Redeeming Technology

On average an American spends 36,900 seconds consuming media. Do a bit of math and that's about 11 hours per day. A little more math to factor in your recommended 8 hours of sleep every night, and that leaves you with only 5 hours of your day that's media free. The statistics prove that technology use is addictive and excessive. The questions surrounding this all center on how it's affecting our mental, physical, and spiritual health. So how can you set better technological boundaries for yourself? How can you use your technology with purpose? Redeeming Technology is a unique collaboration between a pastor, Rev. A. Trevor Sutton, and a board-certified psychiatrist, Dr. Brian Smith, to help you develop a healthier, faith-based use of technology. Moving between Scripture and psychological research, this book will show you how to navigate a vast digital world while keeping Christ at the center of it all.

Believers and unbelievers alike are saturated with technology, yet most give it little if any thought. Consumers buy and upgrade as fast as they can, largely unaware of technology’s subtle yet powerful influence. In a world where technology changes almost daily, many are left to wonder: Should Christians embrace all that is happening? Are there some technologies that we need to avoid? Does the Bible give us any guidance on how to use digital tools and social media?

"39,600. That's how many seconds per day the average American spends consuming media. That's eleven hours every day looking at smartphones, tablets, televisions, and laptops. It's pretty obvious: our screen time is excessive, technology is addictive, and we should probably stop spending half our day staring at glowing rectangles. Less obvious, however, is this: What is modern technology doing to our mental, physical, and spiritual health? What can we do to establish healthier boundaries for the technology that is all around us? How can we use technology with purpose? This book is a unique collaboration between a board-certified psychiatrist and a pastor to answer those questions. This book is for anyone seeking to develop a healthier, faith-based usage of technology-those who sense that technology is taking over their lives, diminishing their mental health, or hindering their life in Christ; those who are trying to navigate the glut of digital technology surrounding their lives. This resource could be used individually, with a small group, or as a congregation-wide study. The tone of this book is accessible and relatable while still being psychologically and theologically serious, with ample connections to Scripture and theology along with reputable medical and psychological research. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of technology and concludes with a "Do This, Not That" section to provide actionable guidance for readers' everyday lives"--

This study provides a theological and social ethics for an ecological age. It develops a concept of right for an order of creaturely life. This order consists of a "society" that encompasses humans and other creatures. The concept of right presented here is elaborated by reference to a postnatural condition, which rejects claims of a given natural order. Strong contrasts between nature and the human as well as nature and technology are also called into question. A pioneering study, this theory of right faces an ecological horizon, draws on theological resources in the doctrine of creation and proposes an ethics towards a freer social order.

Living system ministry is an approach to Christian ministry in the Western world that recognizes the differences between cats, the world God created, and toasters, the world we create using our technology and our capacities, limited as they are. The church is the Body of Christ, a living system. Neighborhoods, cities, and cultures, too, are complex and interrelated living social systems. Why, then, would we try to do God's work in a church or social system using tools and methods designed for non-living systems? We do it because our culture is very organizationally - and technologically - centered. We have grown accustomed to thinking of our social contexts not as living systems, but as things we can easily measure and control. Embracing both perspective and procedure, Living System Ministry is aboutÊdoing better ministry by seeing a better picture of what exists in the total system. Like farmers, rather than technicians, we learn to be involved in and to be in tune with what causes fruitfulness. We never cause fruit to happen. God does! But as our work becomes better aligned with what God is already doing in his complex, living-system environment, there is an explosion of life. We discover the fruit that remains. Writing from his forty-five years of experience as an urban ministry practitioner in Boston, Dr. Doug Hall introduces us to an approach to missions that recognizes the lead role of God's larger, living social systems as powerful engines for doing far more in our world than we can even begin to imagine.

Most contemporary accounts of the role of technology in world culture are alarmist and, at times, condemn many uses of technology without much effort to get beyond the surface of this worldwide phenomenon. Technological innovations that might rightly be critiqued are taken as representative of the entire field of technology. On the other hand, there are those, including some scientists, for whom technology and its uses pose no questions at all and who seem to delight in predictions of a future totally dominated by technology. They prey on the human delight in newness and innovation and on our readiness to be surprised by what may someday come to be. Götz takes the position that so-called technology problems are really our problems, not the fault of technology. Technology is an integral part of what we are as human beings, a significant aspect of our evolution. Götz also advances the thesis that technology may be viewed from the perspective of the human capacity to grow, and that when we do so, we are, in effect, spiritualizing technology and rendering it more meaningful to ourselves. Götz suggests several models that may be employed to achieve this spiritualization. This provocative analysis will be of interest to general readers as well as scholars, students, and researchers concerned with contemporary social and religious issues.

In November 1990 Indo-American Hybrid Seeds (IAHS), one of the largest and very innovative horticultural enterprises of its kind in India, celebrated its silver jubilee year in the town of Bangalore, India. On the occasion of this silver jubilee of IAHS an International Seminar on 'New Frontiers in Horticulture' was organized from 25-28th of November 1990 at the Ashok Radisson Hotel in Bangalore. IAHS was almost fully responsible in terms of organization and financially for this International Seminar. Assisted by an International Scientific Advisory Board, the organizing committee, all members of the company IAHS, really did a great job. I would like to thank in particular Mr. Mammohan Attavar (the company's founder) and Mr. Sri N.K. Bhat (partner of the company), respectively chairman and treasurer of the organizing committee, for their organizational and financial support in organizing this conference. Very special words of thanks go to my colleague editor, Dr. Jitendra Prakash, Secretary Organizing committee and Director of Biotechnology - IAHS, who was really the spill in the whole organization of our very successful conference.

Feeling overwhelmed and unproductive? The answer isn’t to do more. What image forms in your mind when you think of productivity? An assembly line? Spreadsheets? Business suits or workplace uniforms? In the ancient world, productivity didn't conjure images like these. Instead, it referred to crop yield and fruit bearing. This agrarian imagery helps us understand productivity through a biblical lens. Jesus taught, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit (John 15:8). Who doesn’t want to have a truly productive life—to bear much fruit? But how does this happen in the places we hold dear—the home, workplace, and in our communities? We often feel overworked and overrun, defeated and discouraged. The world says be productive so that you can get all you can out of this life. The Bible says be productive so you can gain more of the next life. In Redeeming Productivity, author Reagan Rose explores how God’s glory is the purpose for which He planted us. And he shows how productivity must be firmly rooted in the gospel. Only through our connection to Christ—the True Vine—are we empowered to produce good fruit. This book shows how we can maintain the vitality of that connection through simple, life-giving disciplines. Readers will discover manageable applications like giving God the first fruits of our days. Additionally, Reagan discusses how our perspective on suffering is transformed as we see trials as God’s pruning for greater productivity.