Ex Anthropos: Implications of the Creation of the ‘Posthuman’ for the (Created) ‘Human’

Authors

  • Scott Midson University of Manchester

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.v26i3.270

Keywords:

Creatureliness, Creation, Hybridity, Hyper-humanism, Posthuman

Abstract

The creation of the ‘posthuman’ impels us to (re)discover what is essentially human; thus our very species, or at least the narratives that comprise it, is at stake. Here, I will develop a theological response to the challenge of the posthuman, ultimately contending that the scientists designing the posthuman overstep creaturely boundaries. This uncouples the link between humanness and creatureliness, and although some try to absorb such statements into the nature of humanness, positing that to be human is to progress and enhance, I shall demonstrate that where the posthuman is concerned, unlike with transhumanism, these tenets are self-defeating. The posthuman surpasses us, yet simultaneously it is projected out of our humanocentric world, ex anthropos. It is deployed as the ‘other’ that allows us to reaf?rm our creatureliness, which the posthuman, as not created ex nihilo, does not share in.

Author Biography

  • Scott Midson, University of Manchester
    Scott Midson is a doctoral student in Religions & Theology at the University of Manchester, UK, where he is researching the concept and figure of the 'cyborg', specifically with regards to theological anthropology. This work is part of a broader interest in technology and the posthuman(ities) which is approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, and which seeks to challenge embedded yet problematic notions of the 'human'.

Published

2014-02-24

How to Cite

Midson, S. (2014). Ex Anthropos: Implications of the Creation of the ‘Posthuman’ for the (Created) ‘Human’. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 26(3), 270-287. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.v26i3.270

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