TRANSHUMANISM AND THEOLOGY
Trivent Publishing, H-1119 Budapest, Etele u. 59-61
Imprint: Trivent Transhumanism
Imprint head: Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, John Cabot University
SERIES EDITOR
Benedikt Paul Göcke, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, benedikt.goecke@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
EDITORIAL BOARD
Lukas Brand, Ruhr University Bochum
Daniel Came, University of Lincoln
Anna Puzio, University of Münster
Marija Selak Raspudić, University of Zagreb
Mikolaj Slawkowski-Rode, University of Warsaw and University of Oxford
Ralph Stefan Weir, University of Lincoln and University of Oxford
Nikoleta Zampaki, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
ABOUT THE SERIES
The technological development of humankind has reached a stage that will soon enable it not only to shape the biological being of homo sapiens by means of the achievements of synthetic biology and to form its natural environment by means of geoengineering methods, but moreover to transform the entire individual and social reality of people's lives from the ground up by means of digitalization driven by the use of artificial intelligence. Against this background, transhumanism is a philosophical agenda for human teleology within the whole of existence. It argues that it is in principle morally acceptable, if not imperative, to deploy the means provided by the sciences to improve the embodiment of homo sapiens biologically and/or to transform it cybernetically with the help of new biological and cybernetic technologies. The reasons for taking advantage of the opportunity to change our embodiment derive, cum grano salis, from the concept of a good and successful life presupposed by transhumanism. Such a life, according to the transhumanist, depends on two factors: the greatest possible well-being and the greatest possible freedom in determining one’s own purposes in life. Although the transhumanist agenda gained considerable popularity amongst philosophers, the transhumanist agenda also raises a number of theological questions and problems about its optimism over the technical feasibility of human enhancement, its stance on human nature, the general emphasis on the moral relevance of maximal well-being and the greatest possible expansion of human freedom, and questions of autonomy, eugenics, distributive justice, and scarcity of resources, just to name a few.
The book series “Transhumanism and Theology” intends to address the prospects and problems of the transhumanistic agenda broadly understood from genuine theological points of view. We publish monographs and edited volumes of the highest quality that grapple with the prospects and problems entailed by transhumanism from specific theological points of view across or within the religious traditions.
