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I<\/span>n the last decade, our lives have become increasingly saturated with digital technology. Apps and platforms play outsized roles socially, professionally, casually, and corporately; in work, school, and church. It can be hard to remember how we used to carry on without the technological conveniences of modern life. Even many young adults feel a chasm between the tech norms they grew up with and the world they inhabit today.<\/p>\n This shift seems even starker when we try to map our day-to-day digital experiences\u2014instant news, AI chatbots, and the Metaverse\u2014onto those we read about in the Bible. In his latest book, God, Technology, and the Christian Life<\/em>, Tony Reinke outlines an incisive \u201ctheology of technology,\u201d grounded in Scripture, which draws a clear connection between our lived experiences and those of our Old Testament heroes. In so doing, he sets a helpful foundation for a biblically-aligned worldview on modern technology.<\/p>\n I read this book at a timely moment, while dealing with a bout of disillusionment over my career. I\u2019m a data scientist, a career technologist who spends his days writing algorithms that generate numbers and recommendations that populate the screens of millions of smartphones all over the world. My work involves the same techniques that large tech companies have exploited for more pernicious purposes, making them a focal point of cultural controversy.<\/p>\n I certainly appreciate the blessings that modern technology affords, and my tech-development day job brings real satisfaction. Yet I can\u2019t help maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism toward ubiquitous tech use. It\u2019s difficult to overstate the degree to which our daily habits have grown dependent on the platforms of big tech. Given their pervasiveness, it\u2019s jarring to consider how many of them have vaulted to social prominence not through careful deliberation, but because of the revenue-seeking, data-hungry, often myopic actions of capital-heavy corporations. As a Christian, this reality has weighed heavily on my conscience and led to serious introspection over my vocational path.<\/p>\n Some may be surprised to find that such ambivalence is common among workers in tech-heavy fields. Their honest reflections won\u2019t be found in public-facing press releases or Tweet storms, but in the anonymous corners of online forums. Backed by one of America\u2019s most exclusive and lucrative startup accelerators, Hacker News<\/a> is the cool news curator frequented by founders, developers, and industry-insiders. Between IPO announcements and code-heavy how-tos, the site regularly features nervous posts by seasoned technologists, petitioning for help reconciling their disillusionment with technology, their careers, and their lack of happiness. A quick scroll through the responses confirms that there is no consensus on what the answers are, or even where to begin looking.<\/p>\n This is the conundrum that Reinke\u2019s book steps into. He gives an end-to-end account of tech\u2019s lifecycle, covering its inception by God, its inaugural biblical stewards, its growth and development in cities, its increasingly idolatrous pretensions, and its final judgment. When it comes to honoring God with our technology, Reinke asserts that contemporary innovations don\u2019t raise new questions so much as call for new clarity on old priorities. It\u2019s through this simple paradigm that he applies the Bible\u2019s ancient wisdom to our modern technological experiences.<\/p>\n Reinke begins his narrative in an unlikely place, with a substance that covers our driveways, streets, and playgrounds: tar. He uses tar (some Bible translations call it \u201cpitch\u201d or \u201cbitumen\u201d) as a common medium to connect the stories of Noah\u2019s ark (Gen. 6) and the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11).<\/p>\n This example points to one of the book\u2019s prevailing themes: Technology can be used either to glorify God or humanity, yet God remains sovereign in either case. Noah faithfully obeyed God\u2019s command to construct the greatest boat of his time, and dutifully waterproofed it with tar. Just a few generations later, the Babelites cleverly paired tar with baked bricks in a bid to build themselves up into heaven. The same technology led to two opposing outcomes, yet neither episode posed any threat to God or strayed outside his control.<\/p>\nNew clarity on old priorities<\/h5>\n