{"id":29232,"date":"2015-03-23T13:28:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T17:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=29232"},"modified":"2015-03-23T13:28:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T17:28:37","slug":"transhumanism-and-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Transhumanism and the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity<\/a>. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here is the call for papers:<\/p>\n

\n

2015 Conference: Transhumanism and the Church
\nSamford University \u2022 Birmingham, AL \u2022 September 24-26, 2015<\/h2>\n

Transhumanism and the Church: Theological Reflections on\u00a0Technology and Human Enhancement<\/h1>\n

\"ChipInHead\"Technology has changed our world dramatically over the past century and promises to change it more rapidly in coming years. Emerging computer and biomedical technologies have the potential to revolutionize our bodies and perhaps our understanding of human nature.\u00a0Transhumanism is the name for the movement that enthusiastically embraces the opportunity to transcend bodily limits with new technology, especially the possibility of extending the human lifespan and increasing mental and physical abilities. Its most optimistic advocates predict a future where death has been defeated through the power to reverse biological processes or offload mental states onto computers.\u00a0What should be the response of the church to Transhumanism and the technological possibilities for human enhancement that are on the horizon? Samford University\u2019s Center for Science and Religion will host a conference on \u201cTranshumanism and the Church\u201d as a way to promote critical reflection and public understanding on an issue that will become increasingly important in future decades.<\/p>\n

Examples of possible topics for conference presentations include:<\/em>
\n\u2022 How does a Christian view of human nature support or conflict with a Transhumanist view? For example, is Transhumanist optimism about improving human nature compatible with Christian expectations about the redemption of the world?
\n\u2022 Does Transhumanism represent a (secular) rival to Christian theology or are there some themes that are compatible with the Christian tradition?
\n\u2022 What is the proper role for technology? Is there a principled way to distinguish between beneficial and harmful technological enhancements?
\n\u2022 What does the coming technological future indicate about God\u2019s purpose for creation?
\n\u2022 What would changing human nature imply for traditional Christian doctrines?
\n\u2022 What implications does a theological critique of Transhumanism have for the way we treat the biological world?<\/p>\n

Keynote speakers include:<\/em>
\nRon Cole-Turner<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
\nEditor of\u00a0Transhumanism and Transcendence:\u00a0Christian Hope in an Age of Technological Enhancement<\/em><\/p>\n

Jeanine Thweatt-Bates<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The College of New Jersey
\nAuthor of\u00a0Cyborg Selves: A Theological Anthropology of the Posthuman<\/em><\/p>\n

Joel Garreau<\/strong>\u2013 Arizona State University
\nAuthor of\u00a0Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies\u2013and What It Means to be Human<\/em><\/p>\n

Steve Donaldson<\/strong>\u2013 Samford University
\nAuthor of\u00a0Dimensions of Faith: Understanding Faith Through the Lens of Science and Religion<\/em>(forthcoming)<\/p>\n

Michael Burdett<\/strong>\u2013 Oxford University
\nAuthor of\u00a0Eschatology and the Technological Future
\n<\/em>
\nJeffrey Bishop<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 St. Louis University
\nCo-Author of\u00a0Chasing After Virtue: Neuroscience, Economics, and the Biopolitics of Morality<\/em>(forthcoming)<\/p>\n

Please send a 350-500 word proposal with your name, professional title, home institution, and contact information (including e-mail address) to Dr. Josh Reeves at\u00a0jareeves@samford.edu<\/a>. Some conference papers will be selected for inclusion in an edited book, along with chapters from\u00a0the keynote speakers.<\/p>\n

The deadline for proposals is May 1. Presenters will be notified of acceptance by May 21. Final papers are due by September 14 for consideration in edited volume. Registration opens June 1.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here is the call for papers: 2015 Conference: Transhumanism and the Church Samford University \u2022 Birmingham, AL \u2022 September 24-26, 2015 Transhumanism and the Church: Theological Reflections on\u00a0Technology and Human Enhancement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":26028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,131,96],"tags":[1518,2116,10729,12831],"class_list":["post-29232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-call-for-papers-2","category-christianity-religion","category-technology","tag-call-for-papers","tag-conference","tag-samford-university","tag-transhumanism"],"yoast_head":"\nTranshumanism and the Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transhumanism and the Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-23T17:28:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html\",\"name\":\"Transhumanism and the Church\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-23T17:28:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-23T17:28:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Transhumanism and the Church\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Transhumanism and the Church","description":"Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Transhumanism and the Church","og_description":"Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2015-03-23T17:28:37+00:00","author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html","name":"Transhumanism and the Church","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-23T17:28:37+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-23T17:28:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"Samford University will be hosting a conference on Transhumanism and Christianity. It will be in September, and the deadline for proposals in in May. Here","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/transhumanism-and-the-church.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Transhumanism and the Church"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}