A book that has been years in the making offers a multi-faceted look at transhumanism and its implications for faith, science and social justice.
“Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics” is being released this month by academic publisher Rowan and Littlefield, offering a wide-variety of viewpoints on human enhancement from theologians, scientists and ethicists.
“A deep brain implant could function therapeutically to combat dementia, Alzheimer’s, and even Christian fundamentalism!” one of the book’s editors, Ted Peters, quipped in an article for Covalence in late 2020. But transhumanism has been a topic he has been exploring along with his co-authors Arvin Gouw and Brian Patrick Green for almost a decade now.
Gouw is an instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine and faculty affiliate at Harvard Center for Science, Religion, and Culture. Green, meanwhile, is the director of Technology Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and adjunct faculty in the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University.
Leading voices from across the faith and science community have contributed chapters including Ronald Cole-Turner; Celia Deane-Drummond; Ilia Delio; Noreen Herzfeld; and Hava Tirosh-Samuelson.
The book explores differing religious traditions viewpoints of the transhumanist vision of the future. The question is whether the idea of transhumanism or this idea of human enhancement through scientific and technological means could be compatible with theology.
Susan is an author with a long-time interest in religion and science. She currently edits Covalence, the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology’s online magazine. She has written articles in The Lutheran and the Zygon Center for Religion and Science newsletter. Susan is a board member for the Center for Advanced Study of Religion and Science, the supporting organization for the Zygon Center and the Zygon Journal. She also co-wrote Our Bodies Are Selves with Dr. Philip Hefner and Dr. Ann Pederson.
