Marshall McLuhan's theological anthropology

McLuhan's works on media present an anthropology which sees humans as embodied creatures endowed by God with language, reason, and understanding. This renders them capable of extending their natural capacities by technological means. In the process of doing so, they change their environment, which, in turn, changes their perception of reality, their social behavior, and their understanding of themselves and their world. McLuhan's understanding of human nature was informed by Roman Catholic theology, though he purposely avoided explicit reference to this in his published works. Nevertheless, theological anthropology serves as a basic presupposition for McLuhan's work on media and as a criterion for judging the effects of media on human society.;This work explicates Marshall McLuhan's central idea, "the medium is the message," as an anthropological insight into the environmental effects of media understood as human extensions. Because their introduction into the social and cultural matrix affects the entire social and cultural ecology, media act as formal causes which alter the humans who use them. They cannot be correctly understood as neutral tools; rather, they are a form of human discourse, and therefore, they must be interpreted just as any other human utterance. McLuhan's approach to interpreting human media allows for a perception of the transcendent in media forms, and so a careful understanding of media can enhance perception of the analogical resonances between human being and God's Being.;The fact that his media theories are grounded in a theological understanding of humanity allows a critical appropriation of McLuhan's ideas for theologians seeking to develop an understanding of how media and technology relate to human society and culture. In particular, this work explores how McLuhan's ideas can be used to help understand the spiritual power acting through human media, and considers how they can inform reflection on the embodied nature of human existence.