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Christians have always been concerned with enhancement-now they are faced with significant questions about how technology can help or harm genuine spiritual transformation. What makes traditional and technological enhancement different from each other? Are there theological insights and spiritual practices that can help Christians face the challenge of living in a technological world without being dangerously conformed to its values? This book calls on Christians to understand and engage the deep issues facing the church in a technological, transhumanist future.
List of contents
1. Why the Church Should Pay Attention to Transhumanism.- 2. From Lamech to Bezalel: Biblical Reflections on the Polyvalence of "Technology".- 3. Dragons and Dog-Headed Saints: Some Medieval Perspectives on the Significance of the Human Form.- 4. "When That Which Is Perfect Is Come": Henry Drummond and "The Changed Life".- 5. Christianity's Rigged Debate with Transhumanism.- 6. The Imago Dei and the Imago Mundi.- 7. Nietzsche's Power Ontology and Transhumanism: Or Why Christians Cannot Be Transhumanists.- 8. The Failed Fictions of Transhumanism.- 9. Do Bigger Brains Mean Smaller Gods? Cognitive Science and Theological Perspectives on Transhumanism and the Church (or, Why We Can't Outrun Faith).- 10. Will the Transhuman Future be Good or Bad for Humanity?.- 11. Origin Stories: Superheroes, Cyborgs, Artificial Intelligences (and Other Humans and Posthumans).- 12. Even Cyborgs Cast a Shadow: Christian Resources and Responsibilities in Response to Transhumanism.- 13. Rivalry, Control, and Transhumanist Desire.- 14. The Church: Bigger Bangs are Coming.- 15. People of Vision, Communities of Discernment.
About the author
Steve Donaldson directs the computer science program and co-directs the computational biology program at Samford University. He is senior fellow and a co-founder of the Samford University Center for Science and Religion. Donaldson has authored Dimensions of Faith (2015) and co-authored A Little Book for New Scientists (2016).
Ron Cole-Turner teaches theology and ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where he holds the H. Parker Sharp Professorship. He is a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion, and currently serves as a vice president. Cole-Turner is the author and editor of several books on science, technology, and Christian theology.
Summary
Christians have always been concerned with enhancement—now they are faced with significant questions about how technology can help or harm genuine spiritual transformation. What makes traditional and technological enhancement different from each other? Are there theological insights and spiritual practices that can help Christians face the challenge of living in a technological world without being dangerously conformed to its values? This book calls on Christians to understand and engage the deep issues facing the church in a technological, transhumanist future.
