A Theological Discourse on the Relation of Technology and Love

DONG HWAN KIM

The purpose of this article is to examine the relation of love and technology in a Christian theological view. At first, love is universal in its original character. This means that love is purely universal without any doctrinal or ideological assumption. In contrast, technology is universalistic in its basic character. This signifies that technology is intentionally universalistic in its conspiracy with some ideologies or doctrines. In this respect, love and technology are fundamentally incompatible. On account of the coercive and violent character of univeralistic technology, the sound way for them to be related is that the universal love is concerned with, embraces, and transforms the universalistic technology. However, it is difficult to anticipate the transformation of technology by love because the universalistic character of technology is as transformative as the universal character of love. The only way to anticipate it is that love has a unique character that surpasses technology. It is Christian love (agape) that can realize that anticipation. Through the Incarnation of Christ Jesus, it makes love concrete and not abstract, and in relation to technology, it enables love to overcome the fatal weakness of technology, i.e., ambiguity by giving love a unique character, embodiedness. Only when the relation of technology and love is extended to the relation of technology and agape (embodied/incarnated love), then technology and love can be cogently related, and even the transformation of technology by love can be anticipated.

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* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

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