I grew up with tools in hand. A pitchfork shoveling $%&# from our calves stalls or on a construction site with a hammer trying to avoid the #$%& words from all the adults around me. I discovered in tools a way to shape the environment around me, to use them to create, to leverage my small tiny body to lift or move, and in turn, these tools shaped me. This is perhaps a secret, but one well known by those engaged with hard physical labor. The secret being: tools have shaping (formative) power and value. The more popular assumption with most tools is that we use them, eg. the human swings the hammer and hits the thumb… or nail. This is a true assumption, yet incomplete as is. The fuller truth is that tools return the favor and also use us. Tools have formative power and value, not just for the object they are employed toward or against, but toward the subject employing the tools as well.
For example, my dad’s hands fit naturally around a drill or screwdriver – the simple tools he used, and continues to use, for over 40 years now shaped his hands, arms, carpal tunnel syndrome, and one day will most likely give the gift of arthritis. It is often easy to see how our simple tools shape and exert a dynamic influence on the wielder’s body, but there is a whole matrix of formative influence that can be overlooked. One of the overlooked areas being how tools, even simple tools, form the patterns and habitual ways of thinking about the work or arena of engagement. The tool shapes our body; it also shapes patterns of thought around the work itself, like how we do the work, what is determined to be the best or most efficient way to work, the quality of the work, or the limit and scope of the work based on the tool’s limitations – the tool shapes even as it is utilized. And arguably, the more complex a tool or the more complex a machine, the more complex the formative power and assumptions.
There is a common assumption today in the church that tools are value neutral. I think what is meant is most often morally neutral. So in this sense, for example, the church using a building or justifying a large building campaign, is that it is simply a tool to be used for the good of Jesus and his Church. Buildings are tools and can absolutely be used for the end of glorifying Jesus. So, I’ll give this hypothetical person that point (for this conversation at least) – that a tool can be morally neutral, not good or bad. Simply that a tool has no moral value, does not therefore mean it has no formative power or value. The assumption is, “I can take any tool and when employed for my ends, justify the means.” However, the question remains, “What kind of formative power does this tool reciprocate to the wielder?” In other words, “will this tool, based on how it will shape you by using it, actually get you closer to your desired ends?” To answer that question though, or even to be aware that this is a necessary question in the conversation of tools and innovation, means you understand the basic assertion that we don’t just use our tools, they use us, form us, and shape us. (More to come on this determinism vs. instrumentalism topic.)
So, just a tool. I hear this line recycled a lot in the midst of COVID-19, “a building is just a tool.” True. The line goes on to say, “Digital technology, like a building, is just a tool.” True, digital technology is a tool, and in that sense, resembles a building, which yes, is also a tool. However, the conversation often ends here. Tools yes, but the church can use any of these tools uncritically/accidentally or critically/intentionally. I think it is safe to say all of our technological use or innovation could use more critical thought and intentional action. While there are some overarching similarities between buildings and digital technology, the conversation around adopting digital technology as a formative church practice needs to continue to include at least: 1) an interrogation of the respective shaping powers and 2) an awareness of the assumptions those tools work within and the ethic they transmit. These are the questions (among others) capable of forming wisdom among us.
To Be Human 