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Technological Utopia and the Theology of Hope
By Kenneth Vaux

Man responsibly engages in technologic or cybernetic mastery of the environment as he acknowledges that his life is situated in the creative action of God, as he recognizes the fact that his ingenuity is rooted in his createdness Imago Dei, as he perceives that world order and change are dynamically given by the Perpetual impulse of the divine spirit ... His own creative activity is not pioneering in the sense that lie works alone. He is co-worker as divine power penetrates his conceptualization, decision-making, and implementation.

One important focus of the Christian-Marxist dialogue has been the attention given to the kind of world man seeks to create. Not only has this eschatological, futuristic emphasis had great impact on theology, but it has opened up an exciting era of interface between technology and theology. Does man hope for technological utopia? Is the content of Christian hope the effortless earthly society? Are the Marxist and Christian hopes for the world similar or dissimilar? These questions emerge at the parameters of technology as these are responsive to the spiritual ethical dimension. At least three distinct positions have emerged. There are the technological optimists. These men celebrate technology and man's liberation bestowed in technological progress. Then there are the pessimists. These men to a greater or lesser degree express caution, stress the ambiguity of progress, warn against the technicization and resultant dehumanization of man in the technetronic society. The former group finds expression

Kenneth Vaux is Associate Professor of Ethics at the Institute of Religion and Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston. He received his doctorate from the University of Hamburg, where his research was focused oil the ethical problems of cybernation. He is author of a forthcoming book, Subduing the Cosmos, and edited Who Shall Live Ethics in Medicine and Technology.

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in the work of Harvey Cox (The Secular City, 1965) and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Building the Earth, 1956). The pessimist group is expressed in Jacques Ellul (Technological Society, 1954) and Lewis Mumford (The Myth of the Machine, 1966). By contrast, apprehensive hope is seen in Helmut Thielicke (Theologische Ethik, Band 111, 1964) and Erich Fromm (The Revolution of Hope, 1968).

The purpose of this essay is to explore the way the future is conceived in hope and how this hope controls the way the environment is technologically structured. Stress will be given to the cybernetic phase of technology, where electronic subjugation of reality through energy control is operative. The essay seeks to respond to two questions: "What kind of world does the Christian hope for?" "What is Christian responsibility given man's hope in the technological context?" The thesis of the essay is that Christian and Marxist-eschatologies profoundly motivate the development of technology as well as determining the shape of the future world that technology is creating.

I

Jurgen Moltmann has noted in his important writing on hope that man by nature is in statu viatoris, in essence dynamic and moving. His response to this dynamism can be positive or negative, expressed as either praesumptio or desperatio. His existential life as well as his sociocultural expression reflects the choice between these alternatives, Even his technology can reflect the dual failures of hasty expectation of technological utopia (praesumptio), or deprecation of progress and the resultant cloture to the future (desperatio).¹ His eschatological awareness, in other words, shapes his technology as a part of the total way in which he relates to his world.

Biblical history discloses the eschatological press on the development of technology and technological responsibility. The Hebrew experience knew YAHWEH as the creator God who had finished a cosmos that had value and purpose. It was finished, yet it had a "coming" or "becoming" character. Seeing that the creation was good, he created man "from the ground" (Genesis 2: 7). With a pliability comparable to the potters' clay (Isaiah 45: 9), he summons him with a creative future-oriented task: "Fill the earth

1 Jürgen Moltmann, The Theology of Hope (New York, 1967), pp 22 ff

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and subdue it" (Genesis 1: 28). The same plasticity marks the creation with respect to man's subjugation of nature. It is open to the future. In the Old Testament the redemptive theme dominates. The creation is going somewhere and man is a part of the dynamic of that process.

Although it is very difficult to document the assertion that the primitive notions of technology were motivated eschatologically, Arend Van Leeuwen (in Christianity in World History) notes the way in which technological dynamism is rooted, not only in Western Christianity, but in her Jewish antecedents. The Hebrew enterprises of temple and nation building were surely motivated by hope as much as by command.

