Christianity and technology reading list
Books, newsletters, journals and videos
Published in
3 min readDec 29, 2018
Below is a list of things to read, listen to and watch which explore how Christianity relates to technology (technology rather than science).
The resources are in two groups: the first includes things intended for a mainstream or practical audience (inc. popular Christian books, official church policies, events for technologists etc.); the second includes more academic books and journals (inc. theological, sociological and philosophical looks at the Christianity/technology relationship). This seems a helpful distinction, but some items could be categorised in either group.
It’s not an exhaustive list, but hopefully a helpful starting place. Please do leave a comment or tweet @SubtleEngine to suggest other items.
Last updated December 2018.
More mainstream / practical
Books
- The Soul in Cyberspace (1999), Douglas Groothuis
- Power Failure (2003), Albert Borgmann
- Habits of the High-Tech Heart (2004), Quentin J. Schultze
- The Next Story (2011), Tim Challies
- From the Garden to the City (2011), John Dyer
- The Tourist and the Pilgrim (2010–2013), Michael Sacasas
- Shaping a Digital World (2013), Derek C. Schuurman
- Virtually Human (2014), Ed Brooks & Pete Nicholas
- The Tech-Wise Family (2017), Andy Crouch
- 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (2017), Tony Reinke
- Hacked (2017), Shamichael Hallman
- The Robots are Coming (2017), Nigel Cameron
- Disruptive Witness (2018), Alan Noble
- Transhumanism and the Image of God (2019), Jacob Shatzer
- Modern Technology and the Human Future (2019), Craig M. Gay
Blogs and magazines
- AI in Christian Thought and Practice, J. Nathan Matias, Lydia Manikonda, Scott Hale and Ken Arnold
- AI Theology, Elias Kruger
- Bishop Steven’s Blog (posts tagged ‘AI’), Steven Croft
- Christopher Benek, Christopher Benek
- Merit and Grace, Christopher Lim
- SuperPosition, CoCreators
- Ted’s Timely Take, Ted Peters
- The Frailest Thing, L.M. Sacasas
Newsletters
- The Convivial Society, L.M. Sacasas
Transcribed and recorded talks, speeches, sermons
- Artificial Intelligence (2018), Steven Croft
- How to be Human (2018), Steven Croft
- Artificial intelligence: an ethical challenge? (2017), Courtyard of the Gentiles (Pontifical Council for Culture)
Church policy
- Laudato si’ (2015), Pope Francis
Podcasts
- The Christian Transhumanist Podcast, Christian Transhumanist Association
- Breaking The Digital Spell, Austin Gravley
- Hope in Source, Nadia Eghbal and Henry Zhu
Videos of events
- Kingdom Code [watch], monthly in London and Bristol
- Faith Leads Tech [watch, $35] (November 2018), Nashville, TN
- The Church, Robotics & A.I. [watch] (2017–2018), London
- Labs Live (February 2018, March 2019), London and Manchester
Films
More academic / theoretical
Books
- The Technological Society (1954), Jacques Ellul
- Ethics in an Age of Technology (1992), Ian Barbour
- The Religion of Technology (1999), David W. Noble
- In Our Image (2002), Noreen Herzfeld
- Thinking about God in an Age of Technology (2005), George Pattison
- From Human to Posthuman (2006), Brent Waters
- Technology and Religion (2009), Noreen Herzfeld
- Apocalyptic AI (2010), Robert Geraci
- Christian Ethics in a Technological Age (2010), Brian Brock
- Technology and the Philosophy of Religion (2011), David Lewin
- Transhumanism and Transcendence (2011), Ronald Cole-Turner (Ed.)
- Cyborg Selves (2012), Jeanine Thweatt-Bates
- Eschatology and the Technological Future (2014), Michael S. Burdett
- Christian Moral Theology in the Emerging Technoculture (2014), Brent Waters
- The Myth of the Moral Brain (2016), Harris Wiseman
- Cyborg Theology (2017), Scott A. Midson
Newsletters
- CSET Newsletter, Center for the Study of Ethics and Technology
Journals
- Theology and Science (e.g. issue 3, vol 16), The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
- Zygon, Institute on Religion in an Age of Science & Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science
- Also Religion and the New Technologies, a special issue of Religions, MDPI
Videos of events
- The Veritas Forum, various (technology, robots), Cambridge, MA
- Reality, Robots and Religion (click talk titles to watch), 2016, Cambridge
- Being Human: AI, Transhumanism and SETI, 2017, Durham
