, it’s time to pray.” Those are words I never thought I would utter as a Catholic media studies professor who has spent the past 20 years studying the effects of media on children and families. And yet, for the past few weeks during the coronavirus […]
Brett Robinson: Matters of life and death
THE THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY Of the many technologies that have changed the course of culture, contraception may be the most pernicious. In his landmark encyclical “Humanae Vitae,” St. Paul VI foresaw that the rise of artificial birth control methods would also lead to more marital infidelity, the lowering of moral standards and the objectification of […]
Brett Robinson: Church in an age of attention deficit
THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY It has been said that St. John Paul II was our first “media” pope. His international visits attracted scores of media attention. Television footage of millions attending a papal Mass were awe-inspiring. In 1987, the Holy Father delivered a prayer for world peace to over a billion people thanks to satellite […]