Go Deeper · Culture & Society

On Technology & the Christian Life

Technology is not neutral — it shapes us as we use it. The evangelical conversation asks what it means to use technology wisely when its design does not have our flourishing in mind.

Curated by Christian Curator · Updated regularly

Last updated: April 17, 2026

TL;DR

Christians should approach technology thoughtfully, recognizing it shapes users through design and use patterns. Evangelical perspectives range from cautious engagement with intentional limits to more enthusiastic adoption. Most agree technology requires discernment, regular evaluation of its spiritual impact, and disciplines like digital sabbaths to protect attention, relationships, and formation in Christ.

Every technology has a telos — a purpose built into its design that shapes how it forms its users. The smartphone, the social media algorithm, and the recommendation engine are not neutral conduits for human choice; they are systems engineered to capture and hold attention, to trigger dopamine loops, to make disengagement costly and engagement rewarding. Christians who want to use these technologies faithfully need to understand not just what they are doing with technology but what technology is doing with them — how it is reshaping attention, relationship, self-presentation, and the soul's capacity for silence and depth.

The evangelical conversation on technology has matured considerably in the last decade, moving from simple "how to use social media for Jesus" pragmatism toward a deeper theological reckoning with what technology does to human beings as embodied, relational, liturgical creatures. Andy Crouch's The Tech-Wise Family, Tony Reinke's 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, and Cal Newport's secular work on digital minimalism have shaped evangelical thinking. But the conversation is still developing — especially on artificial intelligence, which raises questions about creativity, image-bearing, truth, and what it means to be human that are as deep as any theology has ever faced.

Key Questions This Topic Addresses

Is technology neutral — or does its design embed values that shape its users?
How do social media algorithms affect the Christian's capacity for attention, silence, and depth?
What does the image of God (imago Dei) mean for how Christians think about artificial intelligence?
What does wise, Christian technology use look like practically — are there disciplines or limits that are near-universal?
How should the church use (and limit) technology in its own communal life and worship?

The Evangelical Debate

Three Approaches to Technology and Formation

Evangelicals agree that technology shapes its users. They disagree on how to respond — whether technology itself is the problem, or whether our culture has simply failed to use it wisely. Here are the three main positions.

Position 1

Redemptive Technology Use

Andy Crouch, Brett McCracken, Trevin Wax, Justin Taylor

Technology is a gift of common grace that can be used well or badly — and Christians are called to use it wisely for the glory of God and the good of neighbor. Neither wholesale rejection nor uncritical embrace is the right posture; what is needed is careful, liturgically-ordered technology use that serves human flourishing rather than undermining it. Christians can use smartphones, social media, and digital platforms redemptively if they bring theological intentionality to how, when, and why they engage — asking whether each use serves love of God and neighbor.

Key Reads

Let Andy Crouch Help Your Family Become Tech-Wise Limiting My Phone Expanded My View of God

Position 2

Digital Minimalism & Formation-First

Tony Reinke, Andy Crouch, Tim Challies, Alan Noble

The design of contemporary digital technology is hostile to human flourishing and Christian formation in ways that make "wise use" insufficient — the systems themselves are adversarial to attention, relationship, and the soul's need for silence and depth. Reinke documents twelve ways smartphones reshape their users in directions antithetical to Christian discipleship. The default should be restraint, not engagement, and the burden of proof should rest with those who want to add technology, not those who want to limit it. Structural boundaries — designated tech-free times, places, and relationships — are not burdensome but protective.

Key Reads

Two Keys to Flourishing in the Digital Age Practical Hope for Screen Addicts

Position 3

AI Theology & Image-Bearing

Russell Moore, John Dyer, Derek Schuurman, Matthew Perman

Artificial intelligence represents a genuinely new challenge that requires theological development, not just application of existing frameworks. Questions about AI-generated content, machine creativity, algorithmic decision-making, and the displacement of human relationship and work require engagement with the theology of imago Dei, human vocation, truth, and community. The evangelical response to AI cannot be either cheerful adoption or alarmist rejection but serious theological work about what it means to be human in a world where machines can imitate human creativity, relationship, and moral reasoning.

Key Reads

AI: An Evangelical Statement of Principles (ERLC) AI Will Shape Your Soul

What the Conversation Adds Up To

The deepest agreement across all three positions is a conviction that technology is formative — it shapes us whether we intend it or not. No one in the evangelical conversation still holds that technology is merely neutral. The question is not whether it will form us but whether we will form ourselves intentionally in response to its pressures, or simply drift with the current of its design. The smartphone carries enormous gifts — connection, access to knowledge, tools for work and ministry. But these gifts come wrapped in systems designed to hijack attention for profit, to create comparison and anxiety, to make us strangers to silence and depth.