Beyond the concrete expressions, technological impulse is given profound direction by two Hebrew concepts. The first, already mentioned, is that man is under creation mandate to subdue the earth. The second is more significant. Man is created "Imago Dei" (Genesis 1: 27, 9: 6). The distinction that man is given in the creation has considerable import in directing man's emergence as a creator of technologic and cybernetic control of environment. Ernst Benz has shown that the " 'Imago Dei' has become one of the strongest impulses for man's technological development and realization." ² In the New Testament, eschatological factors emerge that are very directly related to technology. The metaphors used by Paul are frequently technological images. This is seen when the apostle speaks of man's mutual work with God, e.g., the technological images of the building and the field control sections of the Corinthian literature (I Corinthians 3: 9, 10). Although the controlling theme here is kingdom building, the point stands that the relationship between God and man is given eschatological dimension. Man is commissioned to be a skilled master builder, building on that foundation which stabilizes and controls the design: Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 3: 11).

The dominion motif in the New Testament again calls attention to the stature of man's work in the creation. When man conceives of himself in a way that links him to the Creator in a relationship of mutuality and common purpose, and when that unity is found in dominion over the world, a powerful impulse is released that generates high technological accomplishment. Man feels compelled

2 Ernst Benz, Evolution and Christian Hope (Garden City, N Y, 1966), p 124

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to wrestle order and beauty from the environment when he believes that he shares the informing and creative work of God. At the heart of the technological impulse has been the conviction, first felt in the New Testament, that in Jesus Christ the clue is found to the direction in which the creation is moving-indeed that in him, the entire organizational unity of creation (both animate and inanimate), coheres and is directed (Ephesians 1: 10). The eschatology of the concept is clear. As expressed in Colossians, all future design, direction, and consummation of creation inhere in the person of Jesus Christ.

The concept of time also implicit in the New Testament similarly contributes to the eschatological dimension. The view of time fundamental to the New Testament is linear, not cyclic. Although history is the stage of an ever present struggle, a conflict between good and evil forces, it remains in transit to final purpose. Time takes new meaning and significance since it is the arena of God's activity. To be God's fellow worker in this context brings with it an urgency and a high responsibility. Since God has measured time in his purpose, the man of God is under compulsion. This compulsion is directed by the end or purpose which presses in on the present moment. Time becomes for man a measure that demands responsibility, that is directed eschatologically. "We must work while it is day" (John 9: 4); "Redeem the time" (Ephesians 5: 16). In Evolution and the Christian Hope Ernst Benz has pointed to the way this New Testament eschatology has injected a sense of progress and acceleration into the technological life of the Christian West.

II

The first Christian theologian to consider technology is St. Augustine. The eschatological note prevails at the end of the magnificent section of Book XXII of The City of God. God's initial work in creation is in no sense a closed action. He works presently and will work into the future (John 5: 17). His Spirit is the sustaining power giving coherence and direction to all reality: ". . . . If God withdrew, even from inanimate things, his creative power, they could not continue to be what they became by creation, let alone complete that series of movements which were meant to measure the span of their existence." ³ Augustine then goes on to speak of the imbuement of this divine power in man reflected

3 Augustine, The City of God (New York, 1958), p 524

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creatively in procreation primarily, but also in the cultural creativity of the arts, communication, and other forms of technology. Man in his creative genius, which is rooted in the Imago Dei, is able rationally to perceive reality; he can show ingenuity and artistry; his mind can fashion argumentation and subtle precision in communication; all this is the gift of God to the natural man. Here man shares in God's power and his nature.

The predestination theme in Augustine also contributes to the eschatological dimension of man's responsibility. All of the marvelous workings of nature ("The gradiose spectacle of the open sea, clothing and reclothing itself in dresses of changing shades of green and purple and blue" ⁴) are governed and directed by the providential action of God. The life of man in all dimensions of his creativity is also ordered by God. Man is prompted to plumb the depths of creativity in this life as he anticipates the "full richness of human creativity and universal knowledge"⁵ I that the elect shall enjoy. Man senses dimensions of control and communication that are residual or unexploited in his nature, and he strives to call these potential gifts into realization.

The lasting contribution of Augustine to our theme is found in the way he sets present creativity in both a creation and a futuristic setting. Man responsibly engages in technologic or cybernetic mastery of the environment as he acknowledges that his life is situated in the creative action of God, as he recognizes the fact that his ingenuity is rooted in his createdness Imago Dei, as he perceives that world order and change are dynamically given by the perpetual impulse of the divine Spirit. When man's life is eschatologically shaped in the way mentioned, he is responsible. His own creative activity is not pioneering in the sense that he works alone. He is co-worker as divine power penetrates his conceptualization, decision making, and implementation. Finally, he is responsible when he humbly acknowledges the limitation of his creativity and of the things he has made, when he anticipates the fullness of cosmic beauty and order that is perfected only in eternity.

