Medieval Science and Medieval Religion
Use of Technology to Transcend the Sinful World
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The project of technological advancement is not a recent development but instead has its roots in the Middle Ages - and it is here also that the link between technology and religion develops. Technology came to be identified specifically with Christian transcendence of a sinful word and Christian redemption from a fallen human nature.
Early in the Christian era, nothing like this was considered. Augustine wrote in The City of God that "Quite apart from those supernatural arts of living in virtue and reaching immortal beatitude," nothing humans can do can offer any sort of solace for a life condemned to misery. The mechanical arts, no matter how advanced, existed solely to aid fallen humans and nothing more. Redemption and transcendence could only be achieved through the unearned Grace of God.
This began to change in the Early Middle Ages. Although the reason is uncertain, historian Lynn White has suggested that the introduction of the heavy plow around the late 8th century into Western Europe may have played a role. We are so accustomed to the idea of humanity's subjugation of the environment that we need to be reminded that people didn't always see things this way. In Genesis, man had been given dominion over the natural world, but then sinned and lost it, and thereafter had to earn his way "by the sweat of his brow."
Now through the help of technology, man could gain back some of that dominance and accomplish things he never could have alone. Instead of Nature always being one up on man, so to speak, the relationship between man and Nature was now reversed - the capacity of the machine to do work became the new standard, allowing man to exploit what he had.
After that, machines and mechanical arts began to be depicted in the monastic illumination of calendars, in contrast to the previous use of solely spiritual images. Other illuminations depict technological advancements aiding the righteous armies of God, whereas the evil opposition is technologically inferior. It may be here that we see the first tendrils of this attitude shift taking hold and technology becoming an aspect of Christian virtue. Quite simply: what was good and productive in life became identified with the prevailing religion.
Monastic Science
The primary movers behind the identification were the monastic orders, for whom work was
effectively another form of prayer and worship. This was especially true of the Benedictine
monks. In the sixth century, the practical arts and manual labor were taught as vital
elements of monastic devotion by Benedict of Nursia. The purpose at all times was the
pursuit of perfection - manual labor was not an end in itself but was always done for
spiritual reasons. Mechanical arts - technology - fit easily into this program and so
itself was also invested with spiritual purpose.
It is important to note that according to the prevailing patristic theology, humans were divine only in their spiritual nature. The body was fallen and sinful, so redemption could be achieved only by transcending the body. Technology provided a means to this by allowing a human to achieve much more than was otherwise physically possible.
Technology was declared by Carolingian philosopher Erigena (who coined the term artes mechanicae - mechanical arts) to be part of humanity's original endowment from God and not a product of our later fallen state. He wrote that the arts are "man's links to the Divine, [and] cultivating them a means to salvation." Through effort and study, our pre-Fall powers could perhaps be regained and thus we would be well along to achieving perfection and redemption.
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this ideological shift. Mechanical arts were no longer simply a raw necessity for fallen humans - rather, they had become Christianized and invested with a spiritual significance that would only grow over time.
Mechanical Millennarianism
The development of millennarianism in Christianity also had a significant impact upon the
treatment of technology. For Augustine, time was plodding and unchanging - the record of
fallen humans not going anywhere in particular any time soon. But for so long, there was no
clear and tangible record of any sort of progress.
Technological development changed all that, especially once it became identified as having a spiritual importance. Technology could, in ways everyone saw, give assurance that humanity was improving its position in life and was succeeding over nature.
A new millennium mentality developed, making explicit use of the fruits of technology. Human history was redefined away from Augustine's concept of tiresome and tearful time and towards an active pursuit - attempts to achieve perfection. No longer were people expected to face a bleak history passively and blindly. Instead, people are expected to consciously work on perfecting themselves - partially through the use of technology.
The more mechanical arts developed and knowledge increased, the more it looked like humanity was coming closer to the end. Columbus, for example, thought that world would end in around 150 years from his time and even regarded himself as playing a role in the fulfillment of end-times prophecies. He had a hand in both the broadening of marine technology and raw knowledge development with the discovery of new continents. Both were important milestones on the path to perfection and, hence, The End. Thus, technology was becoming part and parcel of eschatology.
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