The church's calling in this moment is to be a countercultural community of embodied presence and intentional practice. This means the local church must model what it means to be fully present with one another — not half-present with our devices. It means small groups where people learn to put phones away and simply listen. It means preaching that teaches formation, not just information. It means families and communities that together ask hard questions about what technologies serve human flourishing and what technologies exploit it. The conversation is not about condemning technology or condemning those who use it; it is about cultivating the wisdom and spiritual disciplines that allow us to use powerful tools without being used by them — remaining free, attentive, and undivided in our love for God and neighbor.

The Evangelical Conversation, Curated

Let Andy Crouch Help Your Family Become Tech-Wise

The Gospel Coalition

A review and introduction to Andy Crouch's foundational work on technology and the household. Crouch argues that Christian families can become countercultural communities that use technology intentionally rather than habitually. The article outlines the "Tech-Wise Commitments" framework — practical guardrails that protect time for presence, conversation, and prayer. Essential reading for understanding how to move from reactive complaint about technology to proactive discipleship of whole households.

Two Keys to Flourishing in the Digital Age

Desiring God

A concise Desiring God reflection on what Christians need to flourish amid the pressures of digital technology. The article identifies two core practices: cultivating delight in God through prayer and Scripture meditation, and establishing intentional rhythms of digital rest. It shows how spiritual formation and technology-use are inseparable — you cannot be formed in prayer while fractured by constant digital distraction.

Practical Hope for Screen Addicts

The Gospel Coalition

The Gospel Coalition's review of Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism, which applies his philosophy of intentional technology use through a Christian lens. While Newport approaches the topic from productivity and flourishing rather than theology, his framework aligns with Christian wisdom about cultivating attention and depth. The article shows how secular research on technology's effects validates what Christian contemplatives have always known about the soul's need for silence.

Limiting My Phone Expanded My View of God

The Gospel Coalition

A personal testimony of how intentional limits on smartphone use restored the narrator's capacity for prayer, Scripture reflection, and attentiveness to God's presence. The article is both vulnerable and practical, describing specific disciplines (no phone at meals, charging phones outside the bedroom, screen-grayscale mode) and their spiritual effects. It demonstrates that the technology conversation is not academic but deeply formational — what we do with our devices determines, over time, who we become.

Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles

Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

The ERLC's landmark statement on AI, signed by over 60 evangelical leaders and experts, establishing theological and ethical principles for how Christians should approach artificial intelligence. The statement grounds AI ethics in the imago Dei, human dignity, vocation, and truth — refusing both naive optimism and fearful rejection. This is the most important evangelical resource for understanding the theological stakes of AI development and use.

AI Will Shape Your Soul

Christianity Today

Christianity Today's major feature on how interaction with artificial intelligence reshapes human souls and spiritual formation. The article explores how AI-powered recommendations, chatbots, and automated decision-making subtly rewire our expectations of relationship, truth, and human purpose. It asks: if we increasingly delegate creativity, conversation, and moral reasoning to machines, what happens to the human capacities these technologies were designed to serve?

How Does Our Digital Life Affect Our Theology?

Crossway

A Crossway article exploring the surprising ways that digital technology shapes what we believe about God, Scripture, and doctrine. The piece argues that the medium is not separable from the message — a religion accessed primarily through fragmented digital snippets looks different from a faith learned in embodied community and sustained Scripture meditation. This raises urgent questions for churches that rely heavily on digital ministry without recognizing its formative limitations.

3 Ways Wisdom Is Threatened in the Information Age

Crossway

A Crossway analysis of how the information age actively undermines the conditions necessary for wisdom to develop. The article identifies three threats: information overload that exceeds our processing capacity, the speed of consumption that prevents contemplation, and the decentralization of truth that leaves us unable to distinguish signal from noise. It offers biblical perspective on how to cultivate wisdom in an age designed to prevent it.

Digital Theology

David Murray · Ligonier Ministries

David Murray's essay on the theology of digital technology from Ligonier Ministries frames technology as a genuine gift from God that reflects his creativity and provision. Murray argues for gratitude and stewardship rather than fear or rejection, while maintaining that technology is not morally neutral — it carries implications for how we relate to God, ourselves, and others. A balanced perspective that takes seriously both technology's benefits and its potential for harm.

20 Quotes From Tony Reinke's New Book About Your Smartphone

The Gospel Coalition

A curated collection of key quotations from Tony Reinke's 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You that crystallizes the argument: smartphones are designed to form us in specific directions, and Christians must understand this formation if they hope to resist it or redirect it. Reinke shows how the phone's architecture shapes dopamine loops, attention patterns, and our capacity for sustained relationship — offering both diagnosis and spiritual response.