This event is full. You can register for the livestream below. To inquire about the waiting list for the in-person event, please email Margaux (Killackey) Taffet: mtaffet@lumenchristi.org.
“A Spiritual Manual for the Technological Age” is the Lumen Christi Institute’s 2025 Kolber Lecture.
5:00 Cocktail and Hors d’Oeuvres | 6:00 Dialogue and Q&A | 7:30 End
“Our culture is not in danger of dying; it is already dead, and we are in denial. This, now, is the reality we have to wrestle with—and transcend.”
We all experience how the rapid advance of technology, especially AI, has affected the way we live, think, and experience the world. But has it also changed who we are? In his new book, Against the Machine: on the Unmaking of Humanity, Paul Kingsnorth explores the consequences of hyper-technologized society. With the deftness of an essayist who is also a poet, Kingsnorth takes us through the historical and theological roots of post-Industrial Revolution advancement. He ultimately suggests that the dangers we face have a spiritual cause, and spiritual consequences. “If you knock out the pillars of a sacred order,” he writes, “the universe itself will change shape.” This technological reshaping will lead man to become the machine—unless we can learn to transcend it.
Paul Kingsnorth is a poet, novelist, and essayist. He wrote his first book after traveling around the world to study the effects of globalization on culture; since then, he has written five other works of nonfiction, three novels, two collections of poetry, and has contributed essays to numerous journals, including First Things, The Guardian, London Review of Books, and The Ecologist. He also writes a popular Substack, “The Abbey of Misrule,” with a following of over 70,000 subscribers. Kingsnorth resides in Ireland with his family.
We at the Lumen Christi Institute are excited to host Paul Kingsnorth at the University Club as he takes his book tour for Against the Machine. The evening will begin at 5:00pm with cocktails and appetizers. At 6:00pm, Kingsnorth will bring us into the major themes of his book in dialogue with another great contemporary poet and cultural critic, James Matthew Wilson, followed by an audience Q&A, and a book signing. You may pre-order a signed copy of the book when you register.
Registration for the livestream will go live on September 1st.
