Questions
How Can Christians Cultivate Virtue in a World of Algorithmic Incentives?
Summary: Christians cultivate virtue in the digital age by resisting the economy of instant reaction with deliberation, reorienting their loves toward Christ’s authority rather than algorithmic preference, and sustaining these disciplines in community—because the algorithms of our devices mirror the deeper algorithms of sin.
The digital world is designed to form us, even when it pretends only to serve us. Every click, scroll, and reaction has the potential to train our desires and habits, reorienting our attention and keeping us engaged on anything other than God. Algorithms do not appeal to our best selves but to our most reactive ones—curiosity, outrage, fear, and pride. To cultivate virtue in such an environment, Christians must become acutely aware of how their digital habits shape the soul. Virtue is not an abstract ideal; it is a way of conforming to a particular order, practiced until it becomes second nature.
Cultivating virtues requires us to resist the urgencies of the day. Algorithms reward speed. Social media platforms encourage instant reactions, quick opinions, and emotional intensity. Virtue requires deliberation. Patience, gentleness, and self-control demand time and reflection. Christians must create rhythms that interrupt the economy of reaction: understanding before speaking, praying before posting, reflecting before sharing. Such simple acts of restraint allow us to cultivate a more deliberative lifestyle.
Virtue also requires reorientation toward the good. Algorithms tend to flatten value into preference—what we “like” becomes what is “good.” The good becomes something we choose instead of something that has a claim on us—an intrinsic part of reality that we don’t determine. But the Christian life begins not with preference but with participation in Christ and a recognition of his authority. We cultivate virtue by learning to live under the authority of Christ letting Him redefine our desires and rightly order our love. When our loves are rightly ordered, our digital presence becomes less about self-expression and more about bearing witness.
Finally, virtue is sustained in community. We need fellow believers who remind us of what truly matters, who call us to account when we drift away from faithfulness, and who model patience and courage in their own lives. The cultivation of virtue in a digital age depends on recovering this shared pursuit of holiness. The church becomes the context where we learn not merely to resist the algorithms of our devices, but the deeper algorithms of sin that promise autonomy and deliver bondage. Virtue—conforming to God’s order—is a sign of our freedom. As we bear witness to Christ, we proclaim the gospel to a world that needs to hear it even when doing so may mean that we suffer negative consequences in the present.
Key Takeaways: Virtue in Algorithmic Environments
- Algorithms Target Reactivity: Platforms optimize for curiosity, outrage, fear, and pride—not for best-selves.
- Restraint Disciplines: Understanding before speaking, praying before posting, reflecting before sharing—rhythms that interrupt reaction economies.
- Preference vs. the Good: Algorithms collapse the good into preference; Christian virtue begins with Christ’s authority, which has a claim on us we did not choose.
- The “So What”: The church is the community where we resist not only device algorithms but the deeper algorithms of sin that promise autonomy and deliver bondage.
About the Author — James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners; he has been quoted in The Telegraph; and he is a regular guest on Stand in the Gap Today with the American Pastors Network. His forthcoming book is Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.