Portals in Our Pockets: Dillon Thornton on Technology and the Seven Deadly Sins

What is the smartphone in your pocket quietly forming you into? On this episode of Complex Creatures, Rev. Dr. Jarrod Longbons talks with pastor and theologian Dillon Thornton about his book Deathly (De)Vices: Our Ever-Present Portals to Seven Ancient Sins, which reads our screens through the old Christian language of the seven deadly sins. Drawing on Evagrius of Pontus, Aquinas, and a memorable story about violinist Fritz Kreisler, they trace how devices amplify vainglory, envy, sloth, and lust, and how pornography is uniquely deforming young men. Thornton reframes technology not as neutral but as spiritual formation: our phones echo Jesus's call to abide. The takeaway is bracing. You can live without it, and you might be more human if you did.#ComplexCreatures #DillonThornton #DeathlyDevices #SevenDeadlySins #SpiritualFormation #TechnologyAndFaith #DigitalDiscipleship #SocialMediaAndFaith #ChristianPodcast #FaithAndCommunity #SpiritualPodcast