From the Golem to Freedom: A Study on Technology and Religion

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

An exploration of how human beings relate to contemporary information technology, with a particular focus on social media. This book provides a portrait of the individual user in the midst of an online environment, illuminated by concepts from Judaism and Christianity, as well as from the secular philosophical traditions inspired by religion. It argues that the religious tradition can be invoked to describe both the freedom and unfreedom of the user of information technology. We currently live in a time of techno-totalitarianism in the making, characterised by pervasive structures of mastery and servitude, surveillance, attention-grabbing and attention-seeking, transgression, and loss of freedom. To illuminate how individuals may relate to technology in the midst of this totalitarianism, the author invokes the figure and legend of the golem from Jewish mysticism. Such religious traditions can shed light on an alternative to our present predicament of unfreedom through information technology, while at the same time remaining engaged with this technology. Such an alternative can be envisioned through the theological-philosophical concept of nothingness. Nothingness can be experienced and contemplated in the particular states, specific to the online world, of burnout, boredom and anxiety. The books contention is that nothingness can be a source of freedom, opening up a free relationship for us with the essence of information technology. An interdisciplinary exposition of social media and online experience viewed which will be of interest to researchers and students in the social sciences, theology, religious studies, and the philosophy of technology.

Reviews

A really exciting new book about how to respond to information technology ... This is a large and rapidly growing field ... This is a highly original, extremely lively, well-sourced, and timely work, well-conceived and well-executed. Perhaps its most original contribution is to explore the possibility of a religious response to information technology that does not look for a non-technological counter-weightswitching the computer off, going on a mountain retreat, etc.but seeks to develop an experience of nothingness that arises within online life itself, focused on the phenomena of burn-out and boredom. * George Pattison, retired, but honorary professorial posts at Glasgow, St Andrews universities, UK and Copenhagen University, Denmark *
From the Golem to Freedom contains a highly innovative thesis circulating around the dominance of technology in our world today. Rather than simply lament our apparent subservience to technology, however, it seeks to locate a space for meaning with the boredom, burnout and anxiety (the nothingness) that many experience in their frequent online encounters ... Throughout the proposal, there was a striking, lucid exposition of the contents of such a theoretically rich work. There are extremely relatable examples and analysis delivered in the midst of a profound and complex argument concerning the nature of the human being in relation to technology ... Had this book been available when I taught my (graduate) course, I would have been eager to use it as a primary text in classand I do intend to use it as a primary text when I teach that particular seminar again in the future ... I have no reservations about it. * Colby Dickinson, Loyola University Chicago, USA *

Author Bio

Gbor L. Ambrus is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Charles University, Czech Republic