Ellul's Cafe

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Have you ever asked yourself why you’re using that app you just opened? Or found yourself scrolling through an app that you don’t even remember opening? How can we reduce the stress of constant connectivity without disconnecting completely? How do you think you would handle a two week media fast? 

Join Professor Jeremy Pettitt and Communications professor Raychel “Prof Mack” McKelvey for a conversation about coming of age in a digital era, slowing down our scroll, and practices for managing our social media consumption. 

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Postman, McLuhan, Ellul… what can we take away from the great minds in technology and theology? What does it mean that our media is an extension of ourselves? What are the consequences? From these discoveries, what are some practical applications in our lives to be more conscious consumers in a technology saturated society?

Join Professor Jeremy Pettitt and Communications student Rachel for a conversation about what we gain and lose through our uses of media, and how it changes us.

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Redemption. How do we find redemption in todays world? Jeremy Pettitt discuss on this episode of Ellul's Cafe. Starring cutting edge theocommunicalogist Jonah Swenson and exploring his new work "The Liturgy of Social Media." 

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Do we control technology? Or does technology control us? Or is it a bit of both? Our answers to these questions will influence if and how we approach and use technology. On one side, Instrumentalism would tell us that technology is value neutral and human choices ultimately determine the outcomes. On the other side, Determinism would tell us that technology drives most of our choices and is ultimately the problem.

Join Professor Jeremy Pettitt and Communications student Christine for a conversation that unpacks these crucial concepts,their assumptions and consequences while offering practical suggestions for a more balanced approach to technology in everyday life.

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How has technology allowed us to be less reliant on God and one another? As we use more digital systems and tools to manage and “improve” our lives, we are tempted to embrace the illusions of control these technologies foster in us. We often use them to lessen our dependance on the very relationships that bring us life. 

Join Professor Jeremy Pettitt and Communications student Peighton for a conversation about these technological illusions and distractions as well as the ways we can steward our technology and relationships better. 

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What happens when we start preferring interactions with our devices over interactions with real people? Sherry Turkle explores this dilemma in her book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Communications students Katt and Hailey, along with professor Jeremy Pettitt, discuss Turkle’s book, the pitfalls of texting, and the daunting prospect of making a phone call. Head over to Ellul’s Cafe for a conversation on the necessity of embodied community in a digital age.

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What even is technology? To thoughtfully engage in technological discussions, we must first define our terms. There are endless ways to describe technology. Ultimately, our answer lies beyond the physical: technology encompasses all that we use to craft and shape culture and even includes our perceptions of these tools. Join Professor Jeremy Pettitt and guest Professor Matt Snyder for a conversation about the core elements of technology, and how these elements govern our interactions with the things we create.

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We can view life as one of two stories. The story of evolution places humanity on an upward track of progress; things will get better and better as we advance forward in time. The other story sets us in redemption history—it acknowledges the brokenness and selfishness of humanity but celebrates God’s power to restore us. This redemption story is a tale of our creative powers being used for both death and life. Our duality spurs us to be both designers of stunning architecture and producers of torture instruments. Join Professor Jeremy Pettitt and podcaster Austin Murphy for a conversation on how our paradigms for interpreting humanity’s purpose determine our approaches to technology.

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How does theology shape and alter our interactions with and use of technology? How does technology form our hearts and minds as human beings? How do we live faithfully as followers of Jesus Christ in the technology saturated cultures of the 21st century? In this introductory episode of Ellul's Cafe, Professor Jeremy Pettitt and podcaster Austin Murphy discuss the origin and rationale for a podcast wrestling with the tensions of real faith in real life at the intersection of theology, technology, and culture.

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Welcome to Ellul’s Cafe. A conversation where we bring theology, technology and culture to the table to discuss what it means to faithful followers of Christ. In the tradition of our patron saint Jacques Ellul, this is a conversation with different books, with different authors and speakers, as well as your questions to wrestle with what it looks like to live a faithful life in a technological age.

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