Gnosis and the Theocrats from Mars

This book provides a creative and highly imaginative critical theological genealogy of modern secular reason and the nature of modernity more generally. Francesca Murphy offers a critical perspective that shapes the exploration of modernity, driven by Catholic traditions and sources.Murphy's method is unique: she uses artificial intelligence as her framing parable, analyzing the nature and limits of the robotic 'reasoning' of several AI characters (Pistis, Gnosis and Cultus). This enables her to develop several interrelated themes, with further didactic chapters offering a mytho-poetic retelling of human history. Her reflections on the absence of creativity and any meaningful relation to 'time' further renders an acute critique of the limits of technological rationality. The end result is an unusual and compelling exploration of rationality and fundamental theological anthropology.

1. Beneficiaries of the Theocracy2. Unlike Human Beings3. Deus Ex Machina4. A Brief History of Pre-Theocratic Times5. Routine Times6. The Secular Sanctity of Lacordaire7. Soulless Angels and Pirates8. A Trail of Elephants9. An Absence of Volition10. Secularity versus Secularization11. The Trojan Horse: Comedy Regained12. Kidnapped!13. What is Slavery?14. Bodhissatva Henri-Dominique Lacordaire15. Komos: The New PrometheusEnvoiBibliographyIndex