The monastic movement in the West contributed to the intensification of the eschatological compulsion that directed the development of technology. The Benedictine and Cluniac reform move-

4 Ibid, p 529
5 Ibid , p 530

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ments in particular highlighted the ora et labora principle. Stress was given to the urgency of the time expended even in the arts mechanicae and the artificia. The agricultural technology that developed from the monastic emphasis was formidable. An eschatological dimension was heightened in this period that would be emphasized again in the rise of capitalism in the West. Simply phrased, the principle stated that technological activity was a means of overcoming original sin. Since man's work originated in the fall, the compulsion to subjugate environment became not so much an attempt to overcome the fall as an effort to work out its consequences. If man has to wrest his livelihood from the environment because of the fact that the environment after the fall is antipathetic to his desires, one sees clearly how this becomes technological impulse. Schiller thus remarked on the way in which the elements themselves hate what is created by human hands. Not only for his own survival, but for the integrity of his life, man must incessantly strive to control his environment. His destiny is somehow caught up in the way he brings order to the environment.

We could make reference at this point to the origins of the industrial revolution. We could refer to the eschatological impulse of the pietism of the eighteenth century in Germany or the desire to build the kingdom of God on the earth that arose in the next century. Suffice it to say that the eschatological dimension forcefully colored industrial development as it took shape on the continent, in Great Britain, and in the New World. The subject is difficult to deal with in the context of this essay because of the way in which secular eschatologies intermingle with the theological eschatologies from the Renaissance onward. A more fruitful approach would be to now move from the historical to the analytical approach.

The connection between cybernation, technology, and hope must initially be noted. Cybernation grows out of and extends technology. Cybernation can be called the extension of technology because, when analyzed eschatologically, it becomes clear that it is only by clearly intended design or confidence in the future that power is generated to extend control and communication into the environment along feedback models. In fact, only an uncanny confidence in the rationality of nature and a rather childlike hope in the fruitful consequence of action could possibly direct cybernation. The thesis of both Buckminster Fuller and Marshall Mc-

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Luhan ⁶ is that a confidence in the predictability, rationality, and continuity of nature is a principal factor in the motivation that has led man to extend himself electronically in the subjugation of his environment.

Cybernation is but the extension of that technological impulse that has always been directed eschatologically. When man extends control and communication into the environment, he extends his nervous system with its facilities for decision making, analysis and synthesis, and feedback evaluation. This is an extension of the same order as the extension of his manual facility through the machine. Because of the high order in which reality is penetrated in cybernation, responsibility is heightened. The eschatological dimension of responsibility is relevant because man in his cybernetic capability is able not only to predict but to shape the future. Goals and directed action are informing principles of all cybernetic activity. The location of these goals and the selection of means to achieve them are decisions of high order responsibility.

To discuss the eschatological direction of responsibility we must now examine how Christianity and Marxism conceive reality in an eschatological way and how these two ideologies direct cybernation particularly with reference to responsibility. What is right and legitimate, what is undesirable in each system? What are the goals and means of implementation and how can these be ethically evaluated? The cleavage and convergence of these ideological positions provide the major direction by which practical decisions are made everyday in this technological world.

III

An ethical analysis of hope must first contrast the Marxist and Christian views of conscience. It is an eschatological compulsion that shapes conscience in both the Marxist and Christian system. In Marxism conscience is defined in its collectivity. Man's identity is wrapped up with his solidarity in community and within the historical process. Man in his essential nature belongs to the environment out of which he emerges. Organically he rises from the natural world and historically he stands in a certain Zeitgeist.

6 Buckminster Fuller, Nine Steps to the Moon (Carbondale, Illinois, 1959), No Afore Second Hand Gods (Carbondale, Illinois, 1964), and Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York, 1964)

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History is in a convulsive, cataclysmic state, straining incessantly toward that idyllic future of the classless society. To say that man's conscience is shaped apocalyptically is a refinement of what we have called the eschatological direction. Conscientious man strains toward that future, participates in that convulsion, and, through all phrases of his cultural enterprise (including his technology and cybernation), struggles to bring the future into the present.

