973
Pregledni znanstveni članek/Article (1.02)
Bogoslovni vestnik/Theological Quarterly 83 (2023) 4, 973—984
Besedilo prejeto/Received:09/2023; sprejeto/Accepted:11/2023
UDK/UDC: 14:2-187
DOI: 10.34291/BV2023/04/Platovnjak
© 2023 Platovnjak et al., CC BY 4.0
Ivan Platovnjak and Tone Svetelj
Technology as the Elixir of Immortality –  
Resurgent Philosophical and Spiritual Enigma  
of Human Imprisonment
Tehnologija kot eliksir nesmrtnosti − Obujena  
filozofska in duhovna uganka človeškega zapora
Abstract: Human life has always been understood as an inner tension between the 
mortality of the human body and the desire of the soul to attain immortality. The 
tension between mortality and immortality has reached new dimensions with 
the developments in medicine, technology and artificial intelligence that have 
the potential to extend our lives in many ways. In this paper, the authors first 
present a philosophical consideration of the body, which has often been seen as 
the prison of the soul, and then the modern quest for immortality. In the fourth 
chapter, they present the good news of Christianity, which is, among other thin-
gs, that the body enables human beings to live their life in integral relationships 
and fulfil their vocations, and then the Christian understanding of immortality. 
They conclude by pointing to the new questions raised by the immense invest -
ment in the development of technology, especially artificial intelligence, which 
deep down is an expression of man’s desire for immortal life. At the same time, 
they point out that man can overcome his fear of death and discern multiple ways 
to avoid it if he is willing to accept death as an integral part of his life.
Keywords: Hannah Arendt, immortality, eternity, Plato, Soma-Sema, the good news 
of Christianity, an integrated view of man  
Povzetek: Človeško življenje je že od nekdaj razumljeno kot notranja napetost med 
smrtnostjo človeškega telesa in željo duše po nesmrtnosti. Ta napetost je z never -
jetnim razvojem medicine, tehnologije in umetne inteligence, ki lahko naše življenje 
podaljšajo na številne načine, dosegla nove razsežnosti. V pričujoči razpravi avtor -
ja najprej predstavita filozofski pogled na telo, ki je bilo pogosto razumljeno kot ječa 
duše, nato pa sodobno iskanje nesmrtnosti. V tretjem poglavju predstavljata vese-
lo oznanilo krščanstva, ki je med drugim tudi v tem, da telo človeku omogoča žive-
ti celostne odnose in uresničiti njegovo poklicanost, nato pa razmišljata še o krščan-
skem razumevanju nesmrtnosti. V sklepu odpirata nova vprašanja, ki se zastavljajo 
ob neizmerno velikem vlaganju v razvoj tehnologije, zlasti umetne inteligence, ki je 
v globini izraz človekove želje po nesmrtnem življenju. Hkrati nakazujeta, da se člo-

974 Bogoslovni vestnik 83 (2023) • 4
vek strahu pred smrtjo in iskanja najrazličnejših načinov, kako bi se je izognil, lahko 
reši, ko jo je pripravljen sprejeti kot sestavni del svojega življenja.
Ključne besede: Hannah Arendt, nesmrtnost, večnost, Platon, Soma-Sema, vesela 
vest krščanstva, celostni pogled na človeka
1. Introduction
From the beginning, mankind has been concerned with the question of how to 
understand and master life; how to master nature outside man and one’s own life, 
for example, in search of the elixir of eternal youth and life (Pevec Rozman 2021, 
835).
1
 To be human, which implies that one will die, is not the most comforting 
thought. No surprise that humans, perceiving their lives as imprisonment in the 
human body, want to escape toward the celestial realms of never-ending existence. 
Modern medicine and technological advancement are partially successful in 
pushing back the human expiration date; however, they cannot grant immortal-
ity. The human body might be able to live between 120 and 150 years after which 
researchers anticipate a complete loss of the body’s resilience (Pester 2021). To 
live beyond this limit, we would have to find new ways to stop the body from ag-
ing. Nanotechnology, with the invention of nano-small machines, could repair 
damaged cells and cure certain diseases in our bodies. Virtual immortality could 
be reached by scanning our brains and transferring ourselves to a non-biological, 
computer-like, device; however, we would still not be able to save our personal-
ity. Another solution presents an ongoing replacement of our organs and cells, 
even though this process does not guarantee the preservation of our memory. 
No doubt, modern science can postpone our bodies’ expiration date. Whether 
this is the elixir of human immortality remains an unanswered question.
