We live in a culture defined and sustained by technology. Usually we equate this access to technology with opportunity, affluence, even happiness: "the good life." Albert Borgmann’s Power Failure raises some crucial, if disconcerting, questions: If technology liberates us, exactly what kind of liberation does it promise? Do we really feel free? Are we prospering, and by what definition?

Borgmann looks at the relationship between Christianity and technology by examining some of the "invisible" dangers of a technology-driven lifestyle. Specifically, he points out how devices and consumption have replaced physical things and practices in everyday life. Power Failure calls us to vigorous Christian practice in a technological age. These practices include citizen-based decision making, communal celebrations, and a vital connection with the table and the word through daily shared meals and the discipline of reading.

Examining the influences that shape people, this unique and insightful text will appeal to anyone interested in technology, philosophy, or cultural critique.

Albert Borgmann may well be one of the most important social commentators in America today. In his new book, Power Failure, Borgmann brings his perceptive and compelling analysis of the technological shape of ordinary life into conversation with his Christian commitment to the eloquent life of grace and sacrament. The result is a demanding but profoundly rewarding glimpse into the possible future of Christianity as something other than cultural ornamentation–the promise of a truly grace–full human existence.–Richard R. Gaillardetz, University of Toledo

Albert Borgmann’s Power Failure is a penetrating critique of contemporary culture, shaped as it is by the seductive and dominating presence of technology. Borgmann’s brief but rich analysis will challenge and stretch the expert as much as the novice. His meditations on the gifts of Christianity could bring to our needy culture are insightful, eloquent, and on numerous occasions, flat-out inspiring and moving.–David Gill, co-director, Institute for Business, Technology, and Ethics