It is difficult to speak of conscience as such in the Marxist system. Although the literature has a strong moralistic flavor, the subject of morality is defined in a transpersonal, collective way. The individual who reaches for universality and freedom is moral in that activity. Those activities which thwart such development are evil. What then is the moral arbiter? There are the absolute principles which are intrinsic to nature and human nature. Here Marx is a casuist in that he sees these principles as inviolable because of the way they have been validated in the historic development of man in society. They are not given or inherent; rather they are emergent values in the human situation which have lasting verity for that reason. The relativity of values is a stronger note in the Marxist tradition. Hegel claimed that the history of the world could entirely ignore the circle within which morality lies. Marx saw conscience informed by the cultural milieu, so that relativity is the norm. When the dynamism of dialectical movement is frustrated, ethical principles, regardless of their value, must be suspended.

Conscience is that point of consciousness where the free spirit of man is informed by the noblest of the cultural residue. Lindsay, a British Marxist, showed how conscientiousness means hanging in as well as holding on to history: "The stable ethic resides in all that in a given society which makes for cooperation, union, freedom, and effective control of nature."⁷ I One sees here the eschatological character of the conscience. It is an awareness that emerges as man perceives the future which the historical dialectic is bringing. An East German Marxist, Franz Loeser, similarly defines the fluid concept of conscience in Marxism: "Communistic Man of the future will not have responsibility carried over against some previous generation; rather his responsibility is directed to future generations whose destiny he must plan and decide. The more man gains control over the power of nature and society, the more his freedom is

7 Jack Lindsay, Marxism and Contemporary Science (London, 1949), p 20

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enhanced, the higher must his moral consciousness develop." ⁸ Conscience, according to Loeser, is a pliable, plastic entity which can and must be shaped by scientific planning every bit as rigorous as technological planning. The Marxist view of conscience thus can be finally analyzed in a cyclical manner. What the free and universal consciousness perceives must be planned for and implemented. What is needed must be developed. The futuristic goals that are socially desirable must be fed back and reinforced to inform the emerging moral conscience of the society. Here we approach the new world that has been gravely forecast by Huxley, a world going through what he called the "final revolution" where technology is applied to human affairs and man himself is manipulated through "technicization" or psychobiological control.

By contrast, the Christian tradition claims that it is in the tension of the confrontation of man with himself that the conscience awakens. Here is the focus of the tension between the ought and the can, between the imperative and the indicative. In the opening verses of the letter to the Romans, Paul speaks of the futility that claims the lives of those who change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve what is created rather than the Creator himself (Romans 1: 25). The conscience witnesses to man's heart at this threshold of tension concerning the disparity of his present life as over against the law of God (Romans 2: 15). A false object of worship, a conditional reality raised to unconditional status is fundamental to the failure of man. The elevation and subsequent adoration of the creature (something in the natural order) express the fall of man. Yet man is justified by faith (Romans 5: 1). Faith ushers in a new perspective on reality, one which not only endures the present but is animated by a lively hope (Romans 5: 2, 4, 5). The man who abides in Christ lives in hope. Only this man is released to the future because he alone has been freed from the compulsive concentration on the present and past which is sin. Conscience is thus freed to become a measure of discernment, a means of sensitive perception of the future that provides guidance in responsible planning. Conscience in the redeemed state ceases to function solely as the condemning judge. Faith in this context becomes a venture. Thielicke from his pervasive eschatological

8 Franz Loeser, Deontik: Planung und Leiung der Moralischen Enlwicklung (Berlin, 1966), p 292

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understanding of conscience calls it a flight from myself toward the great possibilities of God." ⁹

IV

We are driven then to consider the question of what future man can hope for. Of particular interest to this inquiry is the way in which this anticipation shapes responsibility. The Marxist and the Christian expectations of the future converge at some points and diverge at others. The apostle Paul shows how the destiny of man is intertwined with the destiny of the world as the whole creation strains for that future fulfillment (Romans 8: 19 ff). All of the creation waits in hope for the glorious fulfillment in Jesus Christ. All nature thus is striving towards its future which is held by and shall be consummated in Jesus Christ (Romans 8: 23, Colossians 1: 16, 20).

