Christian Ethics for a Digital Society

by Kate Ott Drew University

Overview

Christian Ethics for a Digital Society looks at how we live in an increasingly digital world. From sexting to hashtag activism like the #metoo movement, technology has entered both our private and public lives in a deep way. Far from hand-wringing about the dangers of technology, Christian Ethics for a Digital Society offers pragmatic wisdom on how to live thoughtfully today. Instead of just worrying about the next technological gadget or app, it’s time we consider what Christianity has to offer a world increasingly reimagined in a digital landscape. This book provides a new perspective on how to assess digital technology use, development, and expansion through a lens of Christian values. The purpose of this book is to begin a conversation about the massive ecosystem change that digital technologies push in our lives through a focus on the ethics of everyday practices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442267381
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/15/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	784 KB

About the Author

Kate Ott is associate professor of Christian social ethics at Drew Theological School.She also held the position of deputy director of the Religious Institute, a nonprofit committed to sexual health, education, and justice in faith communities and society. She is author or co-editor of several books, including Sex + Faith: Talking with Your Child from Birth to Adolescence. She has leadership roles with organizations including Catholics for Choice and Feminist Studies in Religion.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Christian Ethics as Creative Moral Response

Digital Literacies as Praxis

Moral Approaches and Digital Technologies

“We” and Moral Proportion

Moral Means

1 Programming for Difference

Babel: Valuing Diversity

Data, Algorithms, and Predictive Analytics

Searching Difference, Networking Diversity

Excursus 1: Difference and Self-Understanding

2 Networked Selves

Moral Formation in a Digital Life

Are We Disconnected in Our Connection?

Digitally Creating the Self

The Self as Digital, or I Share, and Therefore I Am

Attunement and Digital Moral Formation

Excursus 2: Moral Complicity in the Digital Society

3 Moral Functions Beyond the Delete Key

Sin and Metanoia in a Digital Age

Digital Data, Archiving, and Surveillance

Ctrl + Z: To Forget or to Forgive?

Moral Functions of Forgiveness and Metanoia

Digital Disruption 94

Excursus 3: God as Panopticon or Prisoner

4 Creation Connectivity

Linking Ecological, Technological, and Social Issues

Data Mining and Digital Mattering

Reconnecting with Cocreative Responsibility

Excursus 4: Digital Clouds and Dirt-Filled Devices

5 Ethical Hacking and Hacking Ethics

Swords into Plowshares

Digital Literacies for Hacking

Participatory Culture and Digital Citizenship

Creativity, Hacking, and Community

Conclusion

Excursus 5: Reading and Writing New Visions

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Web Citations

Editorial Reviews

10/22/2018
Ott (Sex + Faith), associate professor of Christian social ethics at Drew Theological School, argues cogently that for Christians to practice ethical internet use, they must be digitally literate. For Ott, this means understanding “how data is used, information is created, and predictive analytics are promoted.” Like other religious scholars who study digital communications, Ott uses the biblical story of the Tower of Babel to compare how technology and language intersect to create a false sense of social unity. One of the most radical recent changes, Ott writes, is that computers now push a wide array of information to users when initially they were used as computing and communication tools. She painstakingly explains dangers of computer and digital technology, particularly algorithms that use predictive technology (like Google or Twitter) that may or may not deliver accurate information. She also argues that digital technology has made it easier for an online persona to become an extension of a person (for better or worse). In addition to going over scientific research, Ott implores Christians to use technology in ways that honor God, including practicing forgiveness, being socially responsible, and caring for the environment with their technological choices. Ott’s book will appeal to Christian technology enthusiasts looking to engage in digital communities. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Finally, a book about tech that treats Christians like real human beings. Kate Ott offers a sophisticated, critical, accessible primer on Internet cultures and their discontents. It is not another call for a prudish retreat from networks, nor a ploy to manipulate them for propagandistic ends. Rather, it invites faith to be a guide for creative and savvy participation in building a more just digital world.

Nathan Schneider

Kate Ott rethinks Christian moral meaning in the still new technological age from a digitally woke place. She sketches how algorithms can be a blessing and a curse, how hacking can be a positive force, and how the unforgetting nature of the Internet can influence experiences of forgiving. Excursus leaven the text with personal, practical reflections on how power dynamics in this newly emerging reality can either connect or silo, enhance life for a few or, if developed responsibly, enhance for all.

Ethics and Ritual) WATER (Women's Alliance for Theology

Ott’s reflection on what Christian ethics needs to look like in the digital society goes far beyond the most obvious issues: the addictive and distracting nature of smartphones and their apps, and the grave difficulty that many of us have engaging social media in a morally constructive or even coherent way.. .. Ott goes far deeper than that in this excellent book, one of the first extended Christian ethical treatments of the digital society—and one that every Christian attempting to live in this brave new world should read.. .. Ott fearlessly takes us into the underlying structure and purpose of digital language and makes us think about many of the moral issues that matter most. Her discussions are fascinating.

Christian Century

So many theological responses to the digital age begin (and end) in moral hand-wringing about how much our world has changed, or in ‘how-tos’ designed to enable more tech-savvy ministers and lay leaders. Kate Ott offers us something else: a kind of moral grammar—or in her language, practices of moral ‘hacking’—to navigate our digital lives in embodied, incarnational ways. An improvisational book in the best of senses, this should be read by teachers, professors, students, parents, ministers, and anyone trying to think and act Christianly.

Kathryn Reklis

What difference does it make to engage digital technology as a Christian? Kate Ott invites us to think intentionally and creatively about the shaping effect our engagement with the ever-changing digital world has on our relationships and our community formation. Providing a new ethical language, she orients our reflection away from a rule-based approach toward a relational and imaginative approach, all while keeping context, community, and justice at the fore.

Xochitl Alvizo