In an existential-phenomenological approach, the world is not narrowed down to external things and events but is understood as a context of meaning that includes everything that people experience and ‘in which’ they conduct their lives. This paper undertakes an analysis of how digital technology is transforming the world in an existential-phenomenological sense and why such a digitally transformed world diminishes the human capacity for religious experience. In accord with Husserl’s characterisation of science as a mathematical project of nature and with Heidegger’s critique of technology as the will to power, digital technology represents a further step in subjugating the world and life. Such a mastering stance, however, not only closes man off from the possibility of experiencing the transcendent ‘otherness’ that forms the basis for religious experience, but also closes him off from authentic life, which is inconceivable without elements of uncontrollability and contingency. Overcoming our digital entrapment requires a recognition of the role of the ‘lifeworld’, which, through its passive elements, enables us to experience gratitude and makes us receptive to religious experience.
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