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How Spirituality helps us to win the race against the machine | Johannes Hoff | TEDxHeythropCollege

1,821 views · Published 19 October 2016 · 20:13 · Indexed 22 September 2026

Channel: TEDx Talks · 2016 · Nonprofits & Activism

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Our modern world is driven by a naïve belief in the superiority of machines. At the same time, our addiction to IT leads to “shallow brains”. In the emerging post-digital age we have to change this attitude in order to recover the analogical roots of human intelligence: realism, embodiment, and spiritual practice.

Bio: Johannes Hoff is Professor of Systematic and Philosophical Theology at Heythrop College in the University of London. Previously he was teaching Philosophical Theology at the University of Wales and Fundamental Theology at the Catholic Department of the University of Tübingen (Germany). His recent publications focus on the ‘analogical rationality’ of premodern philosophy in the light of the late modern crisis of Western science and culture. Related to this research is his investigation of similar crisis experiences in the Early Renaissance (15th century) and Early Romanticism (18/19th century), and his research on performativity in collaboration with leading representatives of contemporary art. Most recently, he has started to think about the digital revolution of our time. This research focuses on the irreducibility of our ‘analogical’ way of thinking to the digital rationality of the last five centuries, and the significance of spiritual practices for the ‘post-digital' age.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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