Wired for Wonder: Dispatches on Technology, Culture, God, and Self

Hanbury, founding editor of Common Good magazine, debuts with a hit-or-miss collection of essays loosely focused on technology’s intersection with faith. Taking a generally grim view of tech, the author traces the “conflict between humans and the stuff we make” back to biblical times, when Cain murdered Abel for receiving more favor from God for an offering of a firstborn sheep than Cain received for his offering of produce. That story, Hanbury writes, illustrates how the work “we make with our hands” can “get away from us” in damaging ways. The internet, for instance, has sapped people of their ability to concentrate, flattened individualism, and privileged harmful content, according to the author. He expands on this subject in a later entry that discusses how allotting much of one’s attention to the internet is a form of implicit “worship” that should be redirected toward God. Unfortunately, such thought-provoking meditations are overshadowed by pieces that feel tonally unrelated, like a jokey riff on the things Hanbury would rather wear on his arm than an Apple watch (“one of those preppy leather cuffs from 2003”) or familiar arguments about how personalized algorithms trap users in information bubbles. This has its moments, but doesn’t do enough to stand apart from the flood of books on the internet and its effects on society. (May)