The Expulsive Power of a New Technology

When Steve Jobs, the late CEO of Apple, unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, he purportedly wanted a better iPod Touch, one of the most advanced MP3 players at the time. He wanted an iPod that had calling and texts functions like home-phones and cellphones had. He did not want to add an App Store to the phone to allow third party application developers to distribute their own software.[1] Eventually, due to pressures from software developers, Jobs did adopt the App Store.

The adoption of the App Store onto phones revolutionized how people used their devices and changed the smartphone world. Today, social media apps push notifications to users when someone retweets their latest tweet, favorites their latest picture, and responds to their latest status update. Work isn’t relegated to the 9-5. If someone is stuck in traffic, a quick look at a phone can reveal a list of emails that came in during their stop-and-go commute that can be responded to. For that matter, the driver can respond when they are driving though this ability is not condoned or safe. Any other app—chat softwares, social media, games—can push notifications during the right time, when they know a particular user is most susceptible to respond to notifications or use their app.

It seems society is aware, as implicit and unarticulated as it may be, that their relationship to phones, and for that matter, computers, tablets, and watches (and whatever other device comes out after today), is unhealthy. In order to remedy this relationship to smart devices, they attempt a number of things.

First, social media fasts are a steady diet of smart device users. An important concept in the church, especially during the Lenten season is fasting. The ability to deny oneself of worldly comforts and pleasures enables the participant to realign their life’s mission with God’s mission. However, almost always, a couple of days—if not hours—into the fast, the fear of missing out (or FOMO, as it is commonly coined) overtakes the faster and the devices reattach to the body.
Second, smartphones are dumbed down. Users remove applications and attempt to travel back to Job’s original vision for his smartphone in order to regain autonomy from their devices so that they are no longer tethered down by their invisible draw. However, the inconvenience of access to information and relationships and realizing how “boring” life is without their phone encourages the user to “re-smart” their smart device.
Third, users try to not look at their watches, pull out or flip over their phones with every buzz. For some reason, it seems that if one can resist the temptation to look at their devices when they hear a vibration or see it light up, they are building up an internal immunity to resist the draw of their devices. While resisting temptation’s ability is virtuous, almost always this temptation to look at a device is too strong, and instinctively users look at their device when they hear, see, and feel it.

Smart-device users, even after all of these “hacks” are applied, are left in their original condition. In fact, it seems that the temptation has either grown all the stronger or the potential abstainer has grown all the weaker. How can anyone break free from these addictive devices if these “life-hacks” are not working?

What Christians need is to cultivate a love for God so great that when they are finally ready to purge their love for their devices, their affections will grow towards God. I believe Thomas Chalmer’s sermon on “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” points to this solution. In this paper, I will exposit Chalmer’s sermon, unpack the current state of affairs, and propose a way forward.

Exposition of the Expulsive Power

Thomas Chalmers, a Presbyterian minister (1780-1847), wrote perhaps one of the most well-known sermons: “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.[2] The main purpose of this sermon was to explain why certain forms of mortification did not work. Afterwards, he proposed a better way to transform one’s desires. The main problem he identified laid in humanity’s innate desire to love someone or something. The main solution he identified laid in their love for God.

Changing Affections

Chalmers argued that there are two ways one “may … displace from the human heart its love of the world.”[3] First, one can note “the world’s vanities” so that they are not inclined to love anything in the world any longer.[4] However, this method is “incompetent and ineffectual” for “the love of the world can not be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world’s worthlessness.” While it is good to recognize and understand the world, the mere understanding of the world’s condition is not enough to cast off sin, habits, or temptations. He calls this love “in possession.”[5] By that he means it is readily accessible if it is not in one’s grasp already. The alternative is that one may love another object—in this case, God—more than the world. This method “will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart.”[6] God is the one who can rightly order anybody’s hearts to properly love the right object since “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He is the foundation and source for all affections. However, whereas the first “love” is “in possession,” Chalmers calls this love “at a distance.”[7] By that he means it is not accessible without work on the lover’s part. However, since there is more work in order to obtain this new object, people turn back and follow the love they know they could easily obtain—”the world’s vanities.”

Solution

Chalmers’ solution to changing one’s love from “the world’s vanities” to God consists of two parts. Chalmers’ argues that “the way to disengage the heart from the positive love of one … object [in this case, the one “in possession”] is to fasten it in positive love to another [that is, the love “at a distance”].”[8] While it is proper to remove the wrong love from one’s life, this removal is simply not enough. Mere removal creates a void that a new love can fill. If this love is not properly aligned, it may be just as bad if not worse than the previous love. Or the former affection can storm the lover’s heart and root more deeply into their being.