in contrast to a Christian eschatology is the secular humanism ably presented by the thought of Ernst Bloch. Bloch contends that the key which opens to the understanding the meaning of human existence is found in the hope that he has for the future of mankind and the world. Contrasted to the Christian hope, we have here a secular messianism. Philosophically Bloch builds his thought on an ontology characterized by the phrase "not yet being" (nochnicht-seins). The key distinction found in this tradition is that the future is humanistically directed. In images strikingly similar to the biblical images of the Kingdom of God, the Marxist anticipates ". . . the transcendent homeland where all who now suffer, labor and are now incomplete will find their true identity." Although Bloch has become a pivotal point of dialogue with the Marxist system, his thought only clarifies the radically different source from which hope proceeds in the system."¹⁰

The Marxist answers the question "What may I hope?" with a clearcut apocalyptic answer. Man can hope for a new social order, one which will be free from the tyranny of class structure and the resultant exploitation. History is inevitably bringing in this future. Man, through his effort, planning, and (in some contexts) revolution, can hasten the coming of this desired world. This new world

9 Helmut Thielicke, Theological Ethics Foundations (Philadelphia, 1966), Vol I, pp 298 ff
10 Ernst Bloch Philosophische Grundfragen Zur Ontologie des Noch-Nicht-Seins (Frankfurt, 1961), p 260 ff

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is contingent on technical and social development. Indeed the full focus of human responsibility centers here. The Marxist sees the responsibility of man as well as the eschatological substance that directs that responsibility located in the historical continuum. Leszek Kolakowski, the Polish philosopher, points out in his explication of Die Hoffnung und die Historische Materei that a scrupulous moral consciousness can only have a social character if it conceives itself as a part of the historical process.

Here we see the reason for the enthusiasm with which the Soviet Union and the other nations motivated by Marxism have greeted the advent of cybernation. Because of the fact that man's responsibility is shaped in this historical-social continuum which is self-contained, planning, and indeed all dimensions of cybernetic mastery of the environment-particularly the human environment-are welcomed. When both technology and the human enterprise are seen as malleable to the programming of the state, we understand why the development of cybernation is such an important matter in Russia. If we can program development at the point where the life of man and culture intersect in the social milieu, the future has been secured, ideologically speaking. Because the Marxist locates the identity of man at the very point of his immersion in this continuum, the anthropology is conducive to the development of cybernation.

The question of what the future should be is also clear in Marxism. The Marxist sees in the cybernation process the liberation of man. It is in the economic struggle that man's freedom and universality are usurped. Although the struggle for the classless society centers in the technological arena, the cessation of the struggle and the eventual utopian resolution will be found in the society that transcends the wage-earning conflict. The productive necessity, which, as we have noted, is intrinsic to the being of man, can then emerge in its totality as man utilizes the full powers of his creativity in culture.

In the Marxist system the limits of responsibility are defined by the socio-historical context. Man's responsibility receives no higher direction than the immanent social process. Important convergence with visionary Christian eschatology is expressed in the words- " to be a man is precisely to be responsible. It is to feel, when setting one's stone, that one is contributing to the building of the

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world."¹¹ Antoine de Saint-Exupery, in this passage from Terre des Hommes, along with Teilhard de Chardin, in Building the Earth, show the closeness of this productive definition of responsibility with Marxist thought.

The Christian hopes and works for a world that is in many ways similar to the Marxist ideal, yet fundamentally different. In general, technological impulse in both East and West pursues the goal of a fuller life for every human being and a more meaningful society. Although his primary hope is trans-cosmic, i.e., it transcends the limited expectation of a perfected earthly society, yet the Christian has a definite hope and responsibility for the world. The biblical command to love the neighbor, to execute justice in the earth, carries great responsibility which directs his most sophisticated technological venture.

