Technology Spiritual Formation | Brandon Rickabaugh

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Mind
Meaning
Machines

Author | Speaker | Public Philosopher

Image by Shavr IK

Technology
& Spiritual Formation

Virtue Formation

Attention & Simplicity

Ignatian Tech Discernment

Culture & Personhood

Spiritual Disciplines & Technology

Last Update 9/1/2025

For more on spiritual formation, visit the Spiritual Formation Resources.

You may also want to visit:

Technology & Mental Heath Resources
Philosophy of Technology & Religion Resources

For my publications on spiritual formation see:

- “Virtue Formation and The Sanctifying Work of the Holy Spirit.” With Steven L. Porter (2020). Download
- “Neuroscience, Spiritual Formation, and Bodily Souls.” With C. Stephen Evans (2018). Download
- “Eternal Life as Knowledge of God” (2013). Download

John of the Cross iPhone

Spiritual Formation
& Technology
Thematic Annotated Bibliography

Sections (with links)

1. Virtue & Character Formation

2. Attention, Focus & Simplicity

3. Digital Habits

4. Cultural Critique & Personhood

The annotations refer to specific views in the philosophy of technology: technological pessimism, optimism, and realism. To learn about these views, go here.

1. Virtue & Character Formation

Christlikeness as bulwarks against the deforming pressures of technological culture.

Schultze argues that our media habits are not neutral—they shape the moral and spiritual core of our lives. He calls Christians to resist shallow values by cultivating character and virtue rooted in God.

Shows how every new medium subtly rewires our imagination of God, community, and truth, and why Christians can’t afford to ignore the way technology disciples us even as we use it.

Borgmann applies his philosophy of technology to Christian life, showing how technological distraction erodes faith and embodied worship. He urges recovery of “focal practices” such as table fellowship, prayer, and Sabbath.

Kallenberg blends philosophy of technology with Christian theology, warning against technological idolatry while showing how discipleship reorders our use of tools.

2. Attention & Simplicity

Against distraction and acceleration, these works commend focus, slowness, and simplicity.

Not focused on technology, but implies that the technological age, dominated by “technique,” heightens our sense of abandonment. Genuine hope emerges not from technological rescue, but from embracing silent suffering and the dialectical space for trust in God becomes possible.

Shows how ordinary practices like making the bed or drinking coffee can become liturgies shaping us into Christlikeness amid modern life. Not specifically about technology, but very applicable.

Comer takes the work of Dallas Willard, simplifies it, and places it in the context of digital technology. He prescribes the ancient Christian practices of sabbath, silence, and slowing as antidotes.

Urges Christians to resist the pull of distraction by cultivating “focal practices” like shared meals, prayer, and Sabbath rest. Deeply pastoral, showing how attentiveness to God requires practical reordering of life.

Not a Christian spiritual formation book, but very well researched and many of the practices are better than most Christian books on this subject. Offers simple practices for cultivating awareness and presence in the midst of relentless digital distraction.

Argues that the Spirit forms virtues like patience and joy precisely against the grain of a digitally mediated world.

3. Digital Habits

Daily faithfulness in a screen‑saturated world.

Diagnoses how smartphones shape desire, attention, and identity, drawing on Scripture and cultural analysis. He shows that phones disciple us daily, and only intentional formation can resist their pull.

Frames digital life as “liturgy”—daily rituals that form us spiritually, for good or ill. He shows how online habits are not neutral but shape the soul’s loves and desires.

Exposes how modern technologies hollow out personhood and community, calling us back to covenantal presence and true belonging.

Habit-based practices (incl. tech limits) for the spiritual and relational health of very busy people, by a very busy person. Address the difficulties of the invisible hobit forming aspects of modern life.

Pastoral wisdom for navigating social media, algorithms, and digital temptations while following Jesus. His writing is clear, accessible, and rooted in everyday discipleship.

Offers pastoral counsel and spiritual disciplines for resisting digital captivity and using technology in ways that honor God and neighbor.

5. Cultural Critique & Personhood

How devices shape identity, presence, and power.

Drawing from media ecology, shows how screens reshape imagination, spirituality, and community. He argues that the medium itself subtly forms our vision of God and faith. Media environments transform our spiritual imagination and must be critically engaged.

Puts Merton and Ellul in conversation, showing how both saw technology as a false path to freedom that deepens bondage. Highlights their prophetic call to rediscover spiritual freedom rooted in surrender to God, not machines.

Song combines sociology, theology, and narrative to examine how devices fragment identity, attention, and belonging. She offers pathways of resistance rooted in Christian presence and place. Digital life fragments personhood; Christian practices must re-knit presence and identity.

Traces how evangelical embrace of digital Bibles reshaped not only our tools but our theology of scripture and reading itself.

Engages transhumanist visions of enhancement and immortality with a theological defense of embodied discipleship and the imago Dei.

Retrieves Merton’s writings on modernity, showing their continued power to critique technological illusions. Merton’s contemplative vision provides an anchor against the unreality of technological culture. Merton unmasks the false promises of technology and grounds authentic life.

Unfolds a prophetic call for Christians to witness against the illusions of technical progress with the liberating presence of Christ. He insists that Christian freedom is not escape from the world but faithful engagement that resists its idolatries.

Builds a biblical theology of technology, arguing that innovation belongs within God’s providence. He defends a hopeful yet sober view that technology can be stewarded faithfully under Christ. Technology is God’s creation, not humanity’s savior; it must be directed toward His glory.

Explores the biblical story from Eden to New Jerusalem to show that technology is never neutral but central to discipleship.

An important contemporary classing. Argues that the “device paradigm” of modern technology trivializes life by reducing meaning to consumption, and calls us back to richer focal practices that root us in reality.

John of the Cross iPhone

Spiritual Disciplines for Living with Technology

10 Practices

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Technology Retreats

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Links to My Essays

Popular Essays

Technologically Formed in Christ?
Why Dallas Willard Wouldn't have a Twitter/X (for reasons you might not expect)
The Spiritual Damage of Online Culture Wars (on both sides)

Scholarly Essays

The Spirit of Our Technology
The Moral Psychology of Google and Apple: Case Studies in UX Manipulation
The Neuroscience and Ontology of Technological Addiction

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