Welcome to the website of the research project Creatures, Humans, Robots: Creation Theology Between Humanism and Posthumanism (CHR), which is based at the Institute for Philosophical Studies, Science and Research Centre of Koper, and Alma Mater Europaea – ECM. The principal investigator of the project is Dr. Gorazd Andrejč (SRC Koper/University of Groningen).
CHR is a multidisciplinary research project which brings together philosophical, historical, religious studies and theological perspectives on the contemporary challenges to humanism, especially the posthumanist challenge. Both secular and religious interpretations play important roles on either side of this debate, the humanist and the posthumanist. An established view today says that Abrahamic religions are heavily invested in humanism, rather than opposed to it: Christianity, Islam and Judaism affirm a kind of dignity of human beings which separates us from the rest of creation, while many varieties of animism, paganism and pantheism present humans as a piece of a larger interconnected community of beings, without ascribing humans a higher or more important status compared to other beings (esp. animals, and sometimes also machines).
The research of this project shows that the relationships of different religious perspectives to humanism, posthumanism and (to lesser extent) transhumanism, are considerably more complex than that. We explore Christian humanism and Christian posthumanism, and their implications for the philosophy and ethics of technology; the posthumanist political theology of Iranian philosopher Reza Nagarestani; the disparities between different contemporary versions of pantheism and the implications of those for the relationships between humans, non-human animals, plants, and machines; the meanings and uses of the idea of human distinctiveness, especially in philosophical and theological anthropology; the ambiguous relationship between contemporary animism, science and technology; the dilemmas that modern technology presents to eco-theology; and more.
Read more about project news, events, our research and publications, about the project members of our international research group, media contributions, and other features of the project on this website.
Contact information of the research group can be found on the project members page.