TECHNOLOGY AND MONOTHEISM: A DIALOGUE WITH NEO-CALVINIST PHILOSOPHY

In Nature, Technology and the Sacred (2005) I argued that the modern project of the technological mastery of nature remains profoundly shaped by its religious roots. In this paper I explore connections and tensions between this analysis and the neo-Calvinist critiques of modernity and modern technol...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Szerszynski, Bronislaw (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2010
In: Philosophia reformata
Year: 2010, Volume: 75, Issue: 1, Pages: 43-59
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
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Summary:In Nature, Technology and the Sacred (2005) I argued that the modern project of the technological mastery of nature remains profoundly shaped by its religious roots. In this paper I explore connections and tensions between this analysis and the neo-Calvinist critiques of modernity and modern technology advanced by Herman Dooyeweerd and Hendrik van Riessen. I explore the relationship between Dooyeweerd’s analysis of Western culture as a sequence of religious ‘ground motives’ and my own in terms of the series of ‘orderings of the sacred’ which together constitute the ‘long arc of monotheism’. I relate van Riessen’s analysis of the internal structure of technology to my argument that this structure has been shaped by transformations in the sacred since the Protestant reformation. I conclude with some observations, prompted by the divergences between the two accounts, concerning the relationship between technology, monotheism, history and politics.
ISSN:2352-8230
Contains:In: Philosophia reformata
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22116117-90000481