Austrian abbey explores Digital Humanism

With the newly founded "Humanism Forum" Wilhering and the Tobacco Factory Centre in Linz are going on a search for the human in the digital from 23 to 25 September 2022. 

At a press conference on 19 August 2022 at Wilhering Abbey, representatives of the newly founded Humanism Forum and the Tobacco Factory Centre in Linz presented the event format "Exploration into Digital Humanism", which will take place from 23 to 25 September 2022 at Wilhering Abbey. Those taking part in the discussion were Abbot Dr. Reinhold Dessl (Wilhering Abbey), Chris Müller (Director of Tobacco Factory Centre in Linz), Mayor Mario Mühlböck (Market Town of Wilhering), Dr. Harald Katzmair, Ph.D. (Director and Founder of FAS.research) and Melanie Hofinger (Director of Meritas Bookshop). 

Within the framework of the planned expedition, current challenges and questions around digitalisation are to be discussed. According to the experts, digital change and global changes are causing disorientation and uncertainty among many people. At the three-day event in September, an exploration team will show how to find and promote humanity in the digital world, while at the same time seeing digitalisation as an opportunity and driving forward the digital transformation. 

Abbot Reinhold Dessl, "We are hyper-connected and yet often very lonely. We are about building bridges and working together on solutions."  

Wilhering Abbey as an "oasis of digital retreat" 

The exploration team is made up of 30 people from different fields, including students from the Abbey High School, people from the management level of large companies, from politics, the church and journalism. The participants move through seven spaces of action at Wilhering Abbey: each space is dedicated to a topic and raises questions for which there are no solutions yet. Wilhering Abbey, as a place where one can "find time and space to question and reflect", will thus become an "oasis of digital contemplation", explain the initiators. 

Humanism Forum Wilhering

Bishop Manfred Scheuer is one of the participants in the expedition. He emphasises: "Today, as 300 years ago, no technical system or procedure guarantees that it will be applied humanely. It is one thing to perfect a tool like digitalisation, and quite another to ensure that it is used in a just, morally defensible and rational manner. Digital technologies do not automatically inherently humanise or even redeem. It depends on the concrete forms of their use whether it is humane or anti-humane," Scheuer is convinced.

Those interested are invited to accompany individual stages of the exploration. Participation is free of charge, registration is requested. Follow-up events are planned for 2023.

Source

The wonderful divinity of the Abbey