Incarnation, Posthumanism and Performative Anthropology: The Body of Technology and the Body of Christ

Burdett, Michael S.

Abstract

This essay argues that a Christian incarnational response to posthumanism must recognize that what is at stake isn't just whether belief systems align. It seeks to relocate the interaction between the church and posthumanism to how the practices of posthumanism and Christianity perform the bodies, affections and dispositions of each. Posthuman practices seeks to habituate: (1) A preference for informational patterns over material instantiation; (2) that consciousness and the self are extended and displaced rather than discrete and localized; (3) that the body is merely a tool, the original prosthesis we learn to manipulate and (4) that human life is organized such that it is seamless with intelligent machines. The Christian performance of embodied life, on the other hand, has Christ as template and, in the Eucharist, Christians are marked by offering, sacrifice and celebration in a community that affirms the integrity of our common incarnate life.

Citation

Burdett, M. S. (2022). Incarnation, Posthumanism and Performative Anthropology: The Body of Technology and the Body of Christ. Christian Bioethics, 28(3), 207-216. https://doi.org/10.1093/cb/cbab009

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 20, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jul 14, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Deposit Date: May 27, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 15, 2023
• Journal: Christian Bioethics
• Print ISSN: 1380-3603
• Electronic ISSN: 1744-4195
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 207-216
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cb/cbab009
• Keywords: Philosophy; Religious studies; Medicine (miscellaneous)
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5574679
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/cb/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cb/cbab009/6320877