Device & Virtue

Our parents watched humanity land a man on the moon from their living room TV. It was a new era of hope, but it somehow disappeared. Can technology make us hopeful people?Hope can send us soaring to the stars, but when our lives sink beneath the wind and the waves, what happens to hope then? Amid the hurricanes of today’s technology, hope seems less like a rocket ship soaring above it all and more “like the thing with feathers.” In this episode, Adam and Chris look at the materials required for building real hope, and they explore whether social media, smartphones, or AI are tools for constructing a home or weapons of mass destruction. Drawing on Scripture, story, and the work of Stanley Hauerwas, they look for the blueprints to build a sturdy hope. And they consider what role technology can play in building a hope that will withstand life’s storms.In This EpisodeThe role that suffering plays in Christian hopeWhether smartphones, social media, and AI preach rival gospels of hopeThe vices of fantasy, apathy, cynicism, and optimismWhy story and imagination have central roles in building a durable hopeWhether hope is good for anything more than motivational postersWhat the moon landing can teach us about communal hope and its limitsLinksStanley Hauerwas, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson. Buy a copy and read along with us!Daniel Nayeri, Everything Sad Is UntrueJürgen Moltmann, Theology of HopeViktor Frankl, Man’s Search for MeaningC.S. Lewis, Prince CaspianRomans 5, on suffering’s role in Christian hope1 Corinthians 13, on faith, hope, and love as enduring theological virtuesTalk BackLeave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment!Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram. Follow Chris on Threads, and Adam on Substack. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how.

Aristotle called friendship a virtue. Mark Zuckerberg made “friending” a verb. Next up: AI companions—What happens when they listen better than your fellow Christians? Loneliness is being called an epidemic, even as we’re “connected” all day. Online spaces reward hot takes over hospitality, and friendship gets flattened into a friend request, a feed, or a follower count. Meanwhile, Jesus’ most personal message was a passionate prayer for friendship. How can Christians recover real, virtue-shaped friendship in an age of hyper-connected loneliness—when AI affirms us, social media tribalizes us, and smartphones stick closer than a brother?Chris and Adam trace friendship as a virtue through Scripture and classic and contemporary voices, then weigh modern tech against what friendship actually requires: presence, trust, humility, and a shared pursuit of the good.In This EpisodeDid social media’s rise lead to friendship’s decline?Why Jesus put friendship—more than family—at the heart of the ChurchAristotle’s three kinds of friendship: the useful, the pleasurable, and “of the good.”Friendship killers—the vices of slander, reproach, betrayal, sloth, and codependenceHistorical deep dives—how a new technology drove the social platforms of the 17th century, spawned new friendships, and gave us the world’s oldest magazineAI companions—their comfort, their stigma, and what Christians could learn from their exampleChris and Adam reflect on whether friendship is a vice or a virtue in their own livesLinksStanley Hauerwas, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson. Buy a copy and read along with us!Mark Vernon micro-podcast lectures “Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship”U.S. Surgeon General advisory on loneliness and social connection (pdf)Aristotle, Nicomachean EthicsCicero, On FriendshipAelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual FriendshipThe story of Joseph Addison and Dick Steele’s The SpectatorTalk BackLeave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment!Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram. Follow Chris on Threads, and Adam on Substack. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how.Image: Detail from François Venant's "The Parting of David and Jonathan"

Can we live humbly and still post that photo on Instagram? In the digital age, humility isn't so straightforward. With the smartphone at our fingertips, is pride just one selfie away?Many of tech’s biggest names have been anything but humble. Tesla, Edison, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Musk. Does that mean their inventions will re-make us in their image? Or is there a way to hold humility in one hand and our smartphones in the other?Drawing from Christian wisdom, Greek virtues, and modern theologians, Adam and Chris look for the borderland between pride and pusillanimity, between vainglory and self-abasement. And they explore how those borders are shifting thanks to social media, smartphones, and artificial intelligence.IN THIS EPISODE The AC/DC battle between Tesla and Edison, and what Frank Lloyd Wright said under oath The many shades of pride: ambition, autonomy, conceit, domination, vanity, and more! Aristotle’s concept of magnanimity Why you can’t have humility without Christianity, Stanley Hauerwas says Newsfeeds and the vainglorious “love of novelty” Chris and Adam’s reflections on pride and humility in their own lives LINKS We’re using the list of virtues from Stanley Hauerwas and his book, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson. Buy a copy and read along with us! Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung’s Glittering Vices More on Edison v Tesla “The Virtues of Pride and Humility: A Survey” - Robert C. Roberts “Beware Our Tower of Babel” by John Walton TALK BACKLeave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The word "temperance" may make us think of prohibition, but this virtue isn't some outdated legislation. Today's technologies are creating all new challenges. Should we be prohibiting them now?It’s the season of Virtues! We’re exploring the old-school virtue of Temperance—including how a technology in the 1800s changed the course of American politics, spawned hundreds of Christian organizations and even changed the US constitution! Plus, why ice cream could be an moral issue.>> Voicemail: Leave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! <<IN THIS EPISODE How virtue ethics can be understood through parenting What it could mean to be “temperate” in our social media and smartphone usage How temperance could change the way humans use A.I. THE LITTLE COLD WATER GIRLTHE WILLARD FOUNTAIN.Children Invited to Contribute Their Mite to the Fund for This Gift.The commission for “Willard Fountain.” which is to be a gift to the city of Chicago from children all over the world connected with the Loyal Temperance Legion Department of the World’s W.C.T.U.,…All money raised should be sent to Miss Anna Gordon, Evanston, Ill., and it is earnestly desired that little people everywhere should be impressed with the thought that the mission of love and money which they might perform by giving a cup of cold water to men who might otherwise be drawn into the saloon, can be carried out by this patient little figure, which will never grow “weary in welldoing.” It rests with them to send their pennies if they would be thus represented.Cold Water Girl Fountain—ChicagologyQUOTES…the self indulgent man is so called because he is pained more than he ought at not getting pleasant things (even his pain being caused by pleasure), and the temperate man is so called because he is not pained at the absence of what is pleasant and at his abstinence from it.The self-indulgent man, then, craves for all pleasant things or those that are most pleasant, and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else; hence he is pained both when he fails to get them and when he is merely craving for them (for appetite involves pain); but it seems absurd to be pained for the sake of pleasure. —Aristotle, Nicomachean EthicsLINKSWe’re using the list of virtues from Stanley Hauerwas and his book, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson. Buy a copy and read along with us!TALK BACK Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can we live simply without tossing our smartphone-life in the trash? We found answers in Sister Act II and walk-in closets. This season, we're doing something new, and it begins with the virtue of Simplicity.We live in a complex world. Can technology help simplify it? Or does it only make things worse? Chris and Adam look at Simplicity in the face of social media, smartphones, and artificial intelligence.IN THIS EPISODEIf you ever feel fragmented, this episode is for you. Drawing on insights from Stanley Hauerwas, Richard Foster, and the Sermon on the Mount, we explore... How might we live simpler lives in a technology-driven world? Could social media and smartphones promote simplicity rather than fragmentation? What role does Christian community play in fostering the virtue of Simplicity? Plus, learn how past technological developments have already shaped our relationship to Simplicity.Filled with philosophical insights and practical advice for integrating simplicity into modern life.LINKSWe’re using the list of virtues from Stanley Hauerwas and his book, The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson. Buy a copy and read along with us!TALK BACKLeave us a 90-second voice message about this episode. We may feature it in a future segment! Follow Device & Virtue on Instagram and Twitter. Follow Chris and Adam on Twitter. Support Device & Virtue. Learn how. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices