title: Developing theological tools for a strategic engagement with Human Enhancement.
abstract: The literature on Human Enhancement may indeed have reached a critical mass yet theological engagement with the subject is still thin. Human Enhancement has already been established as a key topic within research and captivating visions of the future have been allied with a depth of philosophical analysis. Some Transhumanists have pointed to a theological dimension to their position and some who have warned against enhancement might be seen as having done so from a perspective shaped by a Judeo-Christian worldview. Nonetheless, in neither of these cases has theology been central to engagement with the enhancement quest.Christian theologians who have begun to open up such an engagement with Human Enhancement include Brent Waters, Robert Song and Celia Deane-Drummond. The work they have already carried out is insightful and important yet due to the scale of the possible engagement, the wealth of Christian theology which might be applied to Human Enhancement remains largely untapped. This paper explores how three key aspects of Christian theology, eschatology, love of God and love of neighbour, provide valuable tools for a theological engagement with Human Enhancement. It is proposed that such theological tools need to be applied to Human Enhancement if the debate is to be resourced with the Christian theological perspective of what it means to be human in our contemporary technological context and if society is to have the choice of maintaining its Christian foundations.
authors.affiliation: SML Church, Poole, UK.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tomkins
mesh_terms: D024803:Biomedical Enhancement / Q000941:ethics*; D002835:Christianity; D024861:Genetic Enhancement / Q000941:ethics; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D008149:Love; D012070:Religion and Science; D013672:Technology; D028725:Theology
keywords: human enhancement; science and religion; technology; theology; transhumanism