The Church Can Change The World – Again

That humanity stands on the brink of almost incomprehensible change seems to be increasingly certain.  The exponentiality of Moore’s law, which states that computing power doubles every two years, has reached a point where either dystopian nightmares or a golden age could be within sight.

Interminable Change

A growing number of scientists, economists, academics and policy makers are coalescing around the notion that humanity will likely undergo more change in the next century than it has during the last 15,000 years, due in large part to artificial intelligence, or AI.  Within the next five years, certain experts predict that computers will be reading data and giving medical, legal, and accounting advice.  Within ten years, tech gurus such as Sam Altman, state that most assembly line and other forms of manual work will be entirely automated and that robots will be acting as companions for the elderly.

Technology evangelists like Altman see a glorious future in which the cost of goods and many services will go to zero, a real universal basic income will be possible, and humanity can pursue deeper meaning and purpose.  They also concede that this outcome is not certain and that the future could also be one of tremendous concentrations of power and wealth in the hands of those who develop and control AI, with the rest of humanity in a subservient position.

Increasingly, it appears that what shapes our collective future will be the perceptions and direction that humanity takes today.  Reality and ideas are shaped more and more by social media and technology, or Silicon Valley.  Around the globe, the result has been an increasing trend toward disinformation, populism, and authoritarianism.

Given this general drift, it would seem that the Church’s voice is more essential than ever, yet at the same time, on these monumental issues, it has never been less engaged even though the evidence would indicate that this is its moment to shine.

The Church’s Game Face

 Astounding as it sounds, the Catholic Church (and to some extent its Protestant brethren) were the Silicon Valley of the West for the better part of 1,800 years.  The Catholic Church was the engine of scientific and technological innovation that shaped and changed perceptions and reality for centuries; that is the opinion of Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry in a masterful 2017 article in America Magazine.

Gobry makes the case that the Church effectively invented the concept of social welfare, the hospital, and the university. It led the technological innovations that resulted in increased lifespan, raised the overall quality of life for ordinary people, and ended slavery in Europe.  Not a bad record.

But perhaps his most compelling point is that the Church competes, whether it likes it or not, with social media, news outlets, and a host of other points of information and opinion, for mind space and to shape perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.  When Gobry’s observations are juxtaposed with the dawning reality of the incredible change that humanity likely faces, it becomes clear that the Church needs to regain its innovative an imaginative momentum to compete in and win the race for the hearts and minds of humanity.

Why the great need for the Church to put on its game face?  Unfortunately, humanity left to its own devices where technology is concerned, even when it is supposedly guided by a higher vision or principle, has a rather abysmal record of doing the right thing.  Even with the Church’s guidance and teaching, technology has been employed, putting the matter mildly, in some rather horrific ways.

Defining Human

When faced with the power to potentially shape the very notion of what it is to be human, some guiding ethical or moral force is essential to safeguard the future.  The Church, flaws and all, is better positioned than almost any other credible and realistic agent on earth to safeguard this future, but only if it acts.  Right now, the likely custodian of the future of much of human perception and reality is Silicon Valley.  One only needs to watch the 2020 docudrama called The Social Dilemma to realize that this is an incredibly slender and potentially dangerous reed upon which to rest the direction of mankind.

Many of the concepts of what it is to be human, ideas about the inherent dignity of the person and the imperative to care for one another, come from the Church.  The pre-Christian West would likely be an unimaginably brutal and callous place to the modern observer.  But after 1,700 years of Christian cultural dominance, those values that were instilled by the Church have become so commonplace and universal that their ecclesiastical origin has largely been forgotten.

More current memories of scandals and culture wars now shape much of the perception of Catholicism and Christianity as a whole.  Yet despite the Church’s recent failings and the recasting of its past in this currently unflattering light, it has been perhaps the most reliable institution for human advancement and dignity, writ large, in all of history.  Unmoored from this anchor of ethics and direction, or for that matter from any theistic creed, humanity’s twentieth and twenty-first century humanitarian record has been rather poor around the globe, especially when inspired by a utopian vision.

