How Does Technology Encourage an Alternative Eschatology?

Christian eschatology centers on the consummation of God’s purposes: a world in which “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more” (Rev 21:4). It is God who restores, God who reigns, and God who makes all things new. As Richard Bauckham observes in The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, the modern idea of progress “historicized eschatology” — relocating expectations once placed in God onto incremental human improvement, often through technological mastery.

This shift produces what might be called a soft transhumanism that runs through much of contemporary technology culture. The promise is not always full post-humanism, but often a quieter trust that better tools, better algorithms, better medicine will eventually solve what ails us. Technology becomes the bearer of hope. Christians can absorb this framing without noticing it — using technology with no theological reflection on the implicit story it tells about where flourishing comes from. Naming the alternative eschatology is the first step in refusing it.

Key Takeaways: Technology as Functional Hope

Scholars: Richard Bauckham (Oxford Companion to Christian Thought); Nick Bostrom on transhumanist values.

Scripture: Revelation 21:4; the Tower of Babel narrative (Gen 11) as a recurring pattern.

The “So What”: Christians whose hope is functionally placed in technology have already accepted a rival eschatology, even if their words still affirm God’s reign.

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. His forthcoming book is Discipleship and Discernment in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.