Insights of the great German theologian, Romano Guardini (1885-1968) to reflect on the advantages and

dangers that technology can offer. Though many years ago I had read several of Guardini’s books and profited
greatly from the insights in them, my current encounter with Guardini’s thought is through an essay about him,
“Quiet Prophet of a Distracted Age” by Robert Dean Lurie in the Jesuit magazine, America (November 11,
2019).
Though noting some of the advantages of the technological explosion within which each of us is living, Lurie
writes the following:
“It is hard to deny that we live in an exhilarating age. New technologies have facilitated an explosion of
entrepreneurship and creativity that could scarcely have been imagined a generation ago. The opportunities that
are available to each of us at the click of a button are practically limitless. Yet it is becoming clear that we are in
the midst of a crisis, much of it playing out in our internal lives. We have never been so connected, yet we have
never been so separated. Consider the recent reports that have linked new tech to upticks in attention deficit
order, depression and anxiety disorders, sleep disorder, traffic fatalities, pornography addiction, identity theft,
bullying, political polarization and even suicide. We have freedom, yes. We have power. But we don’t always
know what to do with our freedom and power.” (pp. 40-41)
I find Lurie’s list of what has been linked to the new technologies frightening. I am not addicted to the new
technologies. This is not due to my virtues as much as it is to my ignorance. A few months ago I bought a cell
phone and I am still trying to learn how to use it! Right now I am wondering how many friends are addicted to
the new technology and what toll it is taking in their lives. I am also wondering about the students whom I teach
at St. John’s University. Are some of them addicted? The philosophy courses I teach require deep reflection.
Reading and understanding the great thinkers of the past and present requires serious attention. Thinking about
Lurie’s list, I am wondering if the new technology is helping students to study, without unnecessary distractions,
to exploring the profound insights of thinkers such as Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Teilhard, Marcel, Buber,
Whitehead, Lonergan and others.
Lurie points out that Guardini was one of the most advanced and forward thinkers of his day and that he often
encouraged Christians to engage in open dialogue with the modern world. This made Guardini a kind of
precursor to Vatican II. I am wondering if this was one of the reasons I was so motivated by Guardini’s books
when I read them as a seminarian back in the 1950’s.
Though I know I am not addicted to the new technology, Guardini’s insights and warnings are probably going to
influence the reading I do during leisure time. I have come to believe that it can be good to once in a while
“waste time.” Still, without becoming scrupulous and in dialogue with my spiritual advisor, I plan to be a little
more discriminating in my reading and be more critical in viewing television. Recently I have caught myself
wasting time late at night watching some old films that are really awful, comedies that are not funny and dramas
that are not gripping. My decision to be a little more disciplined is hardly an earthshaking decision, but I think it
probably is a good resolution at this time in my life.
In dealing with the technological revolution, prayer can play a special role. Prayer is always a good activity, but
spending quiet time with God in the midst of the technological explosion could be especially profitable
spiritually and also psychologically and emotionally. Peaceful time spent in prayer could be offering the Holy
Spirit an opportunity to communicate with us. Better still, it could provide an opportunity for us to hear the
Spirit who ceaselessly is communicating. The technological revolution can make it more difficult for us to hear
what the Spirit is communicating. The words from scripture that have just entered my mind are, “Be still and
know that I am God.” What is not easy in the midst of the technological revolution is being still.

Human Dignity in the Technological Age

2020 has brought a stark shift to our everyday lives and practical decision-making. While there are
very few things that are certain in the coming months (Will my workplace be open? Will our children
be in school? Will there be another toilet paper shortage?), we do know they mark a new moment in
history.

Knowing this, I cannot help but wonder how I, my children, and my children’s children will react to
our response. Will I be proud that I did my best or disappointed knowing I could have done better?
Romano Guardini also found himself at the cusp of a new historical moment. He wrote The End of
the Modern World in part to process what life meant after World War II. His book provides a way to
judge these kinds of moments. He presents a genealogy that divides history into three principal parts
(the Classical, Middle, and Modern Ages) and evaluates each of them according to one standard: “in
view of its own peculiar circumstances, to what extent did it allow for the development of human
dignity?”

