What Would Jesus Tech

A podcast is not a sermon. It's not a lecture. And it's certainly not a book. But it is something like a friendship. The very medium of a podcast is personable and intimate - you literally hear a podcast inside your own head thanks to the earplugs most of us use. But we should never settle for consuming friendships, we need to cultivate our own. In this episode, Joel and Andrew reflect on podcasts and friendships and how they make sense of each other.

• 0:00 - Intro + banter
• 4:25 - Tony Reinke's description of podcasts & what makes them unique
• 7:25 - Why podcasts are like friendships
• 15:55 - Why do we produce a podcast?
• 17:40 - Why creating something is important
• 25:20 - The rise of loneliness 
• 27:40 - Cultivating friendships

Links:

  - This episode was inspired & heavily influenced by a tweet from Tony Reinke. See here: https://twitter.com/TonyReinke/status/1528010723107819522?s=20&t=S_k5yehGcJSFglYBkQkglQ

  - C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves - https://www.cslewis.com/four-types-of-love/

  - Bloom's Taxonomy - https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

  - The Trellis & The Vine - https://www.amazon.com/Trellis-Vine-Ministry-Mind-Shift-Everything-ebook/dp/B09CZFTLCC

  - James Kelly's FaithTech podcast - https://anchor.fm/faithtech-podcast

  - Brad East on loneliness - https://www.bradeast.org/blog/four-loves-loss

  - Tim Keller's sermon on friendship HIGHLY RECOMMEND - https://youtu.be/8Tc4VIQrXdE

Two years ago, the proliferation of a certain technology threw the world into a heated debate. Some wore masks. Others didn't. Many called the other side ignorant. And in the church, some even went so far as to call the other side sinful and apostate due to their masking (or lack of masking). Rather than focusing on the technology of masks themselves, in this episode, we work through a Biblical approach to moral decisions and how Christians should work through disputable matters. This is not easy! But for the good of the church, theologians like The Gospel Coalition's Wyatt Graham have pointed to Romans 14 (and 1 Cor. 8-10) to help church leaders navigate this tension. Joel and Andrew picked his brain on the topic with questions ranging from using the Old Testament for moral instruction to using masks and whether more invasive technologies like masks and Neuralink still fall under the category of "Christian Liberty."

• 1:00 - Romans 14:1-9
• 2:25 - Intros
• 6:17 - Why should people use the Bible for morality?
• 8:50 - Why should Christians use the whole Bible for morality?
• 12:45 - In what ways does the Old Testament apply to us today?
• 17:05 - In what ways is the Bible is misapplied?
• 19:58 - How should Christians apply Scripture today?
• 21:30 - Life isn't simple! We need to be more humble.
• 22:59 - What is this idea of first principles for moral reasoning?
• 26:55 - Does Paul use first principles for moral reasoning?
• 33:50 - How does the idea of "Christian freedom" interact with moral judgement?
• 36:55 - How did the reformation view Christian freedom?
• 38:54 - What are the categories - first principles and secondary matters?
• 43:02 - Should we wear masks for the sake of others?
• 50:01 - What about more intrusive technologies like NeuraLace and Elon Musk's Neurolink? Are they matters of Christian liberty too?
• 57:05 - What is Wyatt's theology of technology? And so how then should we use it?

Links:

Wyatt Graham | Twitter, @wagraham | Facebook, /wyatt.graham1 | https://wyattgraham.com/

Wyatt Graham's TGCC article on Romans 14 - https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/detrinitate/how-romans-14-helps-us-to-work-through-our-differences/

Calvin's Institutes - Chapter 19 - Of Christian Liberty - https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.v.xx.html

The Gospel Coalition Canada Confererence - Nov. 17-18 - https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/tgcc22/

What we attend to is what we value. We cannot live a life of merely avoiding distraction because we will always be giving attention to something. By definition, a distraction is something that takes our attention away from something else. So what do we value? Do we value scrolling social media newsfeeds? Do we value the *ding* notifications in the midst of trying to do work? Why are we on our phones so much?

In this episode, we work through what distractions are, how to think about our "attention economy," and how to live a life where our attention is not distracted.

