Technology: What the Bible says.
John Capper
Technology is not a word to be found in the Bible. What is found is a God who is the creator of all, the master designer and the source of all change. Technology like everything else has its source in God. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and part of that creation was humans. After this work, he viewed his creation, he was satisfied and he rested. As part of that rest, humans discovered that being created in the image of God they had carried characteristics that would allow them to also be creative, so much so that they could even reject God.
Since the Fall, work has taken a two fold meaning as both satisfaction and drudgery as humans learnt to till the soil. Humans had learnt that everything God have given them could be used to enhance their relationship with him or to break it. There was the possibility of harmony and disharmony.
Technology in harmony with God can build an Ark and the Temple of Jerusalem and in disharmony the Tower of Babel. Technology in harmony with creation can beat swords into ploughshares and in disharmony pollute, destroy and disfigure. Technology in harmony with others produce music, writing, housing and in disharmony war, oppression and broken relationships. Technology in harmony with self can lead to music, praise, clothing, fellowship and in disharmony self-mutilation and self-destructive behaviours.
Technology is, at one level, morally neutral. It can be used to promote harmony or to disrupt it. The two exist side by side in the same way that in Christ we live at the one time in the world and in the Kingdom. Human beings can engage technology for good and for evil. Christians need to engage with the technology with a view to the framework of faith and morality which is part of their relationship with God.
In education it does not matter whether it is new or old technology, books, radio, television or the Internet, teachers and students need to have the skills and moral framework to choose wisely the applications of technology they wish to engage and the content associated with those applications. Such wisdom has its source in the character of God and the perfect reflection, Jesus Christ.