Orthodox Spirituality and Technology
Introduction
A great
deal is made nowadays of "the technological revolution", as seen from
both sides, those in favour and those who are very much against.
In the
realm of Orthodox theology, however, is there really any essential difference
between the age-old problem of technology and today's reality?
We could,
of course, talk about the last century with the industrial revolution and all
its consequences- social, political, moral, religious and so on.
When
people speak of a new era in the history of mankind, of the third,
technological revolution, are they not perhaps exaggerating the extent of the
undoubted change in the conditions under which we live? Would it not be more
realistic, instead of talking about a revolution, to recognize a process which
began long before the industrial revolution and reached its culmination in the
developments and consequences there of?
The basic
feature which is new, however, in modern technology, is that it has turned
everything on its head. While in former times people attempted to use science
to improve their dominion over nature, it has now infiltrated into the very
innermost laws of nature, with results likely to prove positive but also with
terrible and limitless opportunities for intervention in these laws themselves.
And where might this inversion bring us? To the further extension of these
opportunities or to voluntary restrictions to ensure the sovereignty, dignity
and survival of nature?
For this
reason, the problem is not, in essence, , that of the relationship between Man
and Nature, but rather that of our felicity in choosing among what might be
infinite possibilities, so that we do not fall victim to the works of our
hands. Why mention this? Because with justification we recall the words of Job:
"She has hardened herself against her young, as though not bereaving
herself, she has laboured in vain without fear" (Job 39:16). In other
words, our era acts with harshness and indifference towards its children, as if
they were not its own. And its indiscriminate and foolhardy attitude reduces
every attempt and effort to naught, and, in the end, misfires.
Finally,
it is not our function to note the revolutionary changes, but rather to point
out to our contemporaries the true purpose of technology and to propose
Orthodox theological and moral criteria.
Let us
now see when technology begins.
A. Anthropology and Technology
Adam in
Paradise was "naked in simplicity and artless in life" (Gregory the
Theologian, PG 36, 632C), unclad and without "art". His call, his
essential occupation was contemplation, gazing upon God, sought and found in
supervision of the tree of knowledge. Which is why He made Man "a farmer
of immortal plants" (ibid.), so that through agriculture in Eden, he would
be constantly occupied with God.
Technology,
therefore, makes its appearance after the Fall.
Adam's
first-born son (Gen. 4:1-26), Cain, was a farmer; Abel was a shepherd; both of
them, therefore, bound up with nature.
The third
son, Enoch, became a mason and a builder of cities. Of the other descendants,
Jobel founded the nomadic way of life. His brother, Jubal was the inventor of
stringed instruments with the psaltery and harp. Thobel was a smith, forging
iron and copper.
Finally,
the son of God-fearing Seth, Enos, loyal to the name of God, set up the first
public congregation, thus instituting the worship of God, so that all these
technologist descendants of Adam could find both a place and means of gazing
upon God and could work wherever they went, until they achieved dominion over
the earth.
Through
the blessings of God and wearisome toil, the gradual appearance of technology
from agriculture through to industrialization thus provides Man with the
opportunity to retain his position as lord over nature, despite the ancestral
Fall. Technology is occasioned by Man's powers of reason and is a way of
compensating for his weakness, as against animals, which have sufficient
strength to survive, as against the forces of nature, the necessities of life
(Gregory of Nyssa, PG 44, 140D-144AB) and so on.
We might
mention here that for the ancients and for Scripture, no distinction was made
between art and artifacts (technology), which, if they corresponded to the
needs of our nature, could hardly be foreign or hostile to "beauty".
Art precedes mechanics, being of greater necessity, while technology developed,
not to serve the highest concerns of Man, but with the aim of greater
production and profit.
In the
course of its development, then, if Man is to live as overlord, technology in
general must remain discreetly within a certain logical framework. It should
not be an end in itself, but rather a disposition, a means to an end, and a
conduit into the innermost laws and elements, not only of the earth, but of
that which is above the earth. Because, according to Gregory of Nyssa, people
have "an upright bearing, stretch up towards heaven and look upwards. In
the beginning, these things and their regal worth are noted" (op. Cit.. PG
44, 140D-144AB).
B. Control Over Technology
The
automation of the industrial age and, particularly, the information technology
of the post-industrial age, together with the ecological crisis, pose a single
question: Why should we be served by modern technology, which is a gluttonous
idol of worship, a machine beyond our control? Why should the whole of our
society be organized technologically, simply to feed the machine? A
distinguished Russian hierarch (Filaret, Metropolitan of Minsk), for example,
has revealed that the entire production of the enormous iron mines was put to
no other purpose than to make new mining equipment for the same mines!
It is
natural that the rapid progress in nuclear physics and in genetics should open
up new scientific horizons, but also create problems and dangers for the human
race, so it is obvious that there is an imperative need for moral intervention
in the field of technology. What is worrying is the absurd and
"carefree" optimism of many scientists and political agencies.
According to them, technological development contains within itself the
solution to the problems which it causes, and hence it ought not to be
trammelled, so that "technical solutions" to the various problems can
arise. For example, who can exercise control in an ideological regime, when
they are deliberately seeking to create a type of technological man? The saying
of Saint Paul applies here: "Let do us do evil, that good may come"
(Rom. 3:8).