Links:

Alan Jacobs' Habits of Mind in an Age of Distraction

L.M. Sacasas' We Are Not Living in a Simulation, We Are Living In the Past

Andy Crouch's The Life We're Looking For

L.M. Sacasas' Your Attention is not a Resource

Michael Goldhaber's 1997 Wired Essay on Attention Economy

Carl Trueman's The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

Carl Trueman's Strange New World

Andrew pokes holes in the very product that Joel helped build: a smart thermostat. The smart devices that we increasingly place in our homes have ecological impacts that are hard to assess and harder to predict. First, Joel recaps smart thermostats (1:05), and we discuss whether a so-called "smart home" makes your life easier or worse, including security vulnerabilities (15:00), the allure of big data (21:00), and how personalized optimization impacts family life (31:00). Then we try to bring it all together with the question of whether Jesus would use a smart home (37:30).

We welcome your comments and feedback! Email us at [email protected]

Things cited:

• Article which references Wendell Berry's argument of extensive (quantity and speed) vs intensive (quality and care).
• The Wendell Barry essay itself.
• Ecobee
• Alastair Roberts on The Ecological Effect of Technology
• John Dyer's From The Garden To The City

To understand a Christian view of tech we must unpack a Biblical view of money.

In this episode, Joel (the Tech Futurist) brings Andrew up to speed on the history of money (2:30) and Bitcoin (8:50). Then we dive into: what Jesus says about money (17:55), not letting money dictate the mission (24:40), giving to your local church (28:30), and the parable of the talents (32:22). Sorry for the slight delay - we both got sick (mild COVID).

Links:

Alastair Roberts' Gospel of Matthew commentary

NIV Audio Bible from Biblegateway.com

Gospel Patterns by John Rinehart

A Historical Survey of how Christianity has viewed Money - Christianity Today

God created us with limits and they are good. As creatures, we do not function in predictable, meaningless motion as a machine would - nor do we exist in every place at once with knowledge of all things as God does. No, we are only human. In this episode Andrew Noble and special guest Scott MacLellan discuss Kelly Kapic's book, "You Are Not Your Own" as well as Scott's job as Director of Engineering at Vidyard and leadership (starting at 27:00) and his work in helping distribute Bibles to 100,000+ people across the world (starting at 32:10).

Links mentioned:

FaithTech

You’re Only Human, by Kelly Kapic

Kelly Kapic interview with Mere Fidelity

Kelly Kapic interview with Collin Hansen on Gospelbound

None Like Him, by Jen Wilkin

Jen Wilkin on Why It’s Good News That God Is Not like Us

Vidyard

The Making of the SHAREBIBLES App (video)

ShareBibles

There are many promises of the Metaverse - promises of connection, engagement, and experience - but will the Metaverse make us more or less like the humanity God created us to be? It comes down to tradeoffs. The Metaverse offers significant improvements compared to current technologies (that most Christians already use!) but will their ease of use be one of their downfalls? Will they perpetuate the problems with consumerism and expressive individualism? 

In this episode, Andrew and Joel define what the Metaverse is (1:00), how it may just be like yet another place that Christians will inhabit (9:30), how Christianity prioritizes in-person gatherings (15:00), Andy Crouch's perspective on what it means to be human (20:00), and finally, how the church might engage with the Metaverse (39:55).

Show notes:

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash

Grace in Common podcast How To Be A Modern Christian

Andy Crouch's The Life We're Looking For

Andy Crouch interview with Good Faith Podcast

Biblegateway Audio Bible 1 Corinthians 5

Brad East Tech for normies article

9marks Ministries and their argument against multi-site podcast.

The CEO of Meta (Facebook) was recently asked, "what is the meaning of life." In this episode of WWJT, we explore his answer. The Bible teaches us that God created us to create, that every person has a purpose, and that even the activity of doing good work can give God great glory.

Links to things referenced:

- Lex Fridman interview with Mark Zuckerberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zOHSysMmH0&t=654s&ab_channel=LexFridman

- Tim Keller sermon on "Made for Stewardship" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHIuteKTQy0&

- Genesis chapter 1 in KJV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiXQmeuHTOY&ab_channel=tmantz625

- Genesis chapter 2 in NIV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY_ydB-6aqY&ab_channel=RyanMorgan

- Tabletalk article on doing work to God's glory: https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2018/09/working-unto-the-glory-of-god/

We'll be back with another episode every two weeks. In the meantime, use tech, find rest and give God glory.

A brief introduction to Andrew Noble - Bible student - and Joel Jacob - tech futurist - and what to expect from What Would Jesus Tech, a podcast that explores how the Bible helps Christians navigate a technology-filled world. Welcome to WWJT!