Transhumanism and Christian Anthropology in Contemporary Africa

Abstract

Transhumanism, the philosophical and technological movement that seeks to transcend the biological limits of the human condition through science, is increasingly present in African life through artificial intelligence, genetic technologies, and digital medicine, yet it has received little sustained attention from African Christian scholarship. This paper examines the encounter between transhumanist aspirations and Christian anthropology, with particular reference to the contemporary African context. The problem addressed is the philosophical and theological tension generated when technological self-enhancement is pursued alongside a Christian understanding of humanity as a creature dependent upon God for identity, dignity and destiny. The study sets out to examine the central claims of transhumanism, analyse the fundamental assumptions of Christian anthropology, identify areas of convergence and divergence between the two, explore what emerging technologies mean for African Christian understandings of personhood, and propose an appropriate Christian response. Employing a qualitative, philosophical, and theological method that draws on biblical, theological and interdisciplinary literature, the paper argues that Christian anthropology need not reject technology outright but supplies enduring boundaries for evaluating human enhancement, since it locates human worth in the imago Dei rather than in technological self-transcendence. The African context further demands attention to communal personhood, inequality, indigenous conceptions of life and death, and the risk of technological dependency. The paper concludes that African churches and theologians must engage transhumanism critically and constructively rather than ignore it.

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