CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN A TECHNOLOGICAL AGE
By Brian Brock
Published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., $34
The cover image of Christian Ethics in a Technological Age evokes an apprehension over technology. The photograph, taken by the author himself, portrays an infant flooded in an eerie blue light. Masked by blinders, the infant is afflicted with tubes and electrodes that invade the tiny body. Technology, it seems, invades even the most innocent of places.
Yet, for anyone with professional or personal experience with this technology, the image will be recognized as a bilirubin light. The purpose of the light is to treat dangerous infant jaundice. While initially disturbing, the photograph is an example of how technology mediates substantive good. Humbled by how such technology served my own infant son, I read Brian Brock’s work anticipating, without fulfillment, his analysis of technology’s positive and life-sustaining dimensions. His work is, alas, more sensitive to the moral perils of a technological age.
That being said, Brock, a lecturer in moral and practical theology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, significantly contributes to a new wave of theological reflection on the question of technology. His erudite and accessible book draws us into the hidden moral complexities posed by technology.
These complexities are illustrated well in his analysis of ovum testing. Used in the practice of in vitro fertilization, ovum testing isolates genetic defects in eggs prior to fertilization. Thus, it reduces the destruction of fertilized embryos in the in vitro fertilization process. On the surface, the ovum sensor appears morally unproblematic, if not a moral boon.
Brock observes, however, that ovum testing serves and perpetuates a particular view of motherhood. In vitro fertilization treats infertility as a woman’s illness. Because she cannot parent children “naturally,” she is ill and deficient. Ovum testing assists in treating the illness of the infertile woman.
Where in vitro fertilization “cures” women of infertility, the ovum sensor helps “cure” women from bearing genetically defective children. The ovum sensor is employed to determine whether certain traits or conditions are worthy of life based on a process that treats infertility and genetic conditions as illnesses in need of a cure. In the case of the ovum sensor, the moral issues of life arise long before conception.
In response to the difficult moral questions concerning the form of life that technology serves and perpetuates, Brock espouses a Christian ethic drawn primarily from the theology of Karl Barth. This ethic entails a respect for creation and proper reverence toward its Creator. He concludes by emphasizing the local Christian community as a form of life capable of attending to the moral complexities of a technological society. While insightful in its own right, Brock never fully reconnects this conclusion with his previous analysis of ovum testing.
Any criticism here of Brock’s work is not prohibitive. He admirably strives to construct a theological response to these questions. Christian Ethics in a Technological Age is recommended for scholars, teachers and laypersons concerned with the consequences of technology in the contemporary church and society.
[Adam Sheridan is currently working toward a doctorate in theology from the University of Dayton, Ohio. He is a husband and father.]