At face value, the reader may be alarmed at the vagueness of this standard. Measuring human
dignity, especially as relative to the public consciousness of a historical moment one is not a part of,
is not like measuring death/birth rates, the distributions of political affiliation, or literacy rates.
Throughout the book, Guardini clarifies how this standard is measured. The standard first concerns
what the concept of “human” refers to—what is human nature? Second, all standards have the
potential for the thing being measured to be more or less of the standard. If, for instance, you are
measuring weight, there is a scale that gives a range of how many pounds something could weigh.
The standard Guardini uses measures to what extent a group more or less fosters human flourishing.
Guardini terms this as a group’s “use of power.” “Power” is the medium by which groups, and
individuals within these groups, attain a deeper actualization and awareness of what it means to be
human. By evaluating what human nature consists in and how people use power, Guardini gives
readers a measuring stick for the development of human dignity in different historical moments.

2020 has brought a stark shift to our everyday lives and practical decision-making. While there are
very few things that are certain in the coming months (Will my workplace be open? Will our children
be in school? Will there be another toilet paper shortage?), we do know they mark a new moment in
history.

Knowing this, I cannot help but wonder how I, my children, and my children’s children will react to
our response. Will I be proud that I did my best or disappointed knowing I could have done better?
Romano Guardini also found himself at the cusp of a new historical moment. He wrote The End of
the Modern World in part to process what life meant after World War II. His book provides a way to
judge these kinds of moments. He presents a genealogy that divides history into three principal parts
(the Classical, Middle, and Modern Ages) and evaluates each of them according to one standard: “in
view of its own peculiar circumstances, to what extent did it allow for the development of human
dignity?”

At face value, the reader may be alarmed at the vagueness of this standard. Measuring human
dignity, especially as relative to the public consciousness of a historical moment one is not a part of,
is not like measuring death/birth rates, the distributions of political affiliation, or literacy rates.
Throughout the book, Guardini clarifies how this standard is measured. The standard first concerns
what the concept of “human” refers to—what is human nature? Second, all standards have the
potential for the thing being measured to be more or less of the standard. If, for instance, you are
measuring weight, there is a scale that gives a range of how many pounds something could weigh.
The standard Guardini uses measures to what extent a group more or less fosters human flourishing.
Guardini terms this as a group’s “use of power.” “Power” is the medium by which groups, and
individuals within these groups, attain a deeper actualization and awareness of what it means to be
human. By evaluating what human nature consists in and how people use power, Guardini gives
readers a measuring stick for the development of human dignity in different historical moments.

he Classical Age’s philosophical corpus was assumed in the Middle Ages, but with an added religious
emphasis. According to Guardini, the Middle Ages saw all of reality in context of its relation to God.
So, to be human meant to be part of God’s plan. Everything someone is and does was part of God’s
sublimity, so the way that the person in the Middle Ages could become more human was by
assenting to authority. The dominant sources of authority were the ancient philosophers and the
Church. These figures illuminated the way that everyday life was symbolically expressive of God’s
will.

The Modern conception of humanity, emerging in the Industrial Age, breaks from these concepts.
Guardini describes this transition: “An ethos based upon objective goodness and truth was discarded
for an ethos based in the subjective where nobility and truthfulness to one’s own self prevailed.” The
idea of human nature lost a great deal of what it previously meant to be human. The self becomes
the center of the universe. Rather than being a part of a whole, the person is viewed as a whole.
Everything one needs, one has in oneself. Another significant break that the modern person makes is
in discovering nature through one’s own autonomous power, rather than understanding human
nature relationally, whether that is in relation to the universe or authority. In the Modern Age, to be
human ultimately means to be a “self-mastered genius.”

This view of humanity leads to a way of relating to the world in which we are always trying to
overcome it, rather than seeking harmony with it. Life is about getting what one wants by means of
what one wants. “Wanting” here does not necessarily mean something hedonistic, or pleasure-
seeking. It simply means it is up to the individual’s own choice. In the Modern Age, “human” is what
the individual declares as true or good.

