Transhumanism is a movement dedicated to radically changing the human condition through technology, including by extending lifespan in one of three ways: (1) a biological approach that focuses on reducing the effects of aging, (2) a cybernetic approach that focuses on replacing the body with mechanical equivalents, and (3) a digital approach that focuses on reproducing human minds within computers. This dissertation focuses on the third way, digital immortality, because digitality can serve as a framework for further human enhancement that goes beyond mere life-extension, and thus has nearly unlimited potential to transform the human condition, and also because some forms of digital immortality are already technologically feasible. The dissertation examines transhumanist ideas of digital immortality from three perspectives. First, it employs the lens of theological anthropology to evaluate transhumanist arguments for how and why it is possible to reconstruct a person’s behavior patterns, and perhaps consciousness itself, in a machine. Second, it uses the lens of eschatology to examine the relationship between these immortality scenarios and the technological singularity, including the rise of superintelligent artificial intelligence. Third, it applies the lens of the philosophy of history to examine transhumanist ideas of evolution and the necessity of perpetual cycles of human enhancement to keep pace with AI and future generations of posthumans. The dissertation uses the anthropologies, eschatologies, and philosophies of history constructed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Jürgen Moltmann to create a framework for comparing Christian theology and transhumanist philosophy. The dissertation concludes that the real conflict between Christian theology and transhumanism is over supernaturalism, the degree to which God intervenes and directs human activity in history. As a result, transhumanists can find common theological ground with Christian naturalists as they pursue the religiously charged questions that transhumanists are asking about the essential nature, purpose, and destiny of humanity.

Thesis advisor: Frederick G. Lawrence / Taking as its mandate the expansive vision suggested by the integral ecology of Laudato Si’, in conjunction with the insights of contemporary ecological and evolutionary theologians, this dissertation proposes a framework for an integral, planetary, and cosmic theology of grace. It draws from and builds upon many of the insights of the leading Catholic contributors to ecological and evolutionary theologies, including especially John Haught, Elizabeth Johnson, Denis Edwards, and Celia Deane-Drummond. Through their various approaches, each emphasizes the created, cosmic effects of both the universal invisible mission of Holy Spirit and the visible mission of Christ’s Incarnation, intended from all eternity and culminating in his passion death and resurrection. Noting the strong resonances with traditional accounts of the economy of grace in human redemption, this dissertation seeks to provide a unitive account of God’s healing and elevation of all of creation through a creative and redemptive economy of grace. This project is also carried out in intentional dialogue with both with traditional understandings of grace, especially as articulated in the speculative and systematic synthesis of St. Thomas Aquinas, and with contemporary scientific understandings of world process. To facilitate this larger conversation, this dissertation also explores Bernard Lonergan’s transposition of grace, nature, and sin from the Medieval theoretical framework into a framework based on interiority, and it relies especially on Lonergan’s explanatory account of the dynamic orientation of nature as “upwardly but indeterminately directed,” as laid out in his generalized emergent probability. However, as Lonergan and his students have only attended to grace in relation to human contexts, the constructive part of this dissertation lays out an understanding of grace as “God’s created relationship of transformative love and care for all creatures that opens them up to ever deeper relationships with God and with each other.” This broad definition makes possible the identification of God’s grace throughout all of creation: humans, other animals, plants, and even “inanimate” matter are caught up in the networks of grace that bring them to greater perfection along three axes: According to their absolute finality, all creation may be observed as existing in a state of ontological praise of its Creator and Redeemer and in a state of eschatological expectation. According to their horizontal finality, each creature is empowered to realize its particular, fleshly excellences in line with its dynamically conceived