While its emergence has been sudden, it was built on a number of important philosophical developments that have been taking place since the end of World War II, including feminism, postcolonialism, queer theory and environmental and race studies.Īt its core, posthumanism is a rejection of the humanist tradition in the west of human exceptionalism (the notion that humans are unique in the world) and human instrumentalism (that humans have the right to control and dominate the natural world). Within the past three years alone there has been a veritable explosion of international conferences, symposia, articles and books dedicated to the topic. Posthumanism, a movement that is less than fifteen years old, has become one of the fastest growing fields of study in the academy, especially in the citadels of critical theory such as Paris, Utrecht, the American Ivies, Berkeley and the University of Toronto. More specifically I intend to show the ancient religious roots of these “cutting edge” disciplines and suggest possible directions we as Christians need to look in order to find a response to these developments. In the second I will examine the concept and movement called transhumanism. In this first of two articles I intend to briefly sketch out the academic discipline known as posthumanism. Known as posthumanism and transhumanism, these movements seek not only to redefine our basic understanding of what we mean by humanity, but even to alter or “overcome” our humanity altogether. Though still largely unknown to the general populace, they have been gaining significant attention in academic and scientific circles. Two related but competing intellectual movements have recently begun to emerge. While issues such as slavery and racial difference have certainly been debated among Christians and their opponents, and even among themselves, nevertheless our basic humanity has always been a given. One area of belief that has been left relatively uncontroversial is anthropology or the doctrine of man. The doctrines which have most often been under assault are those relating to God, to Christ, to creation, to salvation and even to eschatology.
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Over the long history of the Christian church there have been numerous challenges to the faith. “You may have killed God beneath the weight of all that you have said but don’t imagine that with all that you are saying, you will make a man that will live longer than he.” -Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse of Languageīiopiracy, xenotransplantation, body hacking and techno-immortality may sound like lingo from the latest science fiction, but they may soon be ethical and theological dilemmas.