Luther the Tech Critic
Technology and the Gospel of Eternal Life
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66100/pjct.v1i1.82Keywords:
Martin Luther, Skepticism, eternal life, Ivan Illich, paradoxical counterproductivity, technology, abundance, gospelAbstract
This article argues that the theology of Martin Luther offers a diagnosis of, and remedy for, the ills of our technological society. Using Stanley Cavell’s analysis of skepticism, the early Luther is seen to be disgusted at his humanity and seeking by his own ‘works’, a violent and ultimately self-defeating transcendence of his limitations. If Luther exposes the futility of human works to achieve eternal life, Ivan Illich, Hartmut Rosa, and other critics of technology show how this same impulse to manufacture our salvation persists in our secular, technological society to ‘paradoxically counterproductive’ effects. Our technological society, in its drive for eternity, is unmasked as a religious attempt to achieve self-justification. The gospel that Luther discovered arrests the violent transcendence of human limits: The gospel is freely given to those who have faith, because of human weakness, sin, and finitude. This opens up an imagination of abundance and gratitude, as well as an orientation towards the present rather than a technological preoccupation with the future. In the end it is the acceptance of eternal life as a free, unmerited gift which enables humans to be content in their creaturehood. In the place of a modern preoccupation with progress, Luther points to ‘restful repetitions;’ In the place of technology as a means of salvation, Luther points to technology as ‘remedy’ in service of the neighbour.
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