In order for one to properly align their loves, they need to fill that void with another proper love. Chalmers’ assesses his thesis in the following way: “It is not by exposing the worthlessness of the former, but by addressing to the mental eye [that is, the mind] the worth and excellence of the latter, that all old things are to be done away, and all things are to become new.”[9] While one needs to know the worthlessness of the old love, more positively that person needs to know the glory of the new love. In fact, this exchange is modeled in Jesus’ work on the cross. It was not enough for Jesus to merely die for his people’s sins. He had to transform, by the Holy Spirit, the person’s whole being so that they could act on their new redemption. This solution is essentially a bait and switch of loves—they are led out of their fallen love into their redeemed love.

Current State of Affairs

Devices capture attention and thus, love. This is borne out in a number of ways.

First, when someone gives their attention to something, they are giving their love. For example, say two friends meet up at a coffee shop to catch up on life. However, the one friend, after sitting down with their coffee, participates in another conversation with someone else at another table for the whole time. While that individual was physically present, their attention was absent. Therefore, mutual love was absent in the relationship. In the same way, if someone gives their undivided attention to their devices, they are giving their love. Note that I am not saying that merely using devices is wrong. Some fields of study and work require extensive usage of them. Instead, when people use their devices and respond to them without considering how to use them and what it does to their communal environment, their love is being captured through attention.
Second, they capture attention through strategically timed, constant notifications. Plus, once they have a user in an app, the experience is designed in such a way that it keeps them there.[10]
Relatedly third, as devices capture someone’s attention, they reinforce the relationship through strategic dopamine releases. When someone receives a notification on their smart device, there is a little release of dopamine or the “feel-good” hormone. Overtime, a dopamine resistance builds up, requiring more notifications to stimulate this release. This leads to the constant checking of phones to see if an app delivered a notification. While this action may not be instinctively recognized as addiction, the inability for many to not look at their devices for an extended period of time indicates addiction and its power. In fact, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition) recently recognized smartphone addiction as an “impulse disorder” within the counseling realm.[11]

Devices, though useful in many regards, are not inherently worth ultimate love. Though they can help push back the effects of the Fall, they cannot ultimately redeem humanity. They can push back against the fall by connecting people. Now more than ever, the global community is connected. Christians can learn about where God’s Gospel is advancing in the world and where it is needed most. Additionally, the medical advances that are available on smart devices encourage good health. For instance, smart watches encourage good health practices through tracking movement and activity and sending reminders to move at certain times of the day. Additionally, devices can inhibit Christians’ relationship to God and their local church. While they can connect people to each other, they can inhibit the relationships they are already in.

Finally, ultimately, they cannot save humanity from death. 2020 has highlighted for everyone their obsession with health. While it is good to not get sick, devices ultimately cannot push back death any more than before. In fact, devices use people (contrary to their original conception). As mentioned before, they are capturing people’s attention. However, they are not capturing attention because they want a mutually beneficial relationship. Rather, the stronger grasp they have on attention, the more data points they can collect. This data, then, can be turned around and sold to companies so that they can market products and services more accurately.

Therefore, devices are capturing affections in order to push God out so that they can have everyone’s all-consuming affection. This obsession is why it is so difficult to break free from devices and why, if someone manages to break free, they almost inevitably come back to them. Using Chalmers’ structure, their love is “in possession”—in their pocket, on their nightstand, on their wrist. What is needed is love that is “at a distance” to help remedy this technological addiction.

Cultivating New Affections

In order to cultivate new affections, two components are needed.

Understanding the Issue

First, one needs to understand the worthlessness of their technological addictions. The first step to understanding this addiction is to understand the power of technological addiction. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:12 (ESV) that “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.” While there is certainly nothing wrong with responding to devices (there is a place for strategic usage of notifications), the power they have to draw attention whenever it desires is not helpful.

The second step is to compare technological addiction to the love of God. As one reflects on their devices’ powers, they will begin to realize that devices have a strong power that cannot be overcome by their own volition. As Chalmers’ mentioned, knowing its worthlessness is not enough, but it is helpful to frame the love one has “in possession” with the love that is “at a distance.” This highlights the stark contrast between the nature of the two loves. This leads to the final step where one actively turns equally towards God and away from their addiction. As Chalmers’ argued, it is not enough to mortify the one desire, for it will come back or be replaced by a worse desire. Instead, one needs to mortify their addiction to their devices and replace that “hole” that will form with spiritual disciplines that orient their life to God.

