Calvin Mercer, PhD
Calvin Mercer’s 11 authored and edited books and 30 articles are in religion and culture, with an emphasis in the past two decades on the religious and social implications of radical human enhancement technology. His latest co-authored book received the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) “Prize for Books Suitable for a Professional Audience,” an annual award, with cash, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
Religion and the Technological Future: An Introduction to Biohacking, Artificial Intelligence, and Transhumanism (Palgrave Macmillan)
Mercer is co-editor, with UK scholar Steve Fuller, of Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and Its Successors. He was a founding chair of the American Academy of Religion’s “Human Enhancement and Transhumanism Group.” Dr. Mercer is also trained in clinical psychology, practiced professionally part-time for about a decade, and has utilized insights from this discipline in his published work on religion, especially his Slaves to Faith: A Therapist Looks Inside the Fundamentalist Mind
He frequently gives public lectures on religion and human enhancement technology, and his psychological interpretation of fundamentalism. Stepping outside his comfort zone, he recently co-authored the award-winning children’s book, There Ought to be a Law: A Bright Day at the State Capitol.
BOOKS AND EDITED VOLUMES
Transhumanism as a New Religious Movement. Calvin Mercer and Tracy J. Trothen. Series “New Religious Movements,” editor Rebecca Moore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; under contract; forthcoming 2025, pending peer review.
Ethics, Religion, and Spiritual Health: Intersections With Artificial Intelligence or Other Human Enhancement Technologies. Tracy Trothen and Calvin Mercer, Co-editors. Reprint November, 2022 (MDPI Books) in book form of Religions 13(8) (July 2022). https://www.mdpi.com/books/book/6413-ethics-religion-and-spiritual-health-intersections-with-artificial-intelligence-or-other-human
Religion and the Technological Future: An Introduction to Biohacking, Artificial Intelligence, and Transhumanism. Calvin Mercer and Tracy Trothen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030623586
- International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR) “Prize for Books Suitable for a Professional Audience,” an annual award, with cash, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
- Arabic translation by Al Riyada scheduled for 2023
There Ought to Be a Law: A Bright Day at the Capitol. With Activity Book. Portia Bright Pittman and Calvin Mercer. BrightBooks, 2020 (self-published, not peer-reviewed). Reader’s Favorite 5-Star Award. www.brightbooks.org
Religion and Human Enhancement: Death, Values, and Morality. Tracy Trothen and Calvin Mercer, Co-editors. In Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and Its Successors. Calvin Mercer and Steve Fuller, Series Co-editors. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 (paperback, 2019).
Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown Future of Human Enhancement. Calvin Mercer and Tracy Trothