Human Technological Enhancement and Theological Anthropology PDF Download

Author: Victoria Lorrimar
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316515028
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
A cross-disciplinary theological engagement with proposals for the technological enhancement of humans, including radical life extension, mind-uploading, mood enhancement and moral enhancement. This work draws on metaphor studies, cognitive sciences, and literary studies to develop an account of human creativity in relation to divine creativity.

Author: Ronald Cole-Turner
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1589017943
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The timeless human desire to be more beautiful, intelligent, healthy, athletic, or young has given rise in our time to technologies of human enhancement. Athletes use drugs to increase their strength or stamina; cosmetic surgery is widely used to improve physical appearance; millions of men take drugs like Viagra to enhance sexual performance. And today researchers are exploring technologies such as cell regeneration and implantable devices that interact directly with the brain. Some condemn these developments as a new kind of cheating—not just in sports but in life itself—promising rewards without effort and depriving us most of all of what it means to be authentic human beings. “Transhumanists,” on the other hand, reject what they see as a rationalizing of human limits, as if being human means being content forever with underachieving bodies and brains. To be human, they insist, is to be restless with possibilities, always eager to transcend biological limits. As the debate grows in urgency, how should theology respond? Christian theologians recognize truth on both sides of the argument, pointing out how the yearnings of the transhumanists—if not their technological methods—find deep affinities in Christian belief. In this volume, Ronald Cole-Turner has joined seasoned scholars and younger, emerging voices together to bring fresh insight into the technologies that are already reshaping the future of Christian life and hope.

Author: Steven C. van den Heuvel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789042941816
Category : Technology
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
'What does it mean to be human?' This age-old question has gained new urgency in the light of current technological developments. This volume addresses these developments, as well as the impact they have on human self-understanding, particularly from the perspective of Christian theological anthropology. This volume consists of fourteen chapters, divided into four different parts. The first part explores the challenges that contemporary technology poses with regard to human self-understanding. In the second part, the conceptual assumptions of technological developments themselves are critically questioned. The third part offers theological perspectives on technological developments and assumptions. The fourth and last part of the book returns to the empirical realm, describing the ethical challenges that can be experienced living with complex technology.

Author: Calvin Mercer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440833265
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
Should technology be used to improve human faculties such as cognition and longevity? This thought-provoking dialogue between "transhumanism" and religion examines enhancement technologies that could radically alter the human species. "Transhumanism" or "human enhancement" is an intellectual and cultural movement that advocates the use of emerging technologies to change human traits. Although they may sound like science fiction, the possibilities suggested by transhumanism are very real, and the questions they raise have no easy answers. If these enhancements—especially major ones like the indefinite extension of healthy human life—become widely available, they would arguably have a more radical impact on humankind than any other development in history. This book comprises essays that explore transhumanism and the issues that surround it, addressing numerous fascinating questions posed by scholars of religion from various traditions. How will "immortality" or extreme longevity change our religious beliefs and practices? How might pharmaceuticals enhance spiritual experiences? Will "post-human" technologies be available to all persons, or will a superior "post-human race" arise to dominate the human species? The discussions are as intriguing as the future they suggest.

Author: Joshua R. Farris
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1493417983
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
In this thorough introduction to theological anthropology, Joshua Farris offers an evangelical perspective on the topic. Farris walks the reader through some of the most important issues in traditional approaches to anthropology, such as sexuality, posthumanism, and the image of God. He addresses fundamental questions like, Who am I? and Why do I exist? He also considers the creaturely and divine nature of humans, the body-soul relationship, and the beatific vision.

Author: Richard L Hamm
Publisher: Chalice Press
ISBN: 0827232632
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Mainline denominations in the United States are in crisis. These institutions - created in and for modernity - are now facing a changed, postmodern culture. Hamm faces the crisis, examining its origins, and offers sound advice on how to lead to church to make the adaptive changes needed to thrive in postmodern times. A TCP Leadership Series title.

Author: Joshua R. Farris
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317015045
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Recent research in the philosophy of religion, anthropology, and philosophy of mind has prompted the need for a more integrated, comprehensive, and systematic theology of human nature. This project constructively develops a theological accounting of human persons by drawing from a Cartesian (as a term of art) model of anthropology, which is motivated by a long tradition. As was common among patristics, medievals, and Reformed Scholastics, Farris draws from philosophical resources to articulate Christian doctrine as he approaches theological anthropology. Exploring a substance dualism model, the author highlights relevant theological texts and passages of Scripture, arguing that this model accounts for doctrinal essentials concerning theological anthropology. While Farris is not explicitly interested in thorough critique of materialist ontology, he notes some of the significant problems associated with it. Rather, the present project is an attempt to revitalize the resources found in Cartesianism by responding to some common worries associated with it.

Author: Scott A. Midson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781350985995
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
In particular, Donna Haraway argued in her famous 1991 'Cyborg Manifesto' that people, since they are so often now detached and separated from nature, have themselves evolved into cyborgs. This striking idea has had considerable influence within critical theory, cultural studies and even science fiction (where it has surfaced, for example, in the Terminator films and in the Borg of the Star Trek franchise). But it is a notion that has had much less currency in theology. In his innovative new book, Scott Midson boldly argues that the deeper nuances of Haraway's and the cyborg idea can similarly rejuvenate theology, mythology and anthropology. Challenging the damaging anthropocentrism directed towards nature and the non-human in our society, the author reveals - through an imaginative reading of the myth of Eden - how it is now possible for humanity to be at one with the natural world even as it vigorously pursues novel, 'post-human', technologies.

Author: Tracy J. Trothen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319624881
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
This collection vigorously addresses the religious implications of extreme human enhancement technology. Topics covered include cutting edge themes, such as moral enhancement, common ground to both transhumanism and religion, the meaning of death, desire and transcendence, and virtue ethics. Radical enhancement programs, advocated by transhumanists, could arguably have a more profound impact than any other development in human history. Reflecting a range of opinion about the desirability of extreme enhancement, leading scholars in the field join with emerging scholars to foster enhanced conversation on these topics.

Author: Marc Cortez
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
ISBN: 0310516447
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Theologians working in theological anthropology often claim that Jesus reveals what it means to be "truly human," but this often has little impact in their actual account of anthropology. ReSourcing Theological Anthropology addresses that lack by offering an account of why theological anthropology must begin with Christology. Building off his earlier study on how key theologians in church history have understood the relationship between Christology and theological anthropology, Cortez now develops a new proposal for theological anthropology and applies it to the theological situation today. ReSourcing Theological Anthropology is divided into four sections. The first section explores the relevant Christological/anthropological biblical passages and unpacks how they inform our understanding of theological anthropology. The second section discusses the theological issues raised in the course of surveying the biblical texts. The third section lays out a methodological framework for how to construct a uniquely Christological anthropology. The final section builds on the first three sections and demonstrates the significance of Christology for understanding theological anthropology by applying the methodological framework to several pressing anthropological issues: gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, and death and suffering X