Call for Papers – Dossier “Transhumanism and the Study of Religion”

REVER, International Journal for the Study of Religion, invites the submission of manuscripts on
“Transhumanism and the Study of Religion.”
(ISSN 1677-1222; indexing details:
http://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/rever)

 

 

Transhumanism, a movement that draws from recent scientific and technological
developments to envision radical changes in human nature, has aroused interest in several
fields, including history, philosophy, theology, social sciences, medical sciences, etc. The
main proponents of this movement present scenarios for the future that challenges self-understanding
of human beings. Academic production around the movement has largely
been dedicated to promoting or criticizing its main tenets. Both these positive and negative
assessments have significant implications for the study of religion and for religions
themselves, since these tenets have a direct impact on the traditional doctrines of great
religions. Such questions have been of interest to theologians and religious agents, but
scholars of religion have paid far less attention to transhumanism as an object of research
(for a good example of what we have in mind, see Abou Farman, “Mind out of Place:
Transhuman Spirituality.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, March 2019, Vol. 87,
No. 1, pp. 57–80. Doi: 10.1093 / jaarel / lfy039. See also works by William Bainbridge and
Robert Geraci).

The purpose of this dossier is to arouse the interest of researchers in the study of religion,
whether in that particular discipline or intersecting fields. The transhumanist movement can
be approached in light of both its proposals for human enhancement and its predictions for
radical transcendence of our biological substrate, for example by AI and robotics. We give
priority to the study of transhumanism as has been advanced in the main scientific and
technological centers in the world (See, e.g., The Transhumanist Reader, by the couple Max
and Natasha Vita-More. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013; Newton Lee, ed. The Transhumanism
Handbook. Cham, CH: Springer, 2019)) and less to post-humanism, in the area of cultural
studies and represented, for example, by Rosi Braidotti and Cary Wolfe. We especially invite
empirical studies of the transhumanist movement, different approaches typical to the area
of the study of religion being accepted, such as the study of secular religions. The
approaches employed must be balanced and detached, without apologetic interests for or
against.

 

Suggested topics include:
• Theological roots of technology;
• technological apocalypticism, millenarianism and messianism;
• religious and transhumanist views of human nature;
• immortality and eternal life;
• transhumanism and major religions;
• transhumanism as a new religious movement;
• transhumanist religions/churches;
• transhumanism in capitalist and consumer society, implications for religiosity;
• transhumanism as a secular / implicit religion;
• transhumanist spirituality.

Languages for manuscripts are Portuguese, English and Spanish. Publication rules are
available at https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/rever/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0
(available in English). Submissions not conforming to these rules will not be accepted.
The deadline for submission is 30 November 2020. The website will be available to receive
online submissions from May 2020 onwards.

For further inquiry, please contact Eduardo R. Cruz, erodcruz@pucsp.br