…this brings me back to John Paul II’s theology of the body. The difference between John Paul’s theological anthropology and the pitilessly consistent materialism of the transhumanists and their kith – and this is extremely important to grasp – is a difference not simply between two radically antagonistic visions of what it is to be a human being, but between two radically antagonistic visions of what it is to be a god.
There is, as it happens, nothing inherently wicked in the desire to become a god, at least not from the perspective of Christian tradition; and I would even say that if there is one element of the transhumanist creed that is not wholly contemptible – one isolated moment of innocence, however fleeting and imperfect – it is the earnestness with which it gives expression to this perfectly natural longing.
Theologically speaking, the proper destiny of human beings is to be “glorified” – or “divinized” – in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), to be called “gods” (Psalm 82:6; John 10:34-36).
Read it all.
David Bentley Hart–John Paul II Against the Nihilists
…this brings me back to John Paul II’s theology of the body. The difference between John Paul’s theological anthropology and the pitilessly consistent materialism of the transhumanists and their kith – and this is extremely important to grasp – is a difference not simply between two radically antagonistic visions of what it is to be a human being, but between two radically antagonistic visions of what it is to be a god.
There is, as it happens, nothing inherently wicked in the desire to become a god, at least not from the perspective of Christian tradition; and I would even say that if there is one element of the transhumanist creed that is not wholly contemptible – one isolated moment of innocence, however fleeting and imperfect – it is the earnestness with which it gives expression to this perfectly natural longing.
Theologically speaking, the proper destiny of human beings is to be “glorified” – or “divinized” – in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), to be called “gods” (Psalm 82:6; John 10:34-36).
Read it all.