For all the benefits that technology provides, many people are increasingly feeling a sense of disquiet. The question is not simply about what technology can or cannot do for us; the deeper question is about what technology is doing to us. How is it transforming us and our understanding of what it means to be human? Paul Kingsnorth, one of the most perceptive and compelling writers of our time, joins us to consider just this. Paul is an acclaimed novelist, essayist, poet, and former environmental activist, and the author of ten books across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His most recent book, "Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity," has been described as a spiritual manual for dissidents in a technological age. In this episode, we explore Paul’s argument that Western culture has become uprooted from the people, places, traditions, and spiritual beliefs that once gave it meaning — and that what has emerged in its place is not simply a collection of new technologies, but an entire way of life that he calls “the Machine.” We talk about how we’ve arrived at this particular cultural moment, why technology is never truly neutral, and how modern technology raises ancient questions about our desire to transcend our limits and even remake what it means to be human. Drawing on Paul’s own remarkable spiritual journey — from a secular upbringing, through Buddhism and neo-paganism, and ultimately to Orthodox Christianity — we consider his conviction that the crisis we are facing is ultimately not political, cultural, or technological, but spiritual. What does all of this mean for the Church? If we are living in an increasingly uprooted culture, what would it look like to become a more deeply rooted Church? And how can Christians faithfully resist the formative power of a global technological society while continuing to live, work, and minister in the modern world? This is a fascinating conversation about technology, culture, faith, and ultimately what it means to be human in the age of the Machine.
For all the benefits that technology provides, many people are increasingly feeling a sense of disquiet. The question is not simply about what technology can or cannot do for us; the deeper question is about what technology is doing to us. How is it transforming us and our understanding of what it means to be human? Paul Kingsnorth, one of the most perceptive and compelling writers of our time, joins us to consider just this. Paul is an acclaimed novelist, essayist, poet, and former environmental activist, and the author of ten books across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His most recent book, "Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity," has been described as a spiritual manual for dissidents in a technological age.
In this episode, we explore Paul’s argument that Western culture has become uprooted from the people, places, traditions, and spiritual beliefs that once gave it meaning — and that what has emerged in its place is not simply a collection of new technologies, but an entire way of life that he calls “the Machine.” We talk about how we’ve arrived at this particular cultural moment, why technology is never truly neutral, and how modern technology raises ancient questions about our desire to transcend our limits and even remake what it means to be human. Drawing on Paul’s own remarkable spiritual journey — from a secular upbringing, through Buddhism and neo-paganism, and ultimately to Orthodox Christianity — we consider his conviction that the crisis we are facing is ultimately not political, cultural, or technological, but spiritual.
What does all of this mean for the Church? If we are living in an increasingly uprooted culture, what would it look like to become a more deeply rooted Church? And how can Christians faithfully resist the formative power of a global technological society while continuing to live, work, and minister in the modern world? This is a fascinating conversation about technology, culture, faith, and ultimately what it means to be human in the age of the Machine.
Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul Kingsnorth
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