Bibliography

Philosophy and Theology

• Borgmann, Albert. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Enquiry, 1987.
  Outlines Borgmann’s original idea of the “device paradigm.”
• Borgmann, Albert. Holding on to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Century, 2000.
  An exhaustive look at information and its relationship to reality across time and cultures. Borgmann suggests three basic relationships: information about reality, information for reality, and information as reality.
• Borgmann, Albert. Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology, 2003.
• Ellul, Jaques. The Meaning of the City, 1970.
  Ellul believes that the “city” in Scripture is both the seedbed of all human rebellion against God and yet paradoxically the realm in which God has elected to save humanity.
• Ellul, Jaques. The Technological Bluff, 1990.
• Ellul, Jaques. The Technological System, 1967.
• Scharff, Robert and Val Dusek (eds). Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition (Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies), 2003.
• Jardin, Murray. The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society: How Christianity Can Save Modernity from Itself, 2004.
  Murray walks through the last 400 years of history and traces how the co-development of capitalism, democracy, and libertarianism formed today’s modern technological society.
• Monsma, Stephen V. (ed). Clifford Chrstians, Eugene R. Dykema, Arie Leegwater, Egbert Schuurman, Lambert J. Van Poolen. Responsible Technology, 1986.
  This is probably the best single Christian work on technology.
• Schuurman, Egbert. Faith and Hope in Technology, 2003.
  Schuurman addresses technology from the point of view of a scientist who also has deep Christian conviction.
• Swearengen, Jack Clayton. Beyond Paradise: Technology and the Kingdom of God, 2007.
• Terlizzese, Lawrence J. Trajectory of the 21st Century: Essays on Theology and Technology, 2009.
  Terlizzese, an Ellul scholar, collects five separate essays on technology writing through the lens of a theology professor.
• Vanhoozer, Kevin J. Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Text and Interpret Trends, 2007.
  Vanhoozer and his students provide tools for theologically engaging cultural trends. Vanhoozer’s introduction and methodology are helpful as are the two chapters on technological issues “Welcome to the Blogosphere” by Justin A. Bailey and “Human 2.0: Transhumanism as a Cultural Trend” by Matthew Eppinette.
• William A. Stahl. God and the Chip: Religion and the Culture of Technology, 1999.
• Wink, Walter.The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium, 1999.
• Tillich, Paul. The Spiritual Situation in our Technological Society, 1988.

Media Ecology

• McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964.
  The seminal “media ecology” work that kicked off a new way of looking at how society and culture are shaped by technology and various mediums.
• McLuhan, Marshall. The Medium is the Massage, 1964.
  A short book in which McLuhan experiments with imagery and typography to prove the point that mediums affect (i.e. “massage”) society as much as the message itself.
• McLuhan, Marshall and Eric McLuhan, Jacek Szlarek, Jacek Szklarek (eds.), The Medium and the Light: Reflections on Religion, 2002.
  A collection of essays and letters revealing McLuhan’s deep Roman Catholic faith
• Postman, Neil, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business , 1985.
  Perhaps Postman’s best known-work in which he traces how the television has influenced the shift of public discourse about important issues from deep insightful discussion to short, shallow sound bytes.
• Postman, Neil, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. 1993
  Postman walks through history, particularly the last four centuries, and tells the story of how tools went from helping mankind reach his ends to becoming the foundation and ends of human life.
• Postman, Neil, Teaching as a Subversive Activity, 1971.

Popular Christian Works

• Challies, Tim. The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion, 2011.
• Crouch, Andy. Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, 2009.
  Crouch offers an insightful look at how “cultural goods” (physical objects humans make out of the natural world) shape and are shaped by culture itself.
• Estes, Douglas. SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World, 2009.
  The first book-length apology for the virtual church. Estes explores a variety of issues such as online church models, theological and sacramental issues, leadership, sin and discipline, and ultimately argues that established churches should enter the virtual space like any other mission field.
• Gordon, T. David. Why Johnny Can’t Preach: How the Media Have Shaped the Messengers, 2009.
  Gordon uses basic media ecology principles to show how media saturation often causes today’s preachers to miss the subtleties and significance of biblical passages and the purpose of the medium of preaching.
• Gordon, T. David. Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Re-Wrote the Hymnal, 2010
• Hipps, Shane. The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church, 2006.
  A short Christian introduction to how McLuhan’s  thoughts relate to the Christian life and ministry leadership.
• Hipps, Shane. Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith, 2009.
  An expanded version of Electronic Culture that removes the church leadership discussion and applies media ecology ideas toward the lay person’s world.
• Rice, Jesse. The Church of Facebook: How the Hyperconnected Are Redefining Commmunity, 2009.
  A helpful work that looks at how social networking (and facebook in particular) reshapes our concepts of identity and community.
• Reynolds, John Mark and Rogert Overton (eds). The New Media Frontier:Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ, 2008.
• Schultze, Quinten J. Habits of the High-Tech Heart, 2004.
  More academic in nature, Schultze addresses the basics of the Christian life and how they are influenced by media culture.

Popular Technology & Society

• Brende, Eric. Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology, 2005.
  Brende spent eighteen months living in a low-tech, Mennonite-like community for his MIT master’s thesis. His story shows that the low-tech life can sometimes be a more human life.
• Keen, Andrew. Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today’s user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values, 2008.
  Keen, the self-labelled “anti-Christ of Silicon Valley,”  is worried that giving users complete control is denegrating traditional values.
• Palfrey, John and Urs Gasser. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, 2008.

Miscellaneous

• Begbie, Jeremy. Theology, Music and Time, 2000.
• Brasher, Brenda E. Give Me That Online Religion, 1999.
• Dawson, Lorne and Douglas E. Cowan. Religion Online: Finding Faith on the Internet, 2004.
  Seventeen essays on the meaning of religion on the Internet.
• Kimbrell, Andrew. Human Body Shop, 1999.
• Spyker, Stephen K. Technology & Spirituality: How the Information Revolution Affects Our Spiritual Lives, 2007.