nature, the account of which nature is described by the vast array of modern sciences. According to their vertical finality, each creature exists in networks of interconnection that undergird the possibility and, sometimes, the reality of surprising and irreducible inbreaking of renewal and emergence. At the same time, this framework also recognizes the elevation of human beings to not only these forms of relative supernaturality, but also to the absolute supernaturality of sanctifying grace and the habit of charity in which we are adopted into the intra-trinitarian life of friendship. By situating this theology of grace in relation to Lonergan’s transposition of nature in the form of his account of generalized emergent probability, the specifically theological character of this account of world process is both distinguished from and related to the other explanatory accounts offered by the whole range of the human, social, and natural sciences. To clarify these relationships and the particular role of theology in dialogue with these other sciences, the final chapters explore the hermeneutical and heuristic value of this theology of grace in relation to the larger conversations around emergence, convergence, and cooperation in evolutionary theory. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / One of the most controversial theological subjects today is the doctrine of man. In this area, too, lies some of the sharp criticism of Protestant liberal thought. Hence there should be value in analysing some recognized liberal thinker's doctrine of man. Harry Emerson Fosdick was an especially well-known liberal preacher of the first half of the twentieth century. He received both great praise and severe negative criticism. While much has been written concerning his preaching methods, there has been little effort to analyse any of his theological doctrines. This dissertation has sought to make clear and to evaluate Fosdick's doctrine of man. An effort has also been made to discover what implications this doctrine has for Fosdick's type of liberalism. The method followed has been a careful reading of all Fosdick's work pertinent to any phase of the doctrine of man, supplemented by correspondence and personal interview with Fosdick himself. Fosdick is not a systematic theologian. He has not fully expounded any theological doctrine in any one place. Therefore, it was necessary to select different emphases from different works and to try to bring them together into a coherent whole. The resulting doctrine of man was then analysed for its liberal elements. These elements were compared with those found in concepts of liberalism expressed in the writings of Reinhold Niebuhr and Walter Marshall Horton. These two theologians hold widely differing views of what constitutes liberalism. The comparison between their concepts of liberalism and that revealed in Fosdick's doctrine of man served to clarify Fosdick's type of liberalism. The study established the fact that Fosdick's doctrine of man is fundamentally Christian, true to the emphases of the Bible and general Christian thought. Fosdick does not reveal the tendency, often found today, to over-emphasize one aspect of man's nature to the exclusion of others. He balances the idea of man's goodness with clear recognition of his sin; reason is important but revelation is primary; man is both free and limited; man is a spiritual being but the physical body is a necessary vehicle for its expression; eternal life, which is both present and future, is open to man. What man should be, as a total person, is seen in Christ, the revelation of both God and man. In insisting on the sacredness of personality Fosdick is true to the spirit of Jesus. Fosdick is clearly a liberal. He is not guilty, however, of the excesses of liberalism which gave rise to severe criticism. His liberalism has always been moderate and he has remained close to central Biblical affirmations. A critic himself of much early liberalism, he expressed neo-liberal ideas before the term "neo-liberal" came into existence. No adequate grasp of Fosdick's theology can be gained unless one reads all his work. Much of his theolo gical thought is expressed in writing other than his published sermons upon which many are prone to base their criticism. A thorough study of all his work shows that he deserves more recognition than he has received in theological circles. Appreciated as he has been for his important contribution to early liberal thought, he has not been recognized for his solid contribution to what is now often called neo-liberalism. In the advance guard of both the critics of early liberalism and the adherents of a new, more realistic, and soberly considered liberal viewpoint, he deserves consideration in modern thought.