Perhaps more damning than the obvious examples of butchery in the name of a greater good is the fact that many of the most technologically advanced societies now face a population implosion, which seems to indicate that material comfort and a life virtually lived are not enough to sustain the human will to create and ensure a future for mankind.

Innovation and Imagination

Thus the question becomes how can the Church regain the initiative and ensure that the future of humanity is one that is worth embracing.  Gobry makes the case that after the shocks of the Black Death and the Reformation, the Church increasingly focused on the hereafter and less on the practicalities of the here and now.  He states that the early Church attracted many converts because its adherents had a noticeably longer and better quality of life, in addition to a promise of salvation.  The inventions and breakthroughs of the monasteries made life better for common people throughout late antiquity and the Middle Ages.  These innovations, in conjunction with the Gospels, changed for the better what it meant to be human in the West.

Based on the historical record, Gobry argues that innovation and imagination are in no way antithetical to the Church, despite the position that it has in many ways taken since the nineteenth century. Rather, he forcefully states, that the true nature of the Church is as an agent for the advancement of humanity. For most of its history, the Church remained true to God and revolutionized the human condition. Given the current point in time, it seems clear that the Church needs to rekindle its imaginative and innovative spirit for the good of humanity.

Not Technical but Salvific

It is unlikely that major technological innovations will come from the Church, save possibly its universities, but it can and should engage more energetically in the debate about what it means to be human in light of the dawning technological revolution and in the search for meaning. The Church can and should innovate in guiding this increasingly desperate desire for a sense of purpose in the human heart toward the ultimate truth with which it has been entrusted.

If the Catholic Church does not fill this existential vacuum, the notion of what it means to be human will be defined by another entity and not necessarily for the better of humankind.  If the Church does not enter the race, the systems that emerge in this new world may enshrine and impose a degraded condition on mankind.  This seems to be a growing concern among many experts.

For much of its life, the Church argued and acted broadly for the physical, mental and spiritual liberation of humanity.  Rather than fear the world, it needs to confidently embrace and shape it.  With the truth on its side, why should it not?  It needs to boldly and stridently compete for souls as the very future of humanity could be at stake. There is good reason to take heart and have confidence in the Church’s ability to win the day.

Beyond its early history of spectacular growth under the Roman persecution, a recent analysis of data taken over ten years across 166 nations bears out the same dynamic.  In this study, Nilay Saiya and Stuti Manchanda showed conclusively that Christianity does best when it does not have support from the state and must compete with other faiths and philosophies.  In fact, the more unfriendly the government, the better Christianity performs in terms of winning adherents.  Thus, far from fearing the coming battle for the future of humanity, the Church should relish and eagerly look forward to the fight.

As Saiya observantly stated, iron sharpens iron, and the Church will only get better the more it engages in the dawning struggle for the soul of humanity. As the world bears down, sloppy and lazy Christianity will be forced to become strong, firm, and awake, and therefore a much more compelling moral force, especially as ethical boundaries and mores become increasingly clouded.  The looming struggle will almost undoubtedly be an existential match against the prevailing, technology-fueled, post-modernist ethos, but it is one that the Church can and should win as it becomes sharper and clearer.

Humanity’s Future

The future of humanity can indeed look much more like the Kingdom of God on earth, enabled by technology, which it seems could eliminate the need for work as it is currently understood and provide costless plenty for all.  This could allow humanity to pursue and find meaning and the Christian ideal, led by a reinvigorated Church.  It could also result in a shallow existence consumed by the banal pursuit of passing pleasures and anesthetization, or at worst a Hollywood dystopia.

It is much more likely that the future of humanity will be the former condition if the Church reclaims its legacy and heritage and confidently enters the current fray, knowing that the battle will only make it a better version of itself.  As daunting as the arena seems, the Church should take courage in the words of Christ, “fear is useless, what is needed is faith” (Mark 5:38).  That faith changed the world and can renew it again.