Can We Imagine a Human Future?: Afrofuturism, Transhumanism, and Human Life in Christ

This paper pushes theological engagements with transhumanism to attend to issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation through analysis of three works of speculative fiction – Greg Egan’s Diaspora, Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, and Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy. Where Egan, alongside m...

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1. VerfasserIn: Lenow, Joseph E. ca. 20./21. Jh. (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group 2021
In: Political theology
Jahr: 2021, Band: 22, Heft: 4, Seiten: 332-349
normierte Schlagwort(-folgen):B Afrofuturismus / Transhumanismus / Bioethik / Christliche Existenz
IxTheo Notationen:CB Christliche Existenz; Spiritualität
CF Christentum und Wissenschaft
NCJ Wissenschaftsethik
weitere Schlagwörter:B Human Enhancement
B Afrofuturism
B Nnedi Okorafor
B Transhumanism
B Octavia Butler
B Bioethics
B Greg Egan
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Zusammenfassung:This paper pushes theological engagements with transhumanism to attend to issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation through analysis of three works of speculative fiction – Greg Egan’s Diaspora, Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, and Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy. Where Egan, alongside many transhumanists, imagines a future that is mostly disembodied, Afrofuturist thinkers like Butler and Okorafor successfully integrate speculation about the future of humanity with attention to the social formation of bodies. Butler illuminates how histories of oppression are relevant for bioethical debates around purported human enhancements, while Okorafor draws attention to the social practices and bodily constraints on those practices that enable participation in concrete human communities. In light of their work, the paper suggests that theological debates with transhumanists should move away from the question of the limits of human nature, and toward questions of how bodily practices humanize us and enable fellowship with the human Christ.
ISSN:1743-1719
Enthält:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2021.1890932