THE TECHNOLOGICAL IMAGINARY: BRINGING MYTH AND IMAGINATION INTO DIALOGUE WITH BRONISLAW SZERSZYNSKI'S NATURE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE SACRED

Author: DeLashmutt, Michael W.

Source: Zygon, Volume 41, Number 4, December 2006 , pp. 801-810(10)

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Abstract:

Bronislaw Szerszynski's Nature, Technology and the Sacred (2005) offers a fresh look into the historical, cultural, and political implications of technology use in our contemporary situation. By challenging the standard interpretation of the secularization thesis, the book opens the door to a new kind of postmodern ordering of the sacred, which includes our ever-developing perception of the environment and our ongoing use of technology. In my discussion of the text, I suggest that Szerszynski's argument could have been furthered by exploring the role played by both imagination and myth in creating the postmodern sacred that he describes. I argue that by giving consideration to Friedrich Dessauer's Christian theology of technology and the mythical imagination of contemporary science fiction literature and film, a more explicitly religious dimension of technology can be allowed to emerge in the form of the technological imaginary.

Keywords: Friedrich Dessauer; Michel Foucault; imagination; invention; inventiveness; myth; Nature, Technology and the Sacred; philosophy of technology; science fiction; secularization; Bronislaw Szerszynski; technology

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2006.00778.x

Affiliations: 1: An honorary research associate of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Glasgow, Scotland;, Email: deLashmutt@gmail.com.

Publication date: 2006-12-01