(Ebook) Growing Down: Theology and Human Nature in the Virtual Age by Jaco J. Hamman ISBN 9781481306461, 1481306464

(Ebook) Growing Down: Theology and Human Nature in the Virtual Age by Jaco J. Hamman ISBN 9781481306461, 1481306464

Growing Downexplores the theological and psychological implications of humanity's fascination with technology. Author Jaco Hamman examines how our virtual relationships with and through tablets and phones, consoles and screens, have become potentially addictive substitutes for real human relationships. At the base of the technological revolution, as Hamman shows, are abiding theological questions--questions about what it means to be and to become a person in a technological world. Hamman argues that the appeal of today's communications technologies, especially the need to be constantly connected and online, is deeply rooted in the most basic ways humans develop. Human relationship with technology mirrors the holding environment established between young children and their primary caregivers. The virtual world plays upon humanity's deep yearning to reestablish that primary life-giving environment and to recall those first loving and caring relationships. By handling a phone and engaging online, humans revisit the exhilaration, fear, relief, and confidence of belonging, discovering, and gaining knowledge. Technology affords a space where the self can play, feel alive, and be real.Growing Downdraws together theology, anthropology, neuroscience, object relations theory (especially the work of D. W. Winnicott), and empirical research to identify necessary intelligences for human flourishing in an increasingly virtual world. Humanscanflourish in the face of the continued onslaught of rapid technological advances--even if they must grow down to do so.