Pastoral and Spiritual Care in a Digital Age

Angebote / Angebote:

Scientific research is revealing that digital technologies are changing what it means to be human, and will do so even more with the accelerated advance of artificial intelligence (AI). Indeed, given our increasing merger with machines, humanity has now entered into uncharted territory, and into an era of unprecedented change. If technology continues to evolve at its present rate, machine learning will eventually catch up with and begin to match our own human intelligence, at which point it will have the capacity to surpass it. For pastoral and spiritual care providers, religious faith communities, clinical practitioners and educators, immediate theological reflection is needed, focusing on the potential existential risk to humanity, the existential hope and opportunity, and what will constitute human personhood in an age of increasing technological enhancement and modification. Human nature, what makes us uniquely human, has the potential to be completely altered in the matter of a few decades, unless we can find ways to keep ourselves grounded in contemplative and relational living. As we spend more and more time on the technological "screen, " the neural pathways of the brain are being rerouted in very precise ways, resulting in increased processing speed and faster problem-solving skills. At the same time, there is a reduction in the capacity for sustained concentration and in-depth reflection, fundamental to our humanity. In the context of faith communities, it is therefore necessary to begin elevating contemplative-meditational practice to a place of comparable importance with religious belief and doctrine, as a way to help foster attentional control even in the midst of the digital torrent. To preserve our humanity in a digital age will require an intentional focus on developing and strengthening the neural circuitry associated with focused attention, mindful and compassionate awareness, and social and relational intelligence, even as we learn to put to good use the digital technologies before us.