Transhumanist Holy Week: Good Friday
Caleb Jones is a speaker and thinker deeply engaged with the intersection of Mormon theology, transhumanism, and intergenerational connection. His work focuses on the spirit of Elijah, as referenced in Malachi, and its implications for creating faith-based connections across generations, both living and deceased. He advocates for a broader interpretation of this principle, extending it beyond traditional temple work to encompass a reconciliation of ancient wisdom with modernity. ¶ Jones draws upon G.K. Chesterton’s concept of the “democracy of the dead” to frame his exploration of tradition and remembrance. He posits that our ancestors, through their artifacts and influence, continue to participate in the present. He sees the redemption of the dead through these artifacts—books, music, laws, traditions—as a collective human endeavor involving various disciplines such as literary scholarship, archaeology, and religious studies. ¶ His perspective emphasizes the importance of engaging with the past to inform and enrich the future, particularly within the context of Mormonism and its emphasis on family history and genealogical work. Jones champions seeking a healthy balance and ongoing reconciliation of the hearts and minds of the dead and dying with the hearts and minds of the living, to redeem rising generations.
Among the things contemplated this Good Friday are the events of Jesus’ last moments: broken bread, betrayal, suffering, crucifixion, darkness, and burial.
A broken body asks what our technologies will do with suffering.
At the 2017 Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA) conference, Michaelann Bradley spoke about her impressions as she contemplated some of these same topics in light of human history and technology’s role for good and evil in it:
“The communion or sacrament is the moment when Christ breaks bread and shares wine with his apostles shortly before being taken by the Jews. These two symbols—the taking of communion, the dying on the cross—are, arguably, the two greatest, most universal symbols of Christianity. These are the two moments that every sect, every denomination must incorporate into their theology and must return to again and again for insight, for purpose, and for meaning. As Mormon Transhumanists, another iteration in the great, ever-branching story of Christianity, we too must incorporate, wrestle with, and seek to understand these two great symbols.
Furthermore, transhumanism is a story about the methods that we humans use to accomplish our ends, a story about the history of mankind, and what we are pursuing and what we have inherited: a story that looks to our past to predict our future. As Christian transhumanists, surely there must be a lesson to learn from this weird, wonderful, miraculous story of Jesus Christ slain and risen again. Today I want to well you a technological re-interpretation of the end of Jesus’ life: a transhumanist morality tale about the choices humanity made long before Christ came to earth. I want to tell it to you as a story of how these two moments came to be: how the bread came to be and how the crucifixion came to be.”
The rest of her wonderful impressions can be viewed here (video jumps to 2:40 where she makes the statement above).