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Beneath the cross, beneath the cross,   all together, in one sprit and one heart! Beneath the cross to live, beneath the cross to die, beneath the cross to face the judgment of the great day. And happy then to recognise in the One who will be our Judge the One who was our Savior! ADOLPHE MONOD

Technology is fundamentally about our human desire to flourish. We buy new technology not simply because of what it can do for us, but because we believe it can help us to live a better  life. This necessarily means technology competes with God as our potential saviour. Since we know that the only true Saviour is the Lord Jesus Christ, it raises a troubling question: should followers of Jesus be using technology at all? And  if we have no choice but to use technology, how should we use it? This is the central question addressed by Nicholas and Brooks in their book  Virtually Human . I have had the pleasure of reading the book twice. So, I thought I should record a critical summary for future reference. I have structured the summary around the key questions I have on the subject. Needless to say this is not the way the book is structured. This means I sometimes address issues here that the authors only touch on slightly.  (1) Does our relationship with ...

Jesus Christ will not have even His work preferred before Him. The final sacrifice which some men are called upon to make is not the sacrifice of a pleasure, or the relinquishment of some precious treasure; it is the sacrifice of a dear purpose by which they hoped to bring glory to their Lord. They are required to turn from the path of hallowed service, to renounce the holy enterprise. John Ruskin has told us how, when he came into clearer light, his hope of some better service was cut off by failure of health. "Just when I was coming out of school, very sorry for having been such a foolish boy, yet having taken a prize or two, and expect now to enter upon some more serious business than cricket, I am dismissed, by the Master I hoped to serve, with a 'That's all I want of you, sir.'" To give up what is dear to them is for some men comparatively easy, but to give up what they deemed dear to Christ, — to bind on the altar of sacrifice the one offspring of our heart,...