July 2003

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Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology
Albert Borgmann
Brazos, 144 pages, $14.99

There is a troubling connection between the progress of technology and the decline of faith, believes Albert Borgmann, professor of philosophy at the University of Montana.

"For more than three hundred years now, modern technology has been dissolving traditional structures and indulging our weaknesses," Borgmann writes.

In these eight essays, he argues that rather than demolishing technology or running away from it, Christians must restrain and redeem it.

Borgmann explores how engagement with our world has yielded to a mere consumption of it. "Commodities by their very structure tend to lull and dull our senses and talents," he writes.

Citing the importance of communities engaging in cultural activities, Borgmann challenges Christians to strengthen reverence and piety wherever they find it, and to recover their capacity to engage in the arts. He also calls for lowering the wall between church and state to allow more public religious celebrations (like school Christmas pageants). Borgmann's prose is fairly erudite, and his arguments are compelling.

Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology is available at Christianbook.com and other retailers.

The University of Montana has a brief bio page for Borgmann.

For book reviews, see CT'sbook archive.