Black Transhuman Liberation Theology: Technology and Spirituality

Abstract

Phillip Butler's Black Transhuman Liberation Theology is an intriguing and provocative entry into the growing corpus of Black liberation theology. This book seeks to expand Black liberation theology's language and approaches to Black life in the African diaspora. For Butler, Black theology has “yet to offer meaningful reflection on the role of technology in the lives of Black people” (1). Butler's primary argument is that Black people have always been “transhuman.” Black bodies under slavery and colonialism have always been “technological.” Further, he notes that technology has almost always been a condition of being human—the move from agrarian to industrial to postindustrial societies has been a function of human beings using technology to effect change. Butler attempts to describe liberation for Black people by combining technology and spirituality instead of holding them as diametric opposites. However, this project goes a step further by not centering the Christian God as a means of interrogating, describing, or prescribing Black liberation. Also, Butler sees an impending technocracy as both a peril and a possibility for Black people. In a sense, this book is as much a predictive text as it is a response to existing Black theologies. According to Butler, “By simultaneously taking on the mantle of liberation and fully immersing one's self into the technological world, one can actually embody a constructed theology that subverts technocratic attempts to control the human body and mind through the enticing makeup of the psycho-realistic virtual world” (14–15).Butler's argument is provocative. As he understands our current world, technology is inextricable from Black experiences of the world. Butler encourages “Black biotechnology to create technological advancements and organizations capable of employing other Black bodies. This tactic is meant to cultivate dignity while accumulating power” (143). Butler sees participation in science and technology as a liberating path for Black people. Further, for Butler, the help that Black people need in order to overcome white supremacy's oppressive use of technology will come from within (129). Liberation requires a “revolt spirituality” that challenges the binary distinctions imposed by colonial frameworks and systems (138). Butler is not interested in advancing the descriptions of God as seen in James Cone's theology of liberation. Rather, toward the end of the book, Butler states, “God is us. We are … incarnate with life itself” (129). While Butler is not attempting to do away with the Christian God altogether, he situates the human being as the effective agent of change and liberation.Butler is clear that the term “transhumanism” is not without its problems and contestations. As in other similar texts, Butler lays out the historical terrain of transhumanism and its roots in Enlightenment thought. As transhumanism is rooted in rational humanism, it can and has “placed value propositions upon bodies” (38). These propositions themselves assumed the duality of body and soul. For Butler, Black transhuman liberation theology avoids mind-body dualism by centering a dynamic spirituality. Drawing on various African descriptions of spirit and body, Butler argues that “vitality is present within everything” (51). While this might appear to veer close to what some might describe as “animism,” Butler's argument draws on a claim that the atomic, subatomic, and quantum are themselves part of an interrelatedness. Butler anticipates questions of how this vitality can be understood as Black and how this vitality relates to a Black transhuman liberation theology by noting that “inclusivity becomes the radical acceptance of the complex ways in which Black vitality presents itself through embodiment” (56). A Black transhuman liberation theology is this radical acceptance through inclusivity, understanding that all of our biological and cultural processes are integral to our Blackness.The concluding chapters are the culmination of Butler's argument. As he restates his argument that “technology is key to Black revolution and liberation” (105), Butler urges Black people to understand that they are already transhuman. The history of chattel slavery in the United States already rendered Black people as robots, as outside of humanity. What Butler seeks is the adoption of a Black transhuman liberation via a “revolt spirituality”—as oppressions are built upon technologies, so too are revolutions and liberation. However, for Butler, revolutions and liberation require a spiritual core. To borrow from common language about household technology, Butler challenges Black liberation theology to “upgrade” its analyses of Black life, spirituality, and liberation in an emerging technocratic society.The work highlights some shortcomings of traditional Black liberation theology and might even lead to questions about its position as a “theology.” In the conclusion, Butler flatly notes that God is not going to “show up” or “break into history” in order to liberate Black people, and it is therefore imperative that Black people engage technology in the ongoing quest for liberation (144). This assertion that God is not going to break into history to liberate follows from and builds on the work of Anthony Pinn to craft a path forward. Further, this work challenges Black liberation theology's characterization of a God who liberates on the macro scale. Butler “minimizes” God's role in the work of liberation to the micro—or the individual. Indeed, one may ask how this can even be a theology if God-so-called plays an individualized role? For Butler, God's “nondeterministic nature” simply does not factor in the struggles for Black liberation. He sees Black people as responsible for their own liberation, a challenging approach for Black liberation theologians who have long held to views of an all-encompassing God who intervenes on behalf of the oppressed. This work will certainly serve as an important resource for Black scholars of religion who are interested in interrogating the intersections of futurism and Black lives.