There are
also those, on the other hand, who, using historical arguments and invoking our
inability to predict the way in which inventions will evolve in future, reject
all moral intervention.
Technology
per se is not, of course, harmful, being the fruit of the reasoning and
intellect of Man, who was formed in the image of God. But when, unrestrained
and unbridled, it rushes headlong towards its destination, then it becomes
Luciferous, though not bearing light but rather pitch darkness. The danger for
us is the absence of accountability in the way in which technology is
administered and exploited, a way which has as its aim the stifling domination
of human life and the solution of problems by technical means, regardless of
moral and metaphysical principles.
Finally,
however, let us hear the voice of our Orthodox Tradition.
C. The Position of the Church Regarding This
Particular Problem
The
Church of Christ retains in unadulterated form the Orthodox Tradition, a real,
unique force, on which it draws from its life and experience, as well as from a
never-failing spring of asceticism and the voice of its treasury of monastic
tradition, which is always profound and vital.
Monastic
tradition can give applicable criteria of behaviour to the members of the
Church as regards technology. The Church and monasticism are not hostilely
disposed towards technological progress. On the contrary, monks over the
centuries have proved to be powerful agents of scientific and technical
invention.
In the
Medieval West, the monks restored civilization, which had been destroyed in the
barbarian invasions. The monasteries became focal points for the natural
sciences, where mathematics, zoology, chemistry, medicine, and so on developed.
The most important inventions of the monasteries formed the basis of industry.
Likewise, through their reclamation of large tracts of land, the monks created
the opportunity for agricultural development.
So that
there would be no need for monks to miss services, our own saint Athanasios the
Athonite built -- on the Holy Mountain -- a mechanical kneading device, which
was driven by bullocks. This instrument, says the Life of the saint, "was
the best, both in terms of attractiveness and art of manufacture" (Life of
Blessed Athanasios on Athos, I, 179, Noret, p. 86, 1, 46). The same was true
throughout the lands where Orthodox monasteries were established.
The
Orthodox monastery always lived as an eschatological reality and a fore-taste
of the Kingdom of Heaven, and was therefore also a model for an organized
society with a way of life faithful to the Gospel, embracing human dignity,
freedom and service to one's fellows.
Given
this, the holy Fathers subjected technology in the monastery to two criteria,
as Basil the Great characteristically remarks concerning work and the choice of
technical applications.
a) Restraint
With this
criterion in mind, those technical applications are chosen which preserve
"the peace and tranquility" of monastery life, so that both undue
care and torturing effort are avoided. Let us have as our aim "moderation
and simplicity". For Basil the Great, technology is "necessary in
itself to life and provides many facilities" (PG 31, 1017B), provided the
unity of the life of the brotherhood is preserved, undistracted and devoted to
the Lord.
In
general terms, our watchword should be: "Let the common aim be the meeting
of a need" (PG 31, 968B). And Saint Peter the Damascan adds: "For
everything which does not serve a pressing need, becomes an obstacle to those
who would be saved; everything, that is. which does not contribute to the
salvation of the soul or to the life of the body" (Philokalia, vol. III,
p. 69, 11. 32-34).
These
principles are certainly not for monasteries alone. They could be guidelines
for control over technology, unless we want to be exterminated.
b) Spiritual Vigilance
The most dreadful
enemy created by post-industrial culture, the culture of information technology
and the image, is cunning distraction. Swamped by millions of images and a host
of different situations on television and in the media in general, people lose
their peace of mind, their self-control, their powers of contemplation and
reflection and turn outwards, becoming strangers to themselves, in a word
mindless, impervious to the dictates of their intelligence. If people,
especially children, watch television for 35 hours a week, as they do according
to statistics, then are not their minds and hearts threatened by Scylla and
Charabdis, are they not between the devil and the deep blue sea? (Homer,
Odyssey, XII, 85)
The
majority of the faithful of the Church confess that they do not manage to pray,
to concentrate and cast off the cares of the world and the storms of spirit and
soul which are to the detriment of sobriety, inner balance, enjoyable work,
family tranquility and a constructive social life. The world of the industrial
image degenerates into real idolatry.
The
teachings of the Fathers concerning spiritual vigilance arms people so that
they can stave off the disastrous effects of the technological society.
"For the weapons of our warfare... have divine power to destroy
strongholds" (2 Cor. 10:4), according to the Apostle Paul. Spiritual
vigilance is a protection for everyone "containing everything good in this
age and the next" (cf. Hesychius the Elder, PG 93, 1481A) and "the
road leading to the kingdom, that us and that of the future" (Philotheos
the Sinaite, Philokalia, vol. II, p. 275). Spiritual vigilance is not the
prerogative only of those engaged actively in contemplation. It is for all
those who are conscientiously "dealing with this world as though they had
no dealings with it" (1 Cor. 7:31).
In the
industrial era, people became consumers and slaves to things produced. In
post-industrial society, they are also becoming consumers and slaves to images
and information, which fill their lives.
Restraint
and spiritual vigilance are, for all those who come into the world, a weapon
made ready from the experience of the monastic life and Orthodox Tradition in
general, one which abolishes the servitude of humanity and preserves our health
and sovereignty as children of God.
By Archimandrite Aimilianos
Source: http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/AimilianosTechnology.php
