Possibility of Self-Salvation? Crisis of Christian Soteriology in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanist Project

Abstract

The article examines the contemporary soteriological crisis in light of artificial intelligence (AI) and transhumanism, and outlines a theological framework of response. It contrasts Christian salvation—anchored in grace and in the transformation of suffering—with projects of technological self-salvation that seek to neutralize vulnerability through anti-aging strategies, mind transfer (hereafter, uploading), and aspirations to bodily invulnerability. Such proposals reconfigure the anthropological imaginary and raise decisive questions about human identity and destiny, impelling theology to revisit its language and categories. The study maintains that alleviating pain and optimizing life are valuable achievements, yet they can lead to a technical-functional reduction of the person that neglects relational, communal, and spiritual depth. Within this horizon, an updated soteriology is proposed that preserves the centrality of redemption while engaging critically with the contributions of science and technology, discerning their limits and possibilities. In this way, salvation is rethought not as technological self-sufficiency but as openness to transcendence, which orients the ultimate meaning of existence, without renouncing the penultimate goods that technology may offer in the service of care and justice.