The University of Turku Digital Theology Website is Released
Engineers spend a majority of their working days solving concrete problems and providing solutions for mechanical tasks. The problem solving strategies and behavioral patterns can be summarized as an engineering mindset as Professor Firdaus Udwadia puts it. This mindset can leave an invdividual socially and existentially vulnerable and ill-equipped to deal with the complex and moral issues of the world. Perhaps this is why many of us engineers have recently gravitated towards theology.
Theology is a branch of science focused on the study of God, and is in many ways vastly different from that of engineering. It provides tools to deal with life, love, relationships, purpose and meaning- – things (only half joking here) often lost to engineers. This lab reaches out into the unknown and brings together the two, seemingly worlds apart, disciplines, and studies the interface in between.
The two worlds, electrical or digital, and the spiritual or theological, clash all the time. At the launch of this website we currently have three projects each observing one such interface:
- Twitter and Theology
- Augmenting Virtual Worlds on Holy Places
- Integrating Aspects of Theology in Engineering Education
With these projects we barely scratch the surface, but there is more to come. Only time will tell what the future holds.