July 2- 27, 2018

Tentative Schedule (classes meet 9:00-12:00 weekdays) 

Week one: Philosophical Reflections on the Virtual Age 

Monday July 2: Introduction;  

  • Models for understanding technology’s relationship to society  

Tuesday July 3: Communication technology’s influence on culture and identity 

  • Mimetic and oral culture 
  • Literate culture 

Wednesday: Virtual culture 

  • Print and Electronic mass media 
  • online communication: texts vs hypertexts 

Thursday: extended mind and automation 

  • The virtual self as a networked self, threats to meaning and identity 
  • Distributed intelligence: Embodied, embedded and extended 

Friday: Virtual ontology 

  • Distributed agency: from networked agency to automation  and the internet of things
  • life as information flow, gene editing; Reality as networked intelligence     

Week Two: Theological Reflections on the Virtual Age 

Monday: Religion as refuge: 

  • Heidegger/Borgmann: instrumental devices vs practices and things 
  • Spodaro’s concerns with Virtual Sacraments 

Tuesday: Virtual technologies as foils for religious thought 

  • Introduction to Transhumanism 
  • Radical life extension 

Wednesday: Transcendence: technological and religious. 

  • Artificial intelligence and the singularity 
  • The religious virtues of finitude. 

Thursday: Virtual Theology 

  • Our Reality as God’s Virtual Reality 
  • Avatar Christology 
    Mystical Incandescence 

Friday: off 

Saturday: Panel on spirituality and the high tech industry 

  • Panel discussion with John Hemminson and Bob McCambridge, venture capitalists with experience in investing in internet startups

Week Three: Workshop on Designing Religion Online 

Monday: Ricky Manalo: religious ritual online 

  • Research topics  
  • Ricky Manalo: liturgical music and ritual in virtual and hybrid contexts. 

Tuesday: evangelizing digital natives 

  • Luke: Gonzaga University’s ministry to digital natives  
  • Rossman: the importance of virtual evangelization 

Wednesday: virtual evangelization contd. 

  • Martinez: producing virtual rituals on Youtube 
  • Victoriano: virtual pastoral initiatives: Three case studies from the Dominican 

 Republic 

Thursday: virtual evangelization contd. 

  • Rossman: Lessons Learned from the Jesuit Post  
  • Martinez: Magesterial Teachings on communication technologies from the   20’s to the present 
  • Afternoon session: trying out the Oculus Go 

Friday 

  • Rossman: Lessons Learned From the Jesuit Post (contd) 
  • Martinez: Christian review of a strong rap video and reactions 
    Clancy: Inter-religious dialogue as a model for evangelizing a secular and pluralistic digital culture. 

Week four: Student presentations 

Monday:  

Tuesday: 

  • Frankly: Could a Non-Touchable Virtual World Liberate Untouchables In Ours? 
  • Manoj: Leadership in a VUCA World (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) 

Wednesday: 

  • Paul: Cyberspace and Personal Identity Negotiation in an African Context 
  • Caswell: The Power of Social Media in Enabling the Self to Become Authentic 

Thursday:  

  • Mel: Hey Google! Hi Alexa! Ethical Issues Raised By Home AI’s 
  • Tom: Using Art and Technology for Mission 

Friday: 

  • Lessons learned and assessment of the seminar