According to Guardini, technology is the catalyst for this new concept of what it means to be human,
since it has allowed humans to appear to succeed in being radically independent. For example,
because I can rely on a single factory to dye, spin, thread, and ship my clothes, I do not need to rely
on the farmer, spinner, and seamstress. My network of relationships contracts because of mechanical
efficiency, giving the illusion that I alone am the sole cause of acquiring clothing. Guardini is quick to
note that this system causes a loss of personal creativity and a growing indifference to the existence
of people and things outside the self. Growing dependence on technology allows the kind of
independence the modern person craves: self-willed autonomy.

It is important to remember that technology is power for the modern person. We develop and
depend on it because it helps us attain what we believe is most human. In Guardini’s paradigm,
“Power receives its character only when someone becomes aware of it, determines its use, and puts
it to work.” Power, in its various forms, requires the intentionality of the people who are using it. As
Guardini puts it, technology “awaits” our direction. This is significant because using technology is still
dependent upon human authors who use it according to their ends. As a power, technology has a
great deal of fluidity in how it is used and with what intentions.

Guardini is especially critical of technology in its current form, tied as it is to this idea of human
nature. He believes that it has trapped us in a ruthless system that seeks to disintegrate the ties that
connect us with others and even our own bodies. He says that technology has even made much of
the world inaccessible. Without the proper technical tools, one can no longer accomplish what one
may have been able to do without technology in prior times. For example, I am dependent on my
iPhone to give me directions while driving whereas in a different time I would have developed
navigational skills. Technology has made so many things possible, but it has also hindered us in
fundamental ways.

This year marks a new level of dependence on technology. Technology has enabled us to continue
work, education, and communication even amidst a global pandemic. Guardini notes that the
modern person often uses technology in a way that lacks awareness of the isolation it creates. When
we don’t consider what we are doing, we naturally advance the dominant principles of our historical
time. Technology was created in an historical environment that advanced a radically autonomous
view of the human person. So, when technology is thoughtlessly used, it advances the isolated,
autonomous view of human nature.

Neither I nor Guardini is saying that technology is necessarily bad. In fact, it is part of human nature
to gain “freedom of knowledge, power over things, and fulfillment of life.” Technology enables us to
do all of these things. At the same time, technology was born in an age with a certain standard of
human nature. Thus, technology has often been used to perpetuate this modern idea of human
nature as the “self-mastered genius.” Though we may be inescapably dependent on technology, we
can still choose how to use it. Guardini instructs us to a path by which we may come to “integrate
power into life in such a way that man can employ power without forfeiting his humanity.”

First, he proposes that we “try to rediscover something of what is called the contemplative attitude,
actually experience it ourselves, not just talk about it interestingly.” We must consider for ourselves
what it means to be human. What is my purpose? What is life about? How do I relate to my
environment, other people, and society? Do I have responsibilities here? What are they? These kinds
of “life questions” are the first step to realizing our assumptions about what it means to be human.

Next, it is important that we directly question how our vision of humanity is either served or
hindered by our technological use. One thing I have noticed about technology is how it shifts my
attitude from being an active participant in the world to being a passive observer. I watch my screen,
and then continue to “stand-by,” missing out on the beauty and goodness of the world and others
around me. I have found it beneficial to ask myself, “Am I so used to technology that I find myself
continuing to observe my life instead of living it? Do I notice my surroundings or am I too distracted
by technology to be an active part of the world I live in?”

By reflecting on these kinds of questions, I believe we can all begin to find ways to use technology
that can be said to promote human dignity. Technology has the potential to help us develop a kind of
humanity that is fully alive in its relationships with others and engagement with the world. There is a
way we can continue to live creatively and freely, but it necessarily entails a new awareness of our
view of human nature. If we take up Guardini’s task of rediscovering a contemplative attitude, we will
be able to look back at this time satisfied that we made the most of the new conditions of this
moment to become the best people we could.

Catherine Yanko is currently a PhD Student at the Catholic University of America where she studies
Moral Theology/Ethics. Her main interests are in theological/philosophical anthropology, action and
virtue theory, and metaethics. In her free time, you can find her enjoying new coffee shops, books,
and hikes.