Letters from Lake Como: Explorations on Technology and the Human Race

by Romano Guardini

Book Overview

This book collects a fascinating series of letters written by theologian-philosopher Romano Guardini in the mid-1920s in which he works out for the first time his sense of the challenges of humanity in a culture increasingly dominated by the machine. With prophetic clarity and unsettling farsightedness, Guardini's letters poignantly capture the personal implications and social challenges of living in the technological age -- concerns that have now...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802801080
• ISBN13: 9780802801081
• Release Date: June 1994
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 131 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful and forthright assessment

Fr. Guardini, even in his early writings such as this collection of letters, never spoke with anything less than compassion, courage and clarity. In these reflections, he opens himself up to both the authentic good and the undeniable evil which accompanies modern technological progress, and critiques this progress unyieldingly by the measure of humankind's genuine needs and desires--needs and desires that have a driving force in culture for all of human history, and not the mistakened pseudo-needs of an disillusioned modern humankind. As with many of his writings, Guardini faces intimidating and dreadful challenges to all humanity with honesty and humility. And as many a great individual of faith, from this honesty and humility he finds the inspiring courage to speak the truth beautifully and forthrightly.These letters address similiar concerns expressed by many of his comtemporaries, such as the philosopher Martin Heidegger. This book is highly recommended not just to the Christian, but to anyone seeking prespective on the existential challenge of technology and modernity.This edition also includes a wonderful introduction by Louis Dupre which should not be overlooked.

A good book about the dangers of technology.

Letters from Lake Como is a short book containing musings by Romano Guardini on technology, the evolution from a pre-technological world to our modern age, and, ultimately, the impact, or spirituality, in all of this. Guardini, a product of pre-technological Italy and post-technological Germany, and a thinker who could draw together science, art, philosophy, and theology (with great ease) shows the reader the profound difference between "organic" living (living before the machine) and a world centered around the machine, both in environmental and human terms. It is a poignant, thought-provoking look at what many people have (a) taken for granted and (b) not questioned, which is the direction current trends are taking us, and the impact this has on us as beings created in the image of God. It is at once a reminiscence, a warning, a critique, and a prophecy both taking to task technology, and enumerating its good points. That it was written so clearly and brilliantly in the early 1920s only highlights Guardini's gift as a spokesman and prophet for this century - he had truly inspiring insight and foresight on these matters. Highly recommended.