ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts that are discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The capacity to invent, construct and use technical artefacts is arguably an essential feature of human beings. Technology represents one of the central pillars of modern society and increasingly dominates the social sphere. In spite of technology's deep impact on human lifeworlds, as well as on critical analysis of the deeper driving forces of technology and their intersection with religious beliefs, related to environmental questions, frequently falls short. In the social sciences and humanities, one can find a variety of different approaches to technology in both Western and non-Western cultures' sociological, anthropological, philosophical and historical. But theology and religious studies have so far only made a sparse explicit contribution to the field. Environmental humanities more generally has concerned itself in some cases religious responses to environmental degradation, but we believe that the specific intersection with technology requires much deeper analysis.