Thesis advisor: Andrew L. Prevot / This dissertation addresses two critical areas of scholarship on Howard Thurman. Firstly, it aims to clarify Thurman’s theological anthropology, a facet often overshadowed by a focus on his ecclesiology and nonviolent social ethics. While existing treatments of Thurman’s anthropology are typically biographical and limited to his mystical consciousness, this project integrates insights from various aspects of Thurman’s work to offer a comprehensive account of his theological anthropology. Secondly, the dissertation critically examines the violence in Thurman’s historical context and the nuanced choice between violent and nonviolent resistance. Emphasizing Thurman’s nonviolent message directed at those who saw armed resistance as morally plausible, the study places Thurman in dialogue with contemporaries and subsequent Black scholars, elucidating how Christian nonviolent resistance contributes to an anthropology aligned with the imperative to resist all forms of oppression. The methodology involves correlating the revelatory responses of rebellious Black individuals with God’s revelation. Chapters also delve into Thurman’s theological anthropology and non-Chalcedonian Christology. The dissertation concludes by encouraging a nuanced integration of Thurman’s views into the Black Lives Matter Movement through a reflection on the parables of Jesus. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Contemporary developments in cognitive neuroscience are having a profound impact on the philosophy of mind as philosophers work to understand the implications of these advances for appreciating what it means to be a human person. At the same time, a recent consensus has formed among contemporary theologians around the thesis that Jesus Christ is the revelation of what it means to be truly human. Unfortunately, very few thinkers have made any concerted effort to bring these two developments into dialogue with one another. This study addresses this lack by drawing on the anthropological insights of Karl Barth and bringing them to bear on certain aspects of the contemporary discussions regarding the mind/brain relationship. The thesis thus comprises two major sections. The first develops an understanding of Karl Barth’s theological anthropology focusing on three major facets: (1) the centrality of Jesus Christ for any real understanding of human persons; (2) the resources that such a christologically determined view of human nature has for engaging in interdisciplinary discourse; and (3) the ontological implications of this approach for understanding the mind/body relationship. The second part of the study then draws on this theological foundation to consider the implications that understanding human nature christologically has for analyzing and assessing several prominent ways of explaining the mind/body relationship. This study, then, is an exercise in understanding the nature of a christocentric anthropology and its implications for understanding human ontology. While it will devote significant attention to the theology of Karl Barth and various contemporary philosophers of mind, its fundamental aim is to draw together these apparently disparate fields of inquiry by engaging both theology and philosophy in a vital dialogue on the nature of the human person as revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist der Entwurf einer theologisch fundierten und empirisch-psychologisch evidenten Persönlichkeitstheorie. Sie soll christologisch verankert sein. Dazu wird zunächst mit Paul Tillich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer und Helmut Thielicke vor dem biblisch-theologischen Hintergrund des Noahbunds die grundsätzliche Doppelseitigkeit der menschlichen Existenz aufgezeigt. In der postlapsalischen Erhaltungsordnung herrschen Sünde und Tod vor, aber die Schöpfungsrealität bleibt fragmentarisch bewahrt, so dass psychosoziale und spirituelle Gesundheit unter dem Vorbehalt der Vorläufigkeit möglich ist. Um diese zu erlangen, muss der Mensch zur adäquaten Befriedigung seiner Bedürfnisse finden. Dies geschieht nur unter dem Primat der Verantwortlichkeit. Verantwortlichkeit beinhaltet, dass der Mensch in die Schuld gestellt ist. Schuld und Verantwortlichkeit besitzen ontologische Tiefe. Der Sünde wegen ist der Mensch bestrebt, sein Leben nicht vor Gott verantworten zu müssen. Sein Verhältnis zu Gott ist von Angst bestimmt. Dies hat Paul Tillich in seiner Ontologie der Angst entfaltet. Die Versuche des Menschen, die existenzielle Angst der Gottentfremdung zu objektivieren, hat Søren Kierkegaard mit den vier Grundformen der Verzweiflung beschrieben. Ihr psychopathologisches Äquivalent sind die von Fritz Riemann überlieferten vier Grundformen der Angst. Diese drei Modelle der dunklen Seite menschlicher Persönlichkeit sind deckungsgleich. Die Doppelseitigkeit der menschlichen Existenz impliziert, dass die Kehrseite der existenziellen Angst das existenzielle Bedürfnis ist. Die Bedürfniskonstrukte von Fiedler, Epstein und Grawe, die aus dem gegenwärtigen Erkenntnisstand der Persönlichkeitsforschung unter Einbezug der Neuropsychologie hervorgehen, erweisen sich in diesem Sinne als auffallend deckungsgleich mit den Modellen der dunklen Seite. Daraus ergibt sich ein holistisches Persönlichkeitsmodell, das die negative Determiniertheit durch die Sünde und die positive durch die Grundbedürfnisse, das ontologische Bedürfnis nach Spiritualität eingeschlossen, als unlösliche Einheit aufweist. Der gemeinsame Nenner dieser Modelle scheint sich auch allmählich in der Persönlichkeitsdiagnostik durchzusetzen. / The aim of