The Power of the Gospel

Second, one needs to understand the beauty of the Gospel. More specifically, they need to remember Jesus’ work and what he accomplished for his people. God could have left humanity in its sinful estate, letting creation destroy itself. However, he chose to redeem all things, and that includes his people and their desires and addictions. Therefore, he sent his Son to be incarnate and die for his people’s sins. Jesus took on the punishment and bought redemption. Therefore, he enables his people, by the Spirit to overcome sin through his finished work. Not only that, but Jesus rose from the dead for his people. Resurrection affirms Jesus finished the work of redemption and has authority over all things, even technology addictions. Since he experienced temptations and yet did not sin, he is able to sympathize with his people in his mediation in heaven (Hebrews 4:15). Finally, Jesus will come again for God’s people. In the meantime, they rely on his mediation in heaven until he comes again and removes every stain of sin, temptation, and addiction. Until then, the Spirit’s help will carry God’s people through this process of mortification and vivification. He will give them power to change affections. God’s people need this power because “it [is impossible] for the heart, by any innate elasticity of its own, to cast the world away from it, and thus reduce itself to a wilderness.”[12] Additionally, this process is difficult because it is unnatural. Therefore, the Spirit will bestow grace on his people when they will fail. This grace will remind God’s people of the difficult spiritual war they are in and encourage them to persevere. Therefore, God’s people need the power of the Gospel to rightly order their affections.

Living as Exiles

First, I am not calling for a Luddite life (if you know me, I’m anything but a Luddite in my personal and professional life). What I am calling for is the recognition that devices have a real power over love that is detrimental to one’s love of God (and, in effect, others).

Second, while this paper addressed this thesis from an anthropological perspective, it can be further developed by validating this concept by examining it from a neuro-psychological perspective.

In the end, Chalmers’ thesis is especially apt for our cultural moment with technology. In this context, we have two loves: our love for technology and our love for God. Currently as a culture, our loves are more orientated to our devices. However, it is not enough to merely recognize this and “try” to cast off this addiction. Instead, as we mortify this addiction, we need to fill that void with God’s Gospel. This bait-and-switch of affections will fill the void that our addiction currently takes up and replace it with a new affection for our Lord and Savior. May the Spirit, who works in God’s people to conform them to the image of the Father’s Son, stay with us as we mortify the wrong affections and vivify proper affections.

Works Cited

Chalmers, Thomas. “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” In The World’s Great Sermons, Volume 4: L. Beecher to Bushnell, edited by Grenville Kleiser, 4:259. The World’s Great Sermons. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1908.
Newport, Cal. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2019.
Peckel, Linda. “Criteria For Identification of Smartphone Addiction – Psychiatry Advisor.” PsychiatryAdvisor, July 27, 2017. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/addiction/criteria-for-identification-of-smartphone-addiction/.
Pierce, David. “Turn Off Your Push Notifications. All of Them.” Wired, July 23, 2017. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.wired.com/story/turn-off-your-push-notifications/.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Thomas Chalmers.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Last modified May 26, 2020. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Chalmers.

Endnotes

Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2019), 4–5.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Thomas Chalmers,” Encyclopedia Britannica, last modified May 26, 2020, accessed December 10, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Chalmers.
Thomas Chalmers, “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” in The World’s Great Sermons, Volume 4: L. Beecher to Bushnell, ed. Grenville Kleiser, vol. 4, The World’s Great Sermons (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1908), 55.
Chalmers, “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” 55.
Chalmers, “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” 56.
Chalmers, “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” 55.
Chalmers, “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” 56.
Chalmers, “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” 65.
Chalmers, “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” 65.
David Pierce, “Turn Off Your Push Notifications. All of Them,” Wired, July 23, 2017, accessed December 10, 2020, https://www.wired.com/story/turn-off-your-push-notifications/.
Linda Peckel, “Criteria For Identification of Smartphone Addiction – Psychiatry Advisor,” PsychiatryAdvisor, July 27, 2017, accessed December 10, 2020, https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/addiction/criteria-for-identification-of-smartphone-addiction/.
Chalmers, “Chalmers (1780-1874): The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” 65.