Abstract
Technology is becoming increasingly powerful in its ability to transform humanity by enhancing our physical and mental capacities. Transhumanists endorse this process, and their arguments provide a convenient perspective on contemporary society. Many Christians reject transhumanism, but not all. The Christian Transhumanist Association, for example, endorses a version of transhumanism that sees technology as a means by which God continues to fashion humanity in the divine image. Christians disagree on how to view transhumanism, but there can be no disagreement on the growing power of technology to modify humanity. Central to Christianity is the claim that God’s grace brings about our transformation. Our challenge is to understand how grace can be proclaimed in an age when technology is exalted.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The main transhumanist journal is the Journal of Evolution and Technology , now in its 27th year and published electronically by the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies (IEET) on the Web at http://ieet.org/. The site includes many resources and a frequently-updated blog. The Future of Humanity Institute, located at the University of Oxford, hosts a research team and provides resources on transhumanism and enhancement technology at its website at https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/). IEET and the Future of Humanity Institute use Twitter, with about 8000 followers each.
- 2.
Funk , et al., “U.S. Public Wary of Biomedical Technologies to ‘Enhance’ Human Abilities.”
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
- 5.
As of January, 2018.
- 6.
Funk et al., “U.S. Public Wary of Biomedical Technologies to ‘Enhance’ Human Abilities.”
- 7.
For more on transhumanism’s roots in Bacon and on Bacon’s theological assumptions, see Joseph Wolyniak, “The Relief of Man’s Estate: Transhumanism, the Baconian Project, and the Theological Impetus for Material Salvation,” in Mercer and Trothen , Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown Future of Human Enhancement (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2015), 53–69.
Bibliography
Funk, Cary, Brian Kennedy, and Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac. 2016. U.S. Public Wary of Biomedical Technologies to ‘Enhance’ Human Abilities. Pew Research Center, July 26. http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/07/26/u-s-public-wary-of-biomedical-technologies-to-enhance-human-abilities/
Mercer, Calvin, and Tracy J. Trothen, eds. 2015. Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown Future of Human Enhancement. Santa Barbara: Praeger.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cole-Turner, R. (2018). Introduction: Why the Church Should Pay Attention to Transhumanism. In: Donaldson, S., Cole-Turner, R. (eds) Christian Perspectives on Transhumanism and the Church. Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and its Successors. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90323-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90323-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90322-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90323-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)