The struggle to live and save the human body reaches new dimensions with 
artificial intelligence, which can complement and replace the unique feature of 
human nature: the human capacity to think and make decisions, i.e., human free-
dom. This might only increase the uncomfortable human feeling of being impri-
soned in the body, and at the same time, strengthen the desire to become im-
mortal. Christian and non-Christian thinkers are called to redefine the anthropo-
logical question about the essence of human existence. 
2. The Body as the Prison of the Soul
The short play on the Greek words σῶμα - σῆμα (soma – sema), usually translated 
as body – tomb, exposes the archaic notion that “the body is the prison of the soul”. 
This notion seems to be older than Plato and Pythagoras, who use it frequently in 
1 
This paper was written as a result of work within the research program “Religion, ethics, education, and  
challenges of modern society” (P6-0269) which was co-funded by the Slovenian Research Agency.

975
their writings. The soma-sema notion belongs to the Orphic mystery cults of ancient 
Greece. At the same time, it represents the fundamental teaching in much older 
Egyptian Pharaonic mysticism, in which Plato and Pythagoras were initiated. Either 
way, the recurring challenge is the question of how to understand human existence 
in its dual nature: body on one side, and on the other, a divine spark or soul, calling 
for purification leading to the final reward, i.e., never-ending existence with gods. 
The true meaning of the soma-sema connotation escapes the scientific or naturalist-
-literalist mentality, unable to see the allegory and parable encoded in the mysteries 
(Irigaray 2017, 1). The only way to understand it is with the help of spiritual allegory 
and parable, which are the very instruments of teaching of the mystics.     
The notion that “the body is the prison of the soul” is frequently found in Plato’s 
writings, which indicates its stunning importance. In his Apology, which took place 
in 399 BC, Plato delivers Socrates’ trial at the court. After being condemned to de-
ath, Socrates, without any doubt, fear, or hesitation, talks about his death as a 
blessing and advantage, allowing the human soul to be relieved from its bodily 
existence and enjoy the company of wise men and women (Plato 2002, 43−44). In 
Phaedo, Plato goes so far as he writes, “those who practice philosophy in the right 
way are in training for dying” (104). In his famous Allegory of the Cave, Plato illu-
strates the life of prisoners in the cave, unable to move around and contemplating 
the shadows of material reality. Once free of the shackles, one’s spiritual journey 
of new discoveries begins. The true reality cannot be perceived through sense per -
ception; the real world is much different from the shadow world of the prison; the 
outer world is greater than the one in the cave (1992, 186–190). At the end of this 
allegory, Plato emphasizes the importance of education, which should not be 
exchanged for “putting knowledge into souls that lack it”; true education is about 
“turning the whole soul until it is able to study that which is and the brightest thing 
that is, namely, the one we call the good” (190). It should not be any surprise that 
the education of future warriors and philosophers takes so many years, including 
some years of physical/bodily training (80–88).
With these and similar passages, Plato continuously invites his students to the 
perception of things hidden from plain sight and existent beyond sensual perception, 
where the intellect gets lost in the spheres of opinion by contemplating only the il-
lusion of multiplicity (Irigaray 2017, 4). Plato’s invitation to come out of the cave is 
an invitation to embrace the mystical practice of contemplation of the sight of cosmic 
principles, known as Forms or Ideas. They govern all things from a sphere of reality 
that can only be intellectually grasped as long as there is a true love of wisdom, i.e., 
philo-sophia. To explore the world of Ideas, one must transcend the boundaries of 
his body, which are not the boundaries of his soul (Čović and Marinčić 2016, 478). 
It would be erroneous to conclude that Plato did not appreciate his material 
body. As an Athenian, Plato liked the balance of a beautiful body, physical exercises 
in a gym, or glistening oils on his strong body. On multiple occasions, Plato discus-
ses the body’s beauty, health, and light, not to mention the care of the body. In 
addition, Socrates often philosophes in gymnasiums, i.e., in the center of holistic 
training where body, mind, and soul are exercised together (Pappas 2023). History 

976 Bogoslovni vestnik 83 (2023) • 4
records that Plato practiced wrestling with Ariston the Argive, and became good 
enough for the Isthmian Games, an international wrestling tournament equivalent 
to the Olympics (Laertius 2020, 135). 
The key to a proper comprehension of Socrates as the main actor of Plato’s re-
flection is having an appropriate relationship with one’s body. Plato is clear in his 
Republic that the boundaries of one’s body are not the boundaries of one’s soul. In 
his dialogue Phaedo, Plato describes the last hours of Socrates, who encourages his 
students to sense how the transcendence they have glimpsed with him in embodi-
ed life is a foretaste of the vision to come. Consequently, death might be good be -
cause it brings embodied life’s fulfilment, not the end (Plato 2002, 118–119). 
Referring to these and other similar passages from Plato’s opus, the question 
arises of what the possible interpretation of the soma-sema notion might be, wi-
thout finishing with an uncritical interpretation of Plato’s dualism in terms of the 
separation of the human soul and body. Consequently, the human body literally 
becomes the prison for the soul, desperately waiting to be relieved from its bodily 
confinement. Such interpretations might be due to ignorance of the Egyptian and 
Orphic mysteries familiar to Plato, or his idea of the soul’s immortality and the soul’s 
ongoing return to the material bodies (1992, 285−292). In his interpretations of the 
soul’s immortality and its return to material reality, Plato refers to the religious and 
mystic components, implicitly confessing that here we are dealing with something 
that the human mind struggles to grasp adequately. 
Analogically speaking, the integration of the human body with all its boundari-
es of material existence presents an enigmatic challenge to the father of moder-
nity, René Descartes (1596–1650). In his Meditations on First Philosophy, he reflec-
ts on the essence of human nature and concludes that nothing else belongs to his 
human essence except that he is a thinking thing. Even though the human essence 
is very closely joined with its material body as an extended thing, Descartes does 
not pay much attention to his body. What matters is his mind, understood as a 
thinking thing distinct from his body to the point that it can exist without his body 
(Descartes 1993, 51). The phenomenon and development of so-called Cartesian 
dualism, overemphasizing the importance of the human mind over its embodiment 
in its material reality, can be taken as an escape from the human body, which will 
inevitably mark the development of the Western thought of the recent centuries. 
Cartesian dualism can be taken as a distant reflection of Plato’s soma-sema notion, 
i.e., a struggle to integrate the human body’s existence adequately.  When trapped 
only in the this-sidedness of human existence, the human mind continues to look 
for solutions through prolonging the time of bodily existence. 
3. New Search of Immortality 
With technological advancement, providing new options for a prolonged existen-
ce of the human body, the soma-sema notions in terms of “the body as a prison 

977
of the soul” reaches new dimensions. The Internet and other ways of commu-
nication are loaded with pseudo-philosophical reflections with neat formulas on 
how to understand the life-giving feelings of our human existence properly but 
fail to grasp the essence of human life as such, especially the bodily boundaries 
of human existence. If Descartes overemphasized the importance of the human 
mind and struggled to properly integrate the existence of his body, with the deve-
lopment of artificial intelligence, nowadays we struggle to find an adequate place 
for the human mind. Human essence, described as a thinking device like computer 
software, is apparently losing its importance with the fast development of super-
computers and artificial intelligence, steadily occupying more space and replacing 
humans in decision-making, planning, and ethical thinking (Shevlin et al. 2019).    
The question of how to live in the human body on this earth leads to new chal-
lenges due to the fact that modern technology also enables space exploration. In 
the prologue to her book The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt describes with 
unmitigated feelings the launch in the universe of Sputnik 1 in 1957 as an unpre-
cedented advancement in modern technology. Joy, pride, and awe filled the hearts 
of men who could look up from the earth toward the skies and observe a thing of 
their own power and mastery, even though primarily meant for military purposes. 
At the same time, Arendt described this success also as a relief about the first “step 
toward escape from men’s imprisonment to the earth” (Arendt 2018, 1). The so-
ma-sema notion, with its underlying ideas of imprisonment, reaches new dimen-
sions. What had been previously buried in non-respectable science fiction sudden-
ly became a reality. Paraphrasing Arendt’s reflection, to the Christian narrative 
about the earth as a vale of tears, and philosophical statements about the human 
body’s imprisonment of the human mind and soul, now we can add another one: 
the earth is conceived as a prison for men’s bodies, and finally we can escape from 
it. “Should the emancipation and secularization of the modern age, which began 
with a turning-away, not necessarily from God, but from a god who was the Father 
of men in heaven, end with an even more fateful repudiation of an Earth who was 
the Mother of all living creature under the sky?” (Arendt 2018, 2)
On the same page, Arendt describes the colossal consequences of this step. The 
earth, as such, provides whatever is necessary for man’s breathing without effort 
and without artifice. With great scientific endeavors, man is now able to cut the last 
ties with the earth and survive in an artificial environment. Underneath this effort 
to escape imprisonment on the earth, or in the attempts to alter the size, shape, 
and function of human beings, as well as to produce under the microscope superi-
or human beings, lies “the hope to extend man’s life far beyond the hundred-year 
limit /…/ This future man /…/ seems to be possessed by a rebellion against human 
existence as it has been given, a free gift from nowhere (secularly speaking), which 
he wishes to exchange for something, as it were, he has made himself.” (2–3)
To better clarify this human desire to escape from imprisonment, Arendt recalls 
the distinction between immortality and eternity. “Immortality means endurance 
in time, deathless life on this earth and in this world as it was given.” (18) Refer-
ring to the Greek understanding of the universe, in the world of deathless and 

978 Bogoslovni vestnik 83 (2023) • 4
ageless gods’ lives are placed men, the only mortals in an immortal, but a not 
eternal, universe. Consequently, people are continuously confronted with the 
immortal lives of their gods. The Greek gods have the same nature and shape as 
men; however, the gods are immortal, which is not the case for men. Embedded 
in a cosmos of immortal nature and gods, mortality became the hallmark of hu-
man existence. It should not be a surprise that an individual man wants to find a 
way out of their mortality and find their own place in the cosmos where everything 
but they are immortal. “The task and potential greatness of mortals lie in their 
ability to produce things – works and deeds and words – which would deserve to 
be and, at least to a degree, are at home in everlastingness.” (19) By leaving be-
hind non-perishable traces, men hope to attain immortality of their own and pro-
ve themselves to be of a “divine” nature. This privilege deserves only the best, 
superior, and noble (άριστοs) who constantly prove themselves to be the best 
(ἀριστεύειν) by preferring immortal fame to mortal things. 
In this context of an ongoing effort to gain immortality, Arendt places Socrates’ 
taking a step further and beyond immortality (20–21). As a great thinker, Socrates 
never wrote down his thoughts, which would be a sign of concern to leave some 
traces of his thoughts. Unconcerned with immortality, he strives for eternity. The 
nature of eternity, as such, remains rather enigmatic because of the human lack 
of a possible experience. Plato describes it as ἄρητον, which means unspeakable, 
not to be uttered because it is too sacred. Aristotle describes it as ἄνευ λόγου, i.e. 
without words. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes it as the realm beyond 
human concerns and outside the plurality of men. The philosopher leaves the 
cave by himself, neither accompanied nor followed by others. He literally dies to 
his existence among men. Arendt describes this experience of the eternal as a 
contradiction to what is immortal; the eternal has no correspondence with this 
world and cannot be transformed into any activity whatsoever. The same activity 
of thinking about it is inadequate; every attempt to grasp it results as inadequate. 
What remains is contemplation or theôria, allowing an experience of the eternal. 
4. The Good News of Christianity: The Body Enables Man 
to Live Integral Relationships and to Fulfil His Vocation
The Christian concept of the body is based on the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments. The Yahwistic narratives of man’s creation emphasize that he is the 
Creator’s creation. That he is formed from the earth, adamah (Gen 2:7; 3:19), 
points to his inferiority, transience, helplessness and insignificance. The “breath 
of life” (nephesh)
2
 is breathed into him, revealing his needs and dependencies, 
in a special way his dependence on God.
The priestly texts on the creation of man (Gen 1:26; 5:1; 9:6) speak of his God-
-likeness, which makes him transcend all things, but at the same time he is not 
2 
The term, which denotes the human totality, does not only express physical needs, but also the highest 
form of need – the desire for God (Skralovnik 2022b, 120).

979
God. It is not a likeness such as between parent and child (Gen 5:3). Man is quite 
close to God, but he is not divine. In all his fullness he is called to dwell in com-
munion with God, he is a creature of relationships (Lah 2003, 254–256). 
The Old Testament views man in his total creational dependence on God and 
his absolute orientation towards Him. This dynamic existential relationship with 
God is expressed by the concept of “spirit” (ruach) (Deut 1:2; 3:8; 8:1; Ex 10:13, 
19; Ps 51:12; Ezek 11:19; 36:26). It always sees man in an extremely integrated 
way and is alien to the separation into “body and soul”.
The New Testament also speaks of man as created by God (Mt 5:17), depen-
dent on him (Mt 11:25; Lk 10:21), who cares for him (Mt 6:25-34), because he 
knows that he is weak (Mk 10:27). However, man’s worth is revealed in a particu-
lar way by the incarnation of the Second Person of God, the Son of God. By beco-
ming man and assuming human bodily life, and by rising again with a glorified 
body after his death, he confirmed definitively and for all time the goodness of 
the body and its immeasurable value. 
In spite of the continuity of the New Testament with the Old Testament view 
of man, we can trace a newness and originality in the conception, which lies pre-
cisely in the unique rootedness of the “new man” in Christ and the Holy Spirit 
(Eph 2:4) and in belonging to the “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). The new man is 
defined by sharing in the life and love of God himself through Christ (Col 3:4, 14; 
Phil 1:21; Gal 3:26; Eph 2:19) (Lah 2003, 252; Petkovšek 2022, 600−608).
The Second Vatican Council summarizes a long-standing effort to find a view 
of the human body that is in accord with the biblical view of it: 
“Though made of body and soul, man is one. Through his bodily compo-
sition he gathers to himself the elements of the material world; thus they 
reach their crown through him, and through him raise their voice in free 
praise of the Creator. For this reason man is not allowed to despise his 
bodily life, rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and honorable 
since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. /…/ Thus, when 
he recognizes in himself a spiritual and immortal soul, he is not being moc-
ked by a fantasy born only of physical or social influences, but is rather 
laying hold of the proper truth of the matter.” (Gaudium et Spes 14)
The fundamental message of biblical anthropology, and of the continuing tea-
ching of the Church’s magisterium, is, therefore, that man is a unitary being. The 
“Catechism of the Catholic Church” (§362) sums this up when it says: “The human 
person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual.” 
The body is the expression of man’s spiritual reality, which can only exist and 
express itself in the body, and for this reason there is no body without a soul and 
no soul without a body. This connection between the two is so close that it does 
not cease even with death but continues to exist in some way (Rahner 1958).
Avguštin Lah (2003, 262−265) points out that there has been much recent critici-
sm of the notion of the “soul” as a “spiritual substance” distinct from and indepen-

980 Bogoslovni vestnik 83 (2023) • 4
dent of matter, which, together with the body, constitutes man. In order to go beyond 
this notion, which is rooted in the Greek philosophical tradition, it is necessary, he 
argues, to return to the biblical concept of the spirit, which is that reality of God thro-
ugh which God reveals himself to man and makes him participate in God’s own life.
“In the original biblical conception, then, we are not dealing with catego-
ries of substance, but much more with categories of relationship or inter-
personal encounter and communion of life. In the New Testament this 
relationship is characterized as an incarnation in Christ (1 Cor 6:17), which 
does not concern only one aspect of man, but embraces the whole man; 
the whole human being is ‛lifted up’ into the dimension of the divine. God 
personally calls every man and the whole man, as he is, into communion 
with him through Christ and in the Holy Spirit.” (Lah 2003, 264–265; cf. 
Skralovnik and Matjaž 2020, 505–518)
Because of this personal call of the whole and every human being to a life of 
communion with God, which he creates in earthly life as well as in the life after 
death, it makes sense to speak of the human soul as his “I”. The self becomes “I” 
and receives meaning alongside God, to whom it is oriented with the whole being 
as a unique and divine image.
This integrated conception of man in Christianity makes the body neither a pri-
son nor an obstacle for the soul. It is only through it and in it that man can esta-
blish and live an integral relationship with God, self, others, and creation, and 
realize his vocation in the world and in eternity.
5. Human Immortality in Christianity 
The Bible reveals that man is not immortal in himself, but as an interlocutor with 
God the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Since God established a di-
alogue with man when He gave him life by creation and sustains it by continually 
creating, man can also sustain this life in a continuous dialogue with Him. 
Ratzinger calls this dialogical immortality: “Immortality results not simply from 
the self-evident inability of the indivisible to die but from the saving deed of the 
lover who has the necessary power: man can no longer totally perish because he 
is known and loved by God. All love wants eternity, and God’s love not only wants 
it but effects it and is it.” (Ratzinger 2004, 247)
The biblical thought of the resurrection grew out of the believer’s dialogical 
relationship with God. Faith knew that God would establish justice (Job 19:25-27; 
Ps 73:23-28; Tob 3) (Skralovnik 2022a, 265–291). Faith believed that those who 
suffered for the cause of God would also receive the fulfillment of the promises 
(2 Macc 7:9.14.23.29). Immortality in the biblical sense, therefore, does not de-
rive from man’s own nature, which would be indissoluble of itself, but from his 
being involved in a dialogue with God the Creator (Roszak 2022, 587). Man’s im-

981
mortality does not mean that man does not die, but that he is raised from the 
dead. Ratzinger, therefore, stresses: “Because the Creator intends, not just the 
soul, but the man physically existing in the midst of history and gives him immor-
tality, it must be called ‛awakening of the dead’ ‛of men’.” (Ratzinger 2004, 247)
In man’s dialogical nature, both soul and body are important. The whole man, 
as a unity of body and soul, is oriented to the Other/God and the other/man/cre-
ature. The Christian conception of immortality is decisively rooted in the concep-
tion of God and therefore bears a dialogical nature. Since God is the God of the 
living and calls his creature, man, by name, this being cannot perish (Ratzinger 
1988, 150−156). In the Bible, the most unifying force is love, which is both human 
and divine in nature (Avsenik Nabergoj 2021, 652).
The immortal is not the soul separated from the body, but God’s relationship 
to man in his unity of body and soul. In his analysis of Ratzinger’s interpretation 
of dialogical immortality, Ciril Sorč (2003, 644−645) points to his insight that 
“the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, as formulated by Thomas 
Aquinas, is something quite new in comparison with the ancient concep-
tion of immortality. The specificity of the Christian conception of the soul, 
Ratzinger is convinced, is the vocation to an uninterrupted dialogue with 
eternal truth and love. The soul is not a kind of veiled reality, but a dyna-
mic of infinite openness, which means at the same time a participating in 
the infinite, the eternal.”
The Platonic view of the human body persisted far into scholasticism due to 
the great influence of St. Augustine. Thomas Aquinas rebelled against it. Althou-
gh he accepted Aristotle’s understanding of man, he did not mechanically repeat 
his doctrine (Roszak 2013). St. Thomas argues that the body and the soul are two 
separable existential givens which are at the same time mutually oriented. The 
rational soul is the agent that gives man his form and makes him a living being. 
Without it, the human body cannot exist. Of course, the soul and the body are 
not “two beings”, two separate realities. Man is always fully soul and fully body 
at the same time. It is a “unio substantialis”. Death demolishes the unity of man. 
In this, man’s soul does not succumb to disintegration, but such a life is not natu-
ral for it. It cannot be called a person. For scholastic theologians, death is the se-
paration of body and soul, but for them, this does not mean the liberation of the 
soul. It is the destruction of man’s humanity. The doctrine of the immortality of 
the soul holds, above all, that man exists both in life and in death only when he 
is in relationship with God, his Creator, through Jesus Christ, through whom he 
shares in his resurrection of the flesh (Sorč 2003, 639−640).
6. Conclusion
The immense investment in the development of technology, especially artificial 
intelligence, is deep down an expression of the human desire for immortality. Ar-

982 Bogoslovni vestnik 83 (2023) • 4
tificial intelligence enables ever faster and more complex information processing, 
leading to new discoveries and a different understanding of both human nature and 
the universe as a whole. Even at its current stage of technological development, 
artificial intelligence can think faster and more accurately than humans, including 
decision-making. We may have reached a tectonic shift in the intellectual evolution 
of the human mind. What has been the exclusive domain of man as the heart of 
his nature and the reflection of his freedom is slowly being superseded by artificial 
thinking as the result of the computer processing of embedded data. 
This raises the question of whether we are witnessing a new enigma of human 
entrapment. Ancient thinkers were confronted with the question of how to live in a 
body that should not be a prison for the human spirit. They understood the reason as 
something divine, something that belongs exclusively to man alone and enables him 
to become godlike. The use of artificial intelligence, however, raises the question of 
how to revalorize human reason and thus the very essence of man, without becoming 
subordinate to computers. If the use of artificial intelligence means that man renoun-
ces his privileged place in the universe, it also raises the question of the uniqueness 
and inimitability of the very essence of man, endowed with reason and freedom.
The answer to this question should be primarily theological. If the integration 
of the body has been one of the major challenges of Western Christianity in recent 
centuries, the integration and place of human reason and freedom will be a fun-
damental issue for the present and future generation of Christianity (Vodičar 2019, 
701). What remains unanswered is the question of the meaning of human life, 
embedded in mortality and the desire for immortality.  
Christianity stresses that the whole man, with his body and mind, is oriented 
to God. There is no other fullness for man on earth and in eternity than that whi-
ch, after his earthly death, involves resurrection to eternal life through faith in 
Jesus Christ and remaining in his love (Jn 15). Artificial intelligence cannot replace 
this orientation towards God and a personal relationship with God. Nor can mo-
dern technology discard or replace the communal and communitarian dimension 
of human life (Kraner 2021, 736). But it challenges us to discover in a profound 
way what faith in God alone makes possible - eternal life and the making sense 
of death as an integral part of life and the passage to eternal life.
Modern technology, together with artificial intelligence, wants to achieve man’s 
final liberation of the soul (mind) from the body and attain technological immortality, 
which is the timelessness of artificial superintelligence. This raises questions, which 
Branko Klun (2019, 593) also points out: “Would life without death be authentic 
life? /…/ Would such a life really be ‛better’ than one in which, because of the fina-
lity (and death) accompanying every decision and experience, life takes on a pecu-
liar intensity and finality? One might reasonably ask whether death might not be 
preferable to technological immortality, where the mind would be uploaded onto 
a computer and could not die - after no information had completely disappeared.”
As we saw in chapter 5, Christianity does not understand man’s immortality 
and eternal life without his bodily death. Man can therefore be freed from the 

983
fear of death and the search for all possible ways to avoid it if he is prepared to 
accept death as an integral part of his life. This means that he is willing to accept 
that death, the timing of which he will not determine, will be the natural end of 
his life, for which he did not determine the time and place when it was given to 
him. Of course, man will never be able to accept death as something purely na-
tural or as a gift, because it means a separation from a healthy and genuine atta-
chment to the beautiful, the good and the true, especially from the people he has 
loved and with whom he has shared his life. No one can see the meaning of his 
natural death if he does not have the opportunity to gradually say goodbye to his 
earthly life and to loved ones. Research on the accompaniment of dying persons 
confirms that only those who have satisfied their spiritual needs are able to see 
their death in this way (Platovnjak 2022).
So those who are willing to accept their vulnerability as that which helps them 
to become fully human (Globokar 2023, 8−14; Orphanopoulos 2023, 30−32)
3
 and 
death as the natural conclusion of earthly life, this helps them to give meaning to 
life, because they see it as a gift given to them so that through it they themselves 
can become a gift for others. This is also the basic message of the biblical revela-
tion about the creation of man: man originates from God, who is love (1 Jn 4:16), 
and therefore his life has meaning only if he lives it himself and becomes as per-
fect as God his Father (Mt 5:45-48). When a man lives love in all its dimensions, 
he is on the path to immortality, because his story of love, which he lives with the 
help of his body in union with the love of the Triune God (like the branch on the 
vine − Jn 15:1-10) in the midst of this world and time, will continue after his bodily 
death. For God’s love is all-powerful and overcomes even bodily death, as the 
Good News of Jesus’ resurrection proclaims to us.
Abbreviation
 GS – Second Vatican Council 1965 [Gaudium et Spes].
References
3 
Even from the point of view of Hartmut Rosa’s seminal theory of resonance, we can say that a person 
can achieve full humanity only through involvement in resonant relationships, which implies a person’s 
readiness for their own vulnerability (Žalec 2021a, 831). Corresponding to this is the fact that a person’s 
genuine resilience implies their vulnerability, as it implies their being in resonance and their maturity. 
The latter, just like resonance, implies a person’s vulnerability (2021b, 142).
Arendt, Hannah. 2018. The Human Condition. 
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 
Avsenik Nabergoj, Irena. 2021. The Semantics of 
Love in the Song of Songs and Directions of Its 
Interpretation. Bogoslovni vestnik 81, no. 
3:641–653. https://doi.org/10.34291/
bv2021/03/avsenik
Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1997. Ukrainian 
Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg. http://
archeparchy.ca/wcm-docs/docs/catechism-of-
-the-catholic-church.pdf (accessed 20. 7. 2023).
Čović, Berislav, and Mile Marinčić. 2016. Social 
Responsibility for Healthy Society in the Con-
text of Küng’s Weltethos Project. Filozofska 

984 Bogoslovni vestnik 83 (2023) • 4
istraživanja 36, no. 3:473−491. https://doi.
org/10.21464/fi36305
Descartes, René. 1993. Meditations on First Philo-
sophy. Trans. by D. A. Cress. Indianapolis: 
Hackett Publishing Company. 
Globokar, Roman. 2022. The Vulnerability of the 
Human Being, Society, Nature, and God. Bogo-
slovni vestnik 82, no. 1:7−14. 
Irigaray, Christian. 2017. Soma Sema: The Body as a 
Prison for the Soul. Academia. https://www.acade-
mia.edu/33117741/Soma_Sema_The_Body_as_a_
Prison_for_the_Soul (accessed 10. 4. 2023).
Kraner, David. 2021. Intolerance in the media and 
representations of the Catholic Church. Crkva 
u svijetu 56, no. 4:731−766. https://doi.
org/10.34075/cs.56.4.8
Klun, Branko. 2019. Transhumanism and Human 
Transcendence. Bogoslovni vestnik 79, no. 
3:589−600.
Laertius, Diogenes. 2020. Lives of the Eminent 
Philosophers. Trans. by P. Mensh. Oxford: 
University Press. 
Lah, Avguštin. 2003. Teološka antropologija. V: 
Ciril Sorč, Bogdan Dolenc, Avguštin Lah, Anton 
Štrukelj, Marjan Turnšek, eds. Priročnik dogma-
tične teologije, 205−362. Ljubljana: Družina. 
Orphanopoulos, Carolina Montero. 2023. Vulne-
rability, Ecclesial Abuse, and Vulnerable Adults. 
Journal of Moral Theology 3, no. 3:26−39.
Pappas, Tom. 2023. Plato’s Academy: Leader’s 
Exercising their Body and Soul. The Leader’s 
Workout. https://theleadersworkout.com/
platos-academy-leaders-exercising-their-body-
-and-soul/ (accessed 10. 7. 2023). 
Second Vatican Council. 1965. Gaudium et Spes. 
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the 
Modern World. Vatican. 7. 12. https://www.
vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_
council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_ga-
udium-et-spes_en.html (accessed 20. 7. 2023).
Pester, Patrick. 2021. Will Humans Ever be Immor-
tal? Live Science. 29. 9. https://www.livescien-
ce.com/could-humans-be-immortal (accessed 
14. 4. 2023). 
Pevec Roman, Mateja. 2021. Upanje za naravo in 
človeštvo: nekateri etični premisleki. Bogoslov-
ni vestnik 81, no. 4:835–848. 
Plato. 1992. Republic. Trans. by G.M.A Grube. 
Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 
− − −. 2002. Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, 
Crito. Meno, Phaedo. Trans. by G. M. M. Grube. 
Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 
Platovnjak, Ivan. 2022. Meeting the spiritual 
needs of a dying person. Nova prisutnost 20, 
no. 1:57−72. https://doi.org/10.31192/
np.20.1.4
Rahner, Karl. 1958. Zur Theologie des Todes. 
Freiburg: Herder.
Ratzinger, Joseph. 1988. Eschatology; death and 
eternal life. Washington, D.C.: Catholic Univer-
sity of America Press.
 − − −. 2004. Introduction to Christianity. San Fran-
cisco: Ignatius Press. 
Petkovšek, Robert. 2022. Spreobrnjenje želje v 
luči mimetične teorije. Bogoslovni vestnik 82, 
no. 3:587−610. https://doi.org/10.34291/
bv2022/03/petkovsek
Roszak, Piotr. 2013. Between Dialectics and Me-
taphor: Dynamics of Exegetical Practice of 
Thomas Aquinas. Angelicum 90, no. 3:507−534.
− − −. 2022. ¿Nueva creación – “ex vetere” or “ex 
nihilo”? El sentido de la vida terrena y la nueva 
creación según santo Tomás de Aquino. Scripta 
Theologica 54, no. 3:585−606. https://doi.
org/10.15581/006.54.3.585-606
Skralovnik, Samo. 2022a. Tobit’s Penitential Pra-
yer. Edinost in dialog 77, no. 2:265–291. 
https://doi.org/10.34291/edinost/77/02/
skralovnik
 − − −. 2022b. The meaning and interpretation of 
desire in the Bible: the semantic study of hmd 
and ‘wh word fields. Lanham: Lexington books.
Skralovnik, Samo, and Maksimilijan Matjaž. 
2020. The Old Testament Background of “Desi-
re” in 1Cor 10,61. Bogoslovni vestnik 80, no. 
3:505–518. https://doi.org/10.34291/
bv2020/03/skralovnik
Shevlin, Henry, Karina Vold, Matthew Crosby and 
Marta Halina. 2019. The limits of machine 
intelligence. Embo Reports 20:e49177. https://
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/
embr.201949177 (accessed 15. 4. 2023).
Sorč, Ciril. 2003. Dovršitev sveta in človeka. In: 
Ciril Sorč, Bogdan Dolenc, Avguštin Lah, Anton 
Štrukelj and Marjan Turnšek, eds. Priročnik 
dogmatične teologije, 543−690. Ljubljana: 
Družina.
Vodičar, Janez. 2019. Transhumanizem in katoliška 
vzgoja. Bogoslovni vestnik 79, no. 3:693−704. 
https://doi.org/10.34291/bv2019/03/vodicar
Žalec, Bojan. 2021a. Bivanjsko upanje, smisel in 
resonance. Bogoslovni vestnik 81, no. 
4:825−834. https://doi.org/10.34291/
bv2021/04/zalec
− − −. 2021b. Resonance as an integral part of 
human resilience. XLinguae 14, no. 3:139−150.