Christian incarnation in the age of digital disembodiment

Klun, Branko (author)

In an age increasingly shaped by digital mediation, technological abstraction, and reductive conceptions of the human body, this article explores the concept of Christian embodiment as an important counter-narrative. Drawing on biblical anthropology, Jewish thought, and Christian doctrines such as the incarnation and resurrection, it asserts that the body is not merely a technical obstacle or biological fact, but a place of gift, relation, and vocation. it is through the body that human personhood is expressed, love is enacted, and communion with others becomes possible. The article critically engages with contemporary cultural tendencies such as transhumanism, posthumanism, and digital self-optimization, while offering a theological vision in which the fullness of life is realized not through the transcend-ence of the body, but through its transfiguration in love. Rooted in gratitude and relationship, Christian embodiment encourages a renewed ethic of presence in a world increasingly threatened by disembodiment.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Christian antropology, embodiment, digital culture, transhumanism, incarnation, relationality
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: TEOF - Theological Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 18.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 55-74, 332-333, 344
• Numbering: Let. 30, št. 119/120
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177691
• UDC: 128.5:27
• ISSN on article: 1318-8828
• DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2025.513
• COBISS.SI-ID: 262530563
• Publication date in RUL: 31.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Poligrafi : revija za religiologijo, mitologijo in filozofijo
• Shortened title: Poligrafi
• Publisher: Nova revija, Društvo za primerjalno religiologijo, Nova revija, Društvo za primerjalno religiologijo, Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Univerzitetna založba Annales, Društvo za primerjalno religiologijo, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Annales ZRS, Društvo za primerjalno religiologijo
• ISSN: 1318-8828
• COBISS.SI-ID: 59336192

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Krščansko utelešenje v dobi digitalne breztelesnosti

Abstract

V času, ki ga vse bolj zaznamujejo digitalna mediacija, tehnološka abstrakcija in reduktivne koncepcije človeškega telesa, se članek posveča krščanskemu razume-vanju utelešenja, ki je lahko pomembna protiutež tem težnjam. S pomočjo biblič-ne antropologije, judovske misli in krščanskega učenja o učlovečenju in vstajenju članek zagovarja pogled, da telo ni tehnična ovira ali le biološko dejstvo, temveč kraj daru, odnosov in poklicanosti. prek telesa se izraža človekova osebnost, uresni-čuje ljubezen in omogoča občestvo z drugimi. Članek kritično obravnava sodobne kulturne težnje, kot so transhumanizem, posthumanizem in samooptimiziranje, in ponuja teološko vizijo, v kateri se polnost življenja ne uresničuje prek transcendi-ranja telesa, temveč prek njegove preobrazbe v ljubezni. Krščanska utelešenost, ki temelji na hvaležnosti in odnosnosti, vabi k prenovljeni etiki prisotnosti v svetu, ki mu grozi vse večje raztelešenje.

• Keywords: krščanska antropologija, utelešenost, digitalna kultura, transhumanizem, inkarnacija, odnosnost

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0269-2022
• Name: Religija, etika, edukacija in izzivi sodobne družbe

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J6-60105-2025
• Name: Teologija in digitalizacija: antropološki in etični izzivi