Jens Zimmermann is Associate Professor of German and English at Trinity Western University and has been awarded a five-year Canadian Council Research Chair in Interpretation, Religion, and Culture, beginning in the fall of 2006. He has published works across several disciplines, including Recovering Theological Hermeneutics: an Incarnational-Trinitarian Theory of Interpretation and, with Dr. Norman Klassen, The Passionate Intellect: Incarnational humanism and the future of university education.
Who am I? Personhood, Consciousness, and Transhumanist Visions
Speaker(s): Jens Jens Zimmermann, Edward Slingerland
Date: Fall 2018
Length: 1h34m
Product ID: RGDL4802BH
Purchase Options:
MP3 Download - $5.00 |
Description
This is a Interface Lecture Series talk given during the fall of 2018.
Human consciousness is increasingly understood in technological terms. The Transhumanist vision of uploading consciousness into a computer matrix and then eventually downloading one's personality onto synthetic bodies is only the extreme edge of a popular perception. In this lecture, Professor Jens Zimmermann argues that modern culture embraces a reductive model of human identity and perception based on an already defunct scientific epistemology. Since who we think we are is deeply connected to the how we think we know and perceive reality, this lecture, with the help of theology and personalist philosophy, offers a more robust model of consciousness that grounds personhood and therefore also human dignity.
The lecture was followed by response from Dr. Edward Slingerland.
Interface offers lectures, articles and other resources that probe and preserve the relationship between theology and science,working toward healing the breach between these disciplines as they have taken shape in our late modern age.
The John Templeton Foundation
Interface has been made possible through the John Templeton Foundation. The Foundation aims to advance human well-being by supporting research on the Big Questions, and by promoting character development, individual freedom, and free markets. The Foundation takes its vision from its founding benefactor, the late Sir John Templeton, who sought to stimulate what he described as 'spiritual progress.'
See All Audio by Jens Jens Zimmermann Edward Slingerland
Dr. Edward Slingerland is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. An internationally renowned expert in Chinese thought, comparative religion, and cognitive science, he has previously held the Canada Research Chair in Chinese Thought and Embodied Cognition. Dr. Slingerland is the author of several academic books and articles, including What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture as well as a translation of the Analects of Confucius. His recent trade book is entitled Trying Not to Try: Ancient China, Modern Science, and the Power of Spontaneity, and his latest academic monograph, Mind and Body in Early China: Getting Beyond Orientalism and the Myth of Holism.
Related Audio
"LIBERTY" HAS BEEN PRECIOUS FOR CANADIANS AND AMERICANS, BUT HAVE THEY MEANT THE SAME THING?
Speaker: Mark Noll
"Lookit the Train!": A Two-Person Drama Solving Some of Life's Theological Challenges
Speaker: Jeff Barker, Karen Barker
(EPL Spring/Summer 2008) The Trinity and the Mission-shaped Church in the 21st Century
Speaker: Ben Homan, Bruce Waltke, Darrell Johnson, … (see details for all)
2012 Evening Public Lectures
Speaker: Craig Gay, Darren Provost, Dave Diewert, … (see details for all)
2013 Evening Public Lectures
Speaker: Alister McGrath, Christopher Hall, David Smith, … (see details for all)
2014 Evening Public Lectures
Speaker: Alan Torrance, Bruce Hindmarsh, David Lyon, … (see details for all)
A Critical Examination of Two Myths That Drive Culture: The Axial Age and Dark Green Religion
Speaker: Iain Provan
A Discussion on Brian McLaren's 'Generous Orthodoxy'
Speaker: Charles Ringma, Darrell Johnson, Stanley Grenz
A Fundamental Repentance: Moses and the Beginnings of Biblical Faith
Speaker: Iain Provan
A Pipeline Through Naboth's Vineyard? Watershed Discipleship in Cascadia
Speaker: Matthew W. Humphrey
A Relentless Revolution of Love: Hospitality as Hopeful Resistance
Speaker: Krish Kandiah
Access, Assistance, Assurance: God's Full Provision for Authentic Prayer
Speaker: Darrell Johnson
Adam's Ancestors: Five Centuries of Christian Thinking About Human Origins
Speaker: David Livingstone
After You Have Done Everything to Stand: Recasting Ageing Within the Pilgrimage of Faith
Speaker: Maxine Hancock
All Things Made New: The Failure of Secular Hope and the Future of God for the World
Speaker: Richard Bauckham, Trevor Hart
American Prophet: The Legacy and Challenge of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Speaker: Iwan Russell-Jones
Ancient-Future, Ekklesial, Emerging, Missional, New Monasticism? Practicing Church Theology
Speaker: Jonathan Wilson
Angels With Broken Wings: What the Disabled Teach Us About Our Common Humanity
Speaker: Bernd Wannenwetsh
Aquinas on Creation and Its Implications for Modern Science-Religion Dialogues
Speaker: Yonghua Ge
Architect of Modern Missions: The Achievement of William Carey
Speaker: David Bebbington
Becoming Like Jesus in His Death: Lessons for Ministry from Shusaku Endo's Silence
Speaker: Philip Ryken
Being a Christian in a Secular Society: Getting Beyond the Culture Wars
Speaker: Gordon Smith
Being in Time: The Interpretive Nature of the Christian Faith
Speaker: Jens Zimmermann
Beyond 'Design': Evolutionary Biology and a Theology of Preservation
Speaker: David Robinson, Loren Wilkinson