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We live in a world marked by crises of various kinds, but perhaps most deeply and fundamentally by a crisis as to the nature of our humanity. What does it mean to be human? 

For example, are human beings essentially minds, trapped temporarily and regrettably in physical bodies? Certainly many artificial intelligence enthusiasts see the world in precisely this way. Marvin Minsky, for example, believes that the mind is all that is really important about life, over against that bloody mess of organic matter that is the body. Out of this conviction arises another: that mind machines represent the next step in human evolution. We ourselves, in our godlike state, ought to create this new species—Machina sapiens instead of Homo sapiens—passing the torch of life and intelligence on to the computer (Rudy Rucker). Our ultimate goal is the conversion of “the entire universe into an extended thinking entity . . . an eternity of pure cerebration” (Hans Moravec). 

From this single example we gather what should already be obvious to us in any case: that our governing ideas about human nature inevitably have significant consequences. They matter individually, affecting how I look at myself, what I agree to do to myself or have done to me, and the goals I set for myself. They also matter communally, affecting how I look at and treat other people, and what kind of society I am trying to help build. In fact, the answer to this question about humanness affects everything else that matters in life. And this means that arriving at good rather than bad answers to the question is a high-stakes game. It means that arriving at the truth of the matter is crucially important. Is it really true, for example, that we are essentially minds that happen to possess bodies that we may or may not consider satisfactory? If we can manage it, should the physical body be discarded like a piece of clothing in pursuit of something more glorious, with the help of technology?  

Read: AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan for deeper insights into the world of AI, the good and not-so-good implications, the true and false claims of what it can offer.

It is into the very centre of this kind of contemporary discourse that Gordon Carkner has inserted this new book Towards an Incarnational Spiritual Culture, with a view to encouraging readers to ground their identity in Christ, rather than somewhere else. He invites us to consider the great difference between incarnational spiritual culture, on the one hand, and both ancient and modern anti-material Gnosticisms, on the other—rejecting the latter in favor of the former. He explores the incarnation of Christ as the center point of history, giving dignity to embodied persons everywhere, and enabling us to rethink human wisdom and knowledge. He pursues the implications of this incarnation for human community and communion, contrasting the contemporary will-to-uniqueness that tears us apart to the will-to-community that reintegrates us. And he discusses, finally, the transformative nature of divine goodness, and its necessity for healthy human freedom. 

We need all the help we can get in remaining human in these markedly inhumane times. This volume draws on deep and varied resources in offering such help, and I know that many people will benefit from reading it. 

~Dr. Iain Provan Founder of the Cuckoos Consultancy; Author of Cuckoos in Our Nest: Truth and Lies about Being Human.

See also: Miraslov Volf et al, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, Open Field, 2023.

Plus Radically Rethinking Identity on YouTube by Gordon E. Carkner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u74STiS7Yfc

Dr. Thomas Fuchs, a psychiatric expert from Germany, gave an excellent lecture on September 25 at Green College, UBC on the contrast between a disembodied, narcissistic, post-humanist AI Utopian Self of the Singularity, and the concept of Humanistic Embodiment of Merleau-Ponty (conviviality, inter-corporeality, ecological and personal connectedness). It was entitled: “What is to Become of the Human Being?: A Plea for the Embodied Personhood.” ~sponsored by the Houston Centre for Humanity and the Common Good.