Whatever Happened to the Soul?

I've been reading an amazing collection of essays by this title. These essays are written by scientists, psychologists, and philosophers who are trying to understand the implications of contemporary science for Christian belief. It prompts me to ask, what is at stake for the Christian when it comes to the belief in a soul that is separable from the body? This view is sometimes called "substance dualism", or the idea that the body and the soul are separate substances, though they may be inexorably interrelated (in other words, this is not Gnostic dualism, or the belief that mind and body do not substantially affect each other).

Right now I agree with Malcolm Jeeves, who writes that it does not lessen the significance of the mind, soul, spirit (or whatever you want to call it) to argue that it is necessarily dependent upon, but not reducible to, the brain. Read these essays and see what you think.

Great life-affirming novels

I'm often asked which novels affirm human existence in the face of posthuman technology. I would only choose those that do so without being sentimental, and this is not an easy task. I cannot think of any right now that deal with posthuman technology as directly as the dystopias do. The novels below describe redemption as something that comes from embracing who we are--not from expecting to become someone else. Marilynne Robinson's book is Gilead. Nicole Mazzarella's book is This Heavy Silence.

Fiction and the Posthuman: recommended readings

An inquiry into fiction's response to posthumanism must begin with Mary Shelley's classic work Frankenstein. A lot of people think they know what this book is about, but if you haven't read it, you don't really know. The best example of enduring dystopic fiction is definitely Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It is remarkably relevant today, especially in the discussion of germline genetic engineering. If you want to read a wide selection of excerpts chosen by the president's council on bioethics (Leon Kass was chairman at the time), read the anthology Being Human. You can find Hawthorne's story "The Birthmark" in this anthology. My favorite contemporary vision of the world that genetic engineering may bring us is Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.

Non-fiction resources

These books are invaluable to anyone interested in learning more about posthumanism. The first, Bill McKibben's Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age is a well-written critique of some of the problem with technofuturism's holy grail goals. Second, I find Albert Borgmann to be indispensible; the book Power Failure is a good read.