Technology, Liturgy, and Ritual. Rereading Krämer & Bredekamp’s “Culture, Technology, Cultural Techniques” (2003/2013)

Abstract

By rereading Krämer and Bredekamp’s “Culture, Technology, Cultural Techniques” (2003/2013), this article aims at appropriating and evaluating the significance—and philosophy—of the mathematical and computer science elements in it. This contribution aims to answer the following questions: How do we understand, interpret, and evaluate the notion that symbol and technology interpenetrate and that their functional processes can mutually substitute for one another? How do we evaluate this theologically? This article provides a basic building block for a liturgical theology of the digital, the computer, calculations, and algorithms. After an introduction, I consider four aspects from the article of Krämer and Bredekamp: the relationship between technological creativity, imagination, and the metaphysical; the convertibility of the symbolic and technical; the connectivity of technical machines in a network; and the new knowledge order associated with these developments. In a concluding paragraph, future developments regarding technology, liturgy, and ritual are outlined and considered.