Abstract
This article examines some of the recent theological critiques of the movement of technological human enhancement known as ‘transhumanism’. Drawing on the comparisons between grace and technology often found in the theological discourse on transhumanism, this article argues that the Thomistic distinction between healing grace and elevating grace can not only supplement the theological analysis of transhumanism and its ethical implications, but also help Christian theologians and ethicists become more aware of how the phenomenon of technology may have implicitly shaped the contemporary understanding of ‘grace’ as well as the task of theology as a spiritual and indeed ethical practice.
Highlights
Recent years have witnessed a surge in interest in the controversial movement of technological human enhancement known as ‘transhumanism’, in the academic study of the intersection between religion and science, and in Christian theology and ethics.1 Much of the existing theological engagements with transhumanism have offered doctrinal and ethical assessments of various technological processes and ambitions, often characterising transhumanism as some kind of secularised parody or even heresy of traditional Christian theology
Drawing on Thomas Aquinas’s account of grace and nature as a model to help our understanding of the relation between technology and human nature that is key to debates concerning transhumanism, this article argues that the Thomistic distinction between healing and elevating grace can supplement the theological analysis of transhumanism and its doctrinal and ethical implications; it can help us become more aware of how the phenomenon of ‘technology’ may have implicitly shaped—or even ‘technologised’—the contemporary understanding of ‘grace’
Is it fair to assert that ‘transhumanism’ is a kind of secularised vision of Christian theosis which seeks to replace divine grace with human technology? Does the aspiration to improve the living conditions of human beings through technology always amount to some ‘transhumanist’ crypto-soteriology? What is the difference between technological human enhancement and using technology to improve one’s health and well-being?
Summary
Recent years have witnessed a surge in interest in the controversial movement of technological human enhancement known as ‘transhumanism’, in the academic study of the intersection between religion and science, and in Christian theology and ethics. Much of the existing theological engagements with transhumanism have offered doctrinal and ethical assessments of various technological processes and ambitions, often characterising transhumanism as some kind of secularised parody or even heresy of traditional Christian theology. Much of the existing theological engagements with transhumanism have offered doctrinal and ethical assessments of various technological processes and ambitions, often characterising transhumanism as some kind of secularised parody or even heresy of traditional Christian theology. As opposed to these theological critiques, this article seeks to examine. Drawing on Thomas Aquinas’s account of grace and nature as a model to help our understanding of the relation between technology and human nature that is key to debates concerning transhumanism, this article argues that the Thomistic distinction between healing and elevating grace can supplement the theological analysis of transhumanism and its doctrinal and ethical implications; it can help us become more aware of how the phenomenon of ‘technology’ may have implicitly shaped—or even ‘technologised’—the contemporary understanding of ‘grace’
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