this paper is the outline of a theologically founded and empirically-psychologically reasonable theory of personality. It shall be christologically anchored. For this purpose at first with Paul Tillich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Helmut Thielicke the fundamental double-sidedness of human existence in front of the biblical-theological background of the noachitic covenant is pointed out. Within the divine conserving order after the fall of man sin and death dominate, but the reality of the order of creation is fragmentarilly saved as well, so that psychosocial and spiritual health, with reservation of preliminarity, is possible. To achieve it, man must get to the adequate satisfaction of his needs. This can only happen under the dominance of responsibility. Responsibility contains being put into debt and therefore being guilty as well. Guilt and responsibility own ontological depth. As the result of sin man tries to avoid responsibility in the presence of God. His relation to God is determined by anxiety. That's what Paul Tillich pointed out by his ontology of anxiety. The attempts of man trying to overcome the existencial anxiety under the alienation from God Søren Kierkegaard has described by the four fundamental forms of desperation. Their psychopathological equivalent are the four fundamental forms of anxiety, which Fritz Riemann described. These three models of the dark side of human existence are congruent. The double-sidedness of human existence contains that the other side of existencial anxiety is existencial need. The need-models of Fiedler, Epstein and Grawe, which result from the present state of personality-research under regard of neuropsychology, show significant congruence with the models of the dark side. This leads to an holistic model of personality, which demonstrates the negative determination by sin and the positive one by the fundamental needs, including the ontological spiritual need, as an insoluble unit. The common denominator of these models gradually seems to prevail in the field of personality-diagnostic as well. / Abstract in German and English / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

The Judeo-Christian belief, based on the bible, is that “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1: 27). This dissertation explores the Akan understanding of the human person to shed further light on creation of human beings in the image of God and to understand and demonstrate the corresponding uniqueness of the human being among God's creatures. With the help of the Akan context, we note that every human being possesses a spark of God. God, who is relational, shares relationality with human beings.<br> Through the use of Akan anthropology, we identify creation “in the image of God” to mean that every human being is created through the agency of parents, who also share in the image of God through their birth. Our interpretation is that the okra is the soul and is considered the “spark of God” in the human being. The honhom, which refers to the breath of life, is treated as the breath that God breathed into human beings to make a human a living being (Gen 2:7). We equated the breath of God with the Holy Spirit who gives life. We propose to demonstrate the possibility of human relationships through the Holy Spirit.<br> At the moment of conception, every human being derives some elements from his/her father and mother and elements from God. These elements from the three sources (God, mother, and father) combine to make a person a human being. Though humanity derives certain elements from the three sources, it is the holistic person that reflects God's image in the sense that through the various elements humanity is able to relate and communicate with God, neighbor, and the world. The holistic human person enables us to clarify that humanity is both physical and spiritual. <br> With the help of the Akan anthropology, we successfully show that knowledge of the human being starts with the relationship between God and human beings, which extends to other humans and the universe, thus offering a further insight into the meaning of being created in the image of God. <br> Our conclusion is that when a Christian is asked the question, “What exactly in the human being points to the image of God?” he/she will be able to respond that there is a “spark” of God in every human being. We therefore renew Christian anthropology through the method of contextualization with the Akan culture to disclose the hidden presence of God in the human being. We demonstrate that theology functions exactly as the manner in which religion makes sense within a given culture. As the people in the culture understand their world and make meaning of it, they can also share their insight with others. Human beings have become a source of theology in addition to scripture and tradition. Human beings are created in God’s image and are relational and unique within God's creation. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Theology / PhD; / Dissertation;

[pt] O mal é uma realidade que sempre causou comoção e perplexidade na humanidade. Diante dele, muitos e diversos sistemas de sentido foram criados pelas sociedades a fim de fazer frente aos questionamentos que o absurdo dos sofrimentos físicos e morais trazem para a consciência humana. A fé cristã defende que a salvação definitiva do mal encontra-se em Jesus Cristo, o revelador definitivo da presença divina junto ao ser humano que busca uma saída para as contradições da existência. Porém, apesar da esperança despertada pela páscoa de Jesus Cristo, e mesmo diante das expectativas das primeiras comunidades cristãs quanto ao fim iminente dos sofrimentos deste mundo, o mal persiste como realidade fria e cruel. Como conciliar a fé em Jesus Cristo como Salvador universal e a persistência da realidade do mal na história? Para o teólogo espanhol Andrés Torres Queiruga, qualquer tentativa de resposta cristã a esta pergunta deve ser fiel ao rosto amoroso do Deus revelado por Jesus Cristo. Porém, não pode desprezar também outros dois fatores: o primeiro, o advento da modernidade, com a sua consciência de autonomia do ser humano e do cosmos, e que desconfia de toda e qualquer defesa de intervenções empíricas de Deus na realidade imanente; o segundo, o rigor do conceito, ou seja, uma reflexão que seja incansável na busca de uma lógica do discurso, mesmo se tratando de um assunto tão difícil, evitando atribuir rapidamente ao mistério aquilo que é fruto da incoerência ou da insuficiência da reflexão. / [en] The Evil is a reality which has always caused shock and astonishment to people. According to it, several different sense systems have been created by society in order to answer questions about physical and moral damages that are brought to human consciousness. The Christian faith holds that the ultimate salvation from Evil is in Jesus Christ, the definitve revelation of God’s presence with the human being who seeks a way out of the contradictions of existence. However, despite the hope awaken by the easter of Jesus Christ, and even with the expectations of the earliest Christian communities about the imminent end the suffering of this world, the Evil remains as a cold and cruel reality. How to deal with teh faith in Jesus Christ as the universal savior and the persistence of the Evil in history? According to the Spanish theologian Andrés Torres Queiruga, any attempt to the Christian answer to this question must be similar to the loving face of God revealed by Jesus Christ. But, we cannot forget about the other two facts: first, the rising of modernity, with its consciousness of human autonomy and the cosmos, and that it is suspicious of any defense of empirical interventions of God immanent in reality; the second one; the rigor of the concept, this way we have a reflection that is restless in the search of a logical discourse, even when it is related to a so difficult subject, avoiding sticking to the result of the inconherence and failed consideration of the mistery quickly.

Thesis advisor: Jane E. Regan / This dissertation considers adolescent girls and what they need from an all-girls’ Catholic school that will prepare them, not just for college and career, but for life in a world that marginalizes girls and women. More than simply trying to make a case for single-sex schooling for girls, it suggests that the single-sex school is an important site for conversations about what it means for adolescent girls to be adolescent girls. This project names the patriarchal forces that marginalize girls and calls for a pedagogical approach that is rooted in the theological affirmation that adolescent girls are created in the image of God and called to exercise a prophetic imagination. Chapter one introduces the history of all-girls’ Catholic secondary schools, a history rooted in the story of women’s religious orders and the ministries of these women religious as educators at a time when the education of girls was not valued. Today’s all-girls’ Catholic schools are informed by this history and the Catholic Church’s commitment to honoring the dignity of each student, thus grounding a commitment to a caring and liberative educational approach. Chapter two argues that contemporary adolescent girls, including those who attend these all-girls’ Catholic secondary schools, are growing up in a cultural milieu that makes them vulnerable to the effects of the conflicting and impossible expectations to which girls and women are held. Chapter three investigates the imago Dei symbol as a theological foundation for fighting this toxic cultural milieu. Taking a cue from feminist theologians who have explored embodiment and relationality as central expressions of the imago Dei, this chapter proposes that creating communities of God’s hesed (loving-kindness) and resisting injustice are two ways that the imago Dei symbol can be expressed so as to best include adolescent girls. Chapter four suggests that, in order to realize this goal of affirming the imago Dei in adolescent girls by creating communities of God’s hesed and resistance to injustice, a feminist prophetic imagination is needed. Drawing on Walter Brueggemann’s identification of the prophetic imagination as the twinned process of denouncing the oppressive forces of the dominant culture and announcing a new and more just way of being in the world, it proposes a feminist prophetic imagination that engages in a feminist critique of the cultural milieu that girls experience and the construction of communities based in hesed and resistance to injustice. Chapter five takes up the pedagogical challenges of teaching with and for a feminist prophetic imagination. The liberative pedagogy of Paulo Freire and the caring pedagogy of Nel Noddings provide the resources for educating adolescent girls to participate in communities of God’s hesed and in practices of resistance to injustice. Chapter six returns to the concrete situation of all-girls’ Catholic secondary schools and imagines how these schools can speak to a commitment to educating for a feminist prophetic imagination in their mission and reflects on how a feminist prophetic imagination can be expressed and formalized in all Catholic schools.

[pt] O presente estudo busca fazer uma leitura da antropologia teológica de W. Pannenberg, sistematizando a temática e demonstrando, através do autor mencionado, a dimensão religiosa como constitutivo essencial do ser humano. O cenário que faz fundo a este estudo é a modernidade, o homem situado num contexto moderno. Num primeiro momento, o trabalho aborda as dimensões espiritual e corporal da pessoa, apontando para uma integração entre elas, principalmente dentro do contexto bíblico cristão. O estudo aprofunda a temática da pessoa humana, inserindo a mesma no contexto do relacionamento social, mostrando a tensão entre indivíduo e sociedade - abertura e fechamento. Num segundo momento, o estudo pontua a liberdade como constitutivo indispensável do ser humano e da subjetividade verdadeira. É na experiência da liberdade que se pode falar do homem como consciência. A liberdade, bem como a transcendência, são pressupostos para a dimensão religiosa do homem e, a transcendência não só exprime o movimento do homem na sua vida como espírito, mas também, constitui o movimento da história, isso principalmente dentro da visão cristã de homem e de história. O estudo mostra o homem como abertura para Deus e a fundamentação teológica para esta argumentação. Aqui se trabalha a temática da imagem e semelhança com Deus no pensamento de Pannenberg e a relação dessa imago Dei com o mundo. A pesquisa faz a abordagem da validade da dimensão religiosa e a idéia de confiança e abertura no contexto da religião; para daí situar a pessoa como identidade religiosa. Por fim, o estudo chega à sua fundamentação em Jesus Cristo. É Jesus o protótipo de pessoa humana; ele é o fundamento de nossa liberdade, o destino para onde a mesma caminha. Jesus é o que reconcilia o homem com Deus e consigo mesmo. Nele o homem encontra a sua plenitude como esperança escatológica. / [en] The aim of this paper is a reading into Pannenberg`s theological anthropology, by systematizing the theme and demonstrating, through the aforesaid author, that the religious dimension is an essential constitutive of the human being. The background of the paper is modernity - man situated in a modern context. In a first moment, the study discusses the person´s spiritual and corporeal dimensions, pointing out their mutual integration, specifically in Christian biblical context. The essay inquires into the theme of the human being, embedding it in the context of social relations, showing the tension existing between the individual and society - openness and seclusion. In a second moment, the study points out freedom as an indispensable constitutive of the human and of true subjectivity. It is in the experience of freedom that it is possible to speak about man as conscience. Freedom as well as transcendence are presuppositions for man`s religious dimension; transcendence expresses man´s movement in his life as a spirit; it also constitutes the movement of history, especially in the Christian vision of man and history. This paper shows man as openness to God, and evinces the theological basis for such argumentation. This is where the study develops the theme of man as image and likeness of God in Pannenberg´s thought, and the relation between this imago Dei and the world. At this point, the paper faces the question about validity of the religious dimension, and the idea of trust and openness in religious context, so as to situate the person as a religious identity. Finally the study reaches its foundation on Jesus Christ. Jesus is the prototype of the human; he is the foundation of our freedom and its goal. Jesus is the one who reconciles man with God and with himself; in Jesus, man finds his plenitude as eschatological hope.