Eschatological companions: Christian hope in virtual worlds

ABSTRACT

The Christian faith is oriented around the hope that is found in the birth, life, death, resurrection and return of Jesus Christ, and this hope shapes Christian understandings of being human and human flourishing. What then might this Christian hope have to say about our technological developments and, in particular, how those shape our reflection on being human? Moreover, how do the various virtual worlds that we inhabit in continuity with our physical environment shape our thinking on bodies, gender, sexuality, identity and relationships? This article adds constructive theological reflection on technologically shape virtual worlds through the lens of Christian hope, moving beyond only eschatological dimensions to focus also on technological narratives of purpose and novelty and theological thinking around humanity, Christology and salvation. It is our contention that Christian hope provides a unifying theme for fruitful theological reflection on virtual worlds and our lives within them.

KEYWORDS:

• Theology
• virtual
• social media
• Christian hope
• eschatology

Notes on contributors

Stephen Garner is Academic Dean and Senior Lecturer in Theology at Laidlaw College, Auckland, New Zealand. He has a background in both theology and computer science and his research concerns theology, technology and media.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Brooke, “Virtual Gods, Designed Universes,” 126.

2. Cole-Turner, “Science, Technology and Mission,” 101.

3. Forrester, “The Scope of Public Theology,” 14. See also Douglas Meeks comments on ethical living as a consequence of eschatology in Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of hope. Meeks, Origins of the Theology of Hope, 47–9.

4. Peters, God – the World's Future, 156–7.

5. Russell, “Five Attitudes toward Nature and Technology from a Christian Perspective,” 157.

6. Cole-Turner, The New Genesis, 106.

7. Here, I locate my work in the field of “digital theology,” which considers digital culture as the context in which theology is done. This is distinct from the more sociologically-oriented field of “digital religion” in that digital theology seeks to develop a genuinely reflexive dialogue between digital culture and theology, emphasizing God’s interaction and relationship with the world (cf. Phillips, Schiefelbein-Guerrero, and Kurlberg, “Defining Digital Theology,” 29–43).

8. White, Christian Worship and Technological Change, 16.

9. Heim, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, 110–6.

10. Zhang and Ho, “Smartphone Applications for Immersive Virtual Reality Therapy for Internet Addiction and Internet Gaming Disorder,” 367–2; Miloff et al., “Automated Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Spider Phobia Vs. In-Vivo One-Session Treatment,” 130–40; Iannicelli et al., “Does Virtual Reality Reduce Pain in Pediatric Patients?” 1–6; Feng-hua, “A Ship Driving Teaching System Based on Multi-Level Virtual Reality Technology,” 26–31; Skopp et al., “A Pilot Study of the Virtusphere as a Virtual Reality Enhancement,” 24–31.

11. Heim, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, 85–9.

12. Ibid., 79.

13. Wertheim, The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace, 16.

14. Benedikt, “Introduction,” 14.

15. Stenger, “Mind Is a Leaking Rainbow,”52.

16. Brym et al., “Social Media in the 2011 Egyptian Uprising,” 266–92; Calabresi and Rebala, “Hacking Democracy inside Russia's Social Media War on America,” 30–5; The Guardian, “The Cambridge Analytica Files”; Tudoroiu, “Social Media and Revolutionary Waves,” 346–65.

17. Bonnett, “Philippines Considers Action against 4chan and 8chan”; Sanghani, “Grand Theft Auto”.

18. Todd, “Commentary,” 64–7; Freed, “Gamergate, Violence and Video Games,” 6–23. More recently, various filmmakers have tracked the lives of women in the gaming world, following their interactions with male gamers and the very real world consequences of how they are treated. Shannon Sun-Higgenson’s GTFO: Get the F&#% Out (2015) explicitly engages with sexism within the world of video games, while Gina Hara’s Geek Girls (2017) deals with similar themes but in a broader engagement with popular culture that includes cosplay, science fiction, conventions, as well as gaming.

19. Turkle, “How to Teach in an Age of Distraction.”

20. Todd, “Commentary,” 66.

21. Dibbell, “A Rape in Cyberspace.”

22. Midson, “Robo-Theisms and Robot Theists,” 313.

23. Ibid., 309–10.

24. Geraci, Apocalyptic AI Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality, 81.

25. Cole-Turner, The New Genesis, 102.

26. Kevin Kelly, “The Third Culture,” 992–3.

27. Ibid., 992.

28. Ibid., 993.

29. Cole-Turner, “Science, Technology, and the Mission of Theology in a New Century,” 156–8.

30. Hefner, The Human Factor, 27.

31. Ibid., 39–40.

32. Marshall, Crowned with Glory and Honor, 56–62; Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, 87–103; Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, 294–5; Bird, “Male and Female He Created Them,” 129–59; Ruether, “Feminist Theology in the Academy,” 57–62; Clifford, Introducing Feminist Theology, 125.

33. Clines, “The Image of God in Man,” 53–103; Rad, Genesis: A Commentary; “The Divine Likeness in the OT,” 390–2; Hefner, Technology and Human Becoming; Garner, “The Hopeful Cyborg,” 87–100.

34. Moltmann, God in Creation, 215–24.,

35. Kull, “Cyborg Embodiment and the Incarnation,” 283.

36. For further exploration of the notion of theological hybridity in relation to technology see: Garner, “The Hopeful Cyborg,” 87–100.