Ethan Brue gave a lecture titled “Technology as Storytelling: How Engineering, Science and Faith Play” on Monday in the Memorial Union.

Brue is the dean of technology and applied sciences at Dordt University. Teaching for the past 25 years, Brue teaches courses in a wide range of engineering topics but has taught science and engineering history every semester since beginning at Dordt. 

He began the lecture with an introduction of the first lines of many common stories, Brue explored the ideas behind the origins of a story. Characters and everyday people can be short on ‘dragons,’ as Brue said, through a comparison to imagination. 

“This is what I want to sort of challenge us to think about in today’s engineering and technology world,” Brue said. “I’m not trying to convince you to believe in dragons, but I’m going to challenge the typical STEM curriculum.”

Brue believes that there are connections to everyone through technology. 

“Even if you don’t consider yourself a technology maker or a science doer, I believe you’re all technology adopters in one way or another,” Brue said.

“By presupposing the modernist narrative or rationalized, standardized and scientifically objective STEM curriculum, both in terms of structure and content,” Brue said. “It is dreadfully weak on revealing imagination that always animates the guiding narrative of what we assume to be true or what we ought to pursue, or what we ought to make or to what end, or should we?”

Brue then reflected on his perspectives on Christian creation, fall and redemption as it relates to science and technology. He said this relates to the ideas of religious ground motions.

“When we say creation, fall, redemption, we simply mean that scriptural narrative holds together in one piece, and there’s a trajectory that ties all of it together,” Brue said. 

Brue also co-authored a book titled “A Christian Field Guide to Technology for Engineers and Designers,” with colleagues Steven Vander Leest and Derek Schuurman.

Kasch Petersen, a senior in aerospace engineering, reflected on his thoughts about the lecture and Brue. 

“I thought it was a really good story,” Petersen said. “As an aerospace engineer, I haven’t really thought about approaching it from [a] story. It’s always been ‘these are the formulas,’ ‘these are the ones we’re using’ and that’s how it’s always been.”

Lora Copley, the director of the Areopagus Student Fellowship, also reflected on the lecture.

“I didn’t know what to think but I was curious,” Copley said. “I was very encouraged to sort of see that these two worlds aren’t mutually exclusive.” 

“Engineers and people in design and technology are inhabiting a larger story and their dreams to make the world a better place are also participating in a bigger story,” Copley said.

The Iowa State Committee on Lectures and the Areopagus Student Fellowship co-sponsored the lecture.

Visit the recording page 36 hours after the event to view a recording of the lecture.