It is through the cybernetic mechanism, through control and communication and feedback , that man can best implement his striving for a fuller human life. The Church and Society Conference of the World Council of Churches in 1966 recognized that in the decision-making process certain valuable goals come in conflict with others which are equally valuable; then the principle of feedback, so central to the modern scientific and technological enterprise, suggests an indispensable element in goal-setting. Feedback means the continuous adjustment of processes in the light of their effects. If consequential anticipation can shape present decision, a great stride has been made to a more highly humanized life on earth. Cybernation here is a liberating force that can be a vehicle for the pursuit of the Christian purpose for man in society. In a sense, this basic consideration overrides the ideological contrast. A basic need in contemporary life is for man to surrender ideological dogmatism which inhibits genuine universal human concern. The Geneva Conference stressed this point: "To work with all power for the peace of the coming world society is, according to theological understanding, the task of all men, whether religious or a-religious, Marxist or Christian."¹² Beyond the common striving for universal humanitarianism and social forms that are conducive to it, the Christian

11 Antoine de Saint Exupery, Terre des Hommes, quoted in Joseph C McLelland, "Symbolvof Hope for 'Man and his World'," in Christian Century (July 12, 1967), LXXXIV, no 28, p 893
12 Gunter Howe and Heinz Eduard Todt, Frieden in Wissenschaftlich-Technischen Zeitalter (Berlin, 1966), p 79

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faith has a peculiar hope for a future earthly society that is very much shaped by the technological enterprise of man. Technology is man's participation in and creation of future reality.

Paul Tillich notes that man's technical progress, his cybernetic mastery of environment, is fraught with ambiguity. Not only is this enterprise discerned under the eschatological thrust of the Spirit, but it also undergoes divine cleavage. As man imbues his technical creations with subjective qualities, "under the impact of the Spiritual Presence, even technical processes can become theonomous and the split between the subject and the object of technical activity can be overcome." ¹³ In the Spirit nothing can merely be a thing; it is a bearer of form and meaning and therefore has eschatological character. If man in his cybernetic mastery of environment can maintain this creative relation with the artifice by which he extends his facilities into the environment, he shall avert the danger of his technology mastering him. Only as man sees his cybernetic mastery under eschatological impulse is he fully responsible in this age.

A good illustration of the ethical possibility of cybernation directed eschatologically is a hypothetical consideration regarding the use of the atomic bomb. If proper feedback had been available and heeded and if an eschatological design for the future had been current both with the dealer and the recipient of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the tragedy would not have been necessary. If communications had remained open, the disaster might have been averted. If Japanese leaders could have known beforehand the extent of the devastation, or if American power could have been asserted in potentiality rather than actuality (which is the only sensible way to assert strength today), a black, inhuman moment of history might have been avoided. As the Geneva report notes: "It is only as the flow of information is undistorted that men and nations can seek the various goals within a common commitment to human fulfillment. Technology requires a capacity to envision the future and to make explicit what we want and expect from it." ¹⁴

As we search for the solutions to the great problems that face mankind-world hunger, population pressure and explosion, economic transition-man must employ careful planning and prediction. He must use the cybernetic wisdom with which he has been

13 Paul Tillich, Sytematic Theology (London, 1961), Vol 111, p 422
14 Howe and Todt, op cit, p 198

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entrusted. He must forecast the future and plan responsibly in the light of the best eschatological direction that is available to him.

In view of an eschatological awareness of the possibilities open to man in the cybernated era, we must say that the responsible man sees himself under God as both master and steward of the world in which God has placed his life. The God who has given the world in its fullness is the same God who has ordered that world in ways that are discernible to the human intellect and responsive to man's control. God has also set man upon the earth to govern it with responsible concern for the future. Man can transcend the present. He can reflect on the past; and he can contemplate the future. Indeed, in the cybernated capacity he can foresee the consequence of certain actions. This man must realize that he labors in freedom under the Lordship of God who desires that the future be fulfilling and good for all his creatures.

We cannot believe God wills that his creation be as it now is, beset by the agony of humanly inflicted pain, the wanton violation of the natural beauty and resources of the earth, human strife of every kind, and the ravages that natural disaster still inflicts upon man. All of these dimensions of existence are discordant with the divine will. Although they remain inscrutable, and although it remains true (as Teilhard has said) that even from the view of a scientist the human epic resembles nothing so much as the way of a cross, God beckons man toward the future. He calls him to use the full creative powers of his intellect to tackle the besetting ambiguities of existence. He calls him to use discernment, decision, and action to chart the course of the future with responsibility. In this context, which we have argued is eschatological, man is the "keeper and transformer" rather than the conqueror.