Postdigital Theologies

Maggi Savin-Baden is Professor of Higher Education Research at the University of Worcester, UK. She has researched and evaluated staff and student experience of learning for over 20 years and gained funding in this area (Leverhulme Trust, JISC, Higher Education Academy, MoD). Maggi has a strong publication record of over 60 research publications and 21 books which reflect her research interests on the impact of innovative learning, digital fluency, cyber-influence, pedagogical agents, qualitative research methods, and problem-based learning. In her spare time, she runs, bakes, climbs, does triathlons and has recently taken up wild swimming. John Reader has degrees from Oxford (MA), Manchester (MPhil), and Wales, Bangor (PhD). A retired parish priest of over 40 years in ministry he is also a Senior Research Fellow of the William Temple Foundation; Honorary Senior Lecturer for the School of Education, University of Worcester, and Senior Tutor for the Christian Rural and Environmental Studies course based at Ripon College Cuddesdon. He has published 6 solo books and co-authored a further 6, plus 6 William Temple Foundation Tracts and various chapters and articles. His role with the William Temple Foundation includes curating the Ethical Futures Network which has met at Trinity College, Oxford. John’s recent publications include A Philosophy of Christian Materialism (with Baker and James) and Theology and New Materialism.

• Part 1 Postdigital theologies.- Chapter 1  Introduction - Maggi Savin-Baden and John Reader.- Chapter 2 Landscapes of Postdigital Theologies.- Chapter 3 Interview with Catherine Keller – Petar Jandric.- Chapter 4 Community and communion in a postdigital world – Andrew Braddock.- Chapter 5 The Generative and Explanatory Potential of the Bible within Postdigital Discourse - Rebecca Dean.- Part 2 Postdigital conundrums.- Chapter 6 Divine Becoming in the Postdigital  - John Reader.- Chapter 7  Unlikely Allies? Transhuman Dignity and Catholic Theology on Flourishing.- Alcibiades.- Chapter 8 Provoked by the Divine: The Event of the Postdigital Sublime  – Eric Trozzo.- Chapter 9 Queering Postdigital Presence: Digital Afterlife as a Technology of Queer Continuity and Transformation – Jack Slater.- Chapter 10 Untitled Steve Fuller .- Part 3 Language, machines and theologies.- Chapter 11 Postdigital Humans: Technology and Divine Design - Douglas Estes.- Chapter 12 Machine Learning and Spiritual Wisdom for Contemporary Urban Environments.- - Paul Woods.- Chapter 13 Postdigital Theologies: A closer inspection of the way language is employed in digital discourses. – Simon Cross.- Chapter 14 Sacramental Engines: Charles Babbage and the Elements of Postdigital Theology- Ryan Haecker .- Part 4 The impact of the digital.- Chapter 15 When the Church Embraced a Posthuman Future: How Pastoral Negotiations with Technology During the Covid-19 Pandemic Resulted in an Implicit Acceptance of Posthumanism - Heidi Campbell.- Chapter 16 God Made Better: How the Quest for Human-Level AI Reshapes Postdigital Divinity - Agana-Nsiire Agana.- Chapter 17- Curiosity as a spirit of religious transcendence in the postdigital and post-trans-humanism era – Paulo Quadros.

“Postdigital Theologies: Technology, Belief, and Practice … is a thought-provoking resource that enables readers to grasp the key contours of the emerging discipline of postdigital theology and raises pertinent questions that will help to shape future discussion. … it is a commendable and highly valuable resource that should form part of the required reading for further work in this field.” (Rebecca Dean, Postdigital Science and Education, Vol. 5 (3), 2023)