Benjamin Parviz

Is Christian hope compatible with transhumanist hope? Can Christians be transhumanists? This essay examines these questions from the perspective of Thomas Aquinas’s descriptions of hope in Summa Theologiae. Section I presents a summary of transhumanism as it is represented by the transhumanist organization Humanity+. Section II summarizes Thomas Aquinas’s concept of hope in the Summa Theologiae and presents a Thomistic account of Christian hope for what humanity will become. Section III draws from Aquinas’s account of hope to construct an account of transhumanist hope. Section IV considers the possibility that Christian hope may be limitedly compatible with transhumanist hope. Section V shows that Christians cannot hope for what transhumanists hope because for what transhumanists hope cannot be considered good for humanity

Michael Lamb’s recent book A Commonwealth of Hope presents an opportunity for bioethicists to engage in critical self-evaluation in order to consider anew why and how to engage difficult bioethical problems and questions with those who maintain diverse moral and metaphysical perspectives. Drawing on an account of the virtue of hope from Augustine of Hippo, Lamb develops a political theory in which hope provides common ground for political cooperation between diverse citizens of a commonwealth. The purpose of this introduction is to sketch out a framework by which to assess and evaluate whether bioethics demonstrates hope. This article provides a summary description of Lamb’s presentation of Augustine’s virtue of hope and his concept of politics. Then it considers implications of Lamb’s politics of hope for bioethics, identifying three features of hopeful bioethics, with which bioethicists can engage in self-reflection and evaluation.