Religious and Cultural Implications of Technology-Mediated Relationships in a Post-Pandemic World

When COVID isolated us from each other, technology kept us connected. Well, sort of. What actually happens when we human beings, who are innately social, put our social connections online? Are we still fully present to each other? Chatbots and robotic companions have already moved in to live with us, rechanneling if not replacing human connections altogether. Religious communities are discovering how quickly technology is altering religious practices. Will technology make us less human or more human? This book offers thoughtful analyses, multiple vantage points, and diverse perspectives all driving at one question: How is technology modifying the human social fabric and, in so doing, remaking humanity? -- Ron Cole-Turner, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
In an accessible and engaging manner, this book touches a raw nerve: technology and us. The last years have demonstrated the ambiguity clearly. Look at the questions and concerns raised by the pandemic and our technologically mediated responses or widely experimented artificial intelligence chatbots (like ChatGPT). The right relationship with nature and technology is not a given. Technology is a gift, technology is 'us,' and it is an achievement of many actors, not all of them technologists. Theologians, philosophers, psychologists, and educators will particularly benefit from this excellent collection of essays. -- Anne Kull, University of Tartu