Category: Ivan Illich

Hutterites and Technology

This is a long essay I wrote to supplement some presentations I gave for Hutterites on the topic of technology. This essay is intended for a Hutterite audience and so uses Hutterite examples and assumes a communal context. That said, the insights of this essay could apply equally to any family or community who wants … Continue reading Hutterites and Technology →

Peace as Homemaking

Readers might remember my earlier post from March 13, 2024, also entitled What we need is here. That post was an earlier draft of my entry into the Henry C. Smith Oratory Contest. The piece below is the version I actually delivered. I've also included a video my performance of the speech for those interested. … Continue reading Peace as Homemaking →

Gluttony, Fasting, and Feasting: Three Approaches to Technology

“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say ‘look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” (Matt. 11:19) In thinking about the human relationship to technology, we often go wrong in two directions. The first is the error under which … Continue reading Gluttony, Fasting, and Feasting: Three Approaches to Technology →

Living in God’s Time in a Technological Age

In his 2004 JJ Thiessen Lectures, John Swinton addresses the theme of disability and time. Dr. Swinton’s central thesis is that disability is all about time.[1] Essentially, Dr. Swinton uses the experience of ‘disability’ as an apophatic tool to expose the rebellious modern conception of time and it's connected anthropology. Swinton makes a similar move … Continue reading Living in God’s Time in a Technological Age →

Chapter 20: Conversions

In this chapter Taylor looks at the phenomenon of conversion in a Secular age, those people who “broke out of the immanent frame” into a larger perspective of Transcendence. These are people who come to recognize—perhaps through a conversion experience or via some other path—that there is more, that the immanent frame is insufficient. Taylor … Continue reading Chapter 20: Conversions →