https://doi.org/10.1177/0014524619884533 The Expository Times 1–14 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0014524619884533 journals.sagepub.com/home/ext Introduction Contemporary Christians are living in the midst of rapidly developing technology such as gene editing via CRISPR-Cas9, designer babies, and anti-aging medical technology. The vast majority of the scientists involved with these technologies and related institutions (e.g., Humanity+, SENS Research Foundation) seem to share the notion that certain biological properties of humans can be and/or should be enhanced or corrected to maximize the human capacity for the prolongation of physical life or * This work was supported by a grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT, no. 2018S1A5A8028918). Re-Enchanting the Human in an Era of Naturalism* Daekyung Jung Faculty, College of Liberal Arts, Myongji University, Seoul, South Korea Abstract Christians today are encountering new technologies such as gene editing via CRISPR-Cas9, designer babies, and anti-aging medical technology. These technical efforts are designed to enhance the physical properties of humans. Should we be vigilant about any aspects of these new technologies? Are we happy with these technologies? No, we are not happy about all of these developments. We need to critically examine some of the philosophical ideas embedded in the development and application of these technologies. This article aims to rebut the mechanical understanding of the human being that is implicitly embedded in the discourse on the technology. The author proposes naturalism as the cause of the emergence of the mechanical understanding of the human being, which has led to the reduction and negation of the nonphysical aspects of human existence. Due to the elimination of the universal and nonphysical reality of the meaning, value, and telos of human existence and the reduction of such realities to physical reality, what is valuable, meaningful, and good has become limited to that which is involved with something physical. In this way, technology has come to be very important, and the act of thinking has been reduced to the act of technical reasoning. Thus, the human being is construed as a purely physical, mathematical, and geometrical being—as a machine. In order to retrieve a holistic understanding of the human, therefore, it is necessary to reject the reduction of the nonphysical to the physical and thereby retrieve the inherent nonphysical aspects of the human being. This effort will help to re-enchant human beings and to provide theological and ethical rationale for preventing imprudent technological development and its application to humans. Keywords Naturalism, Mind-Body Problem, Re-enchantment Corresponding author: Daekyung Jung Email: dk3134@gmail.com 884533EXT 0 0 10.1177/0014524619884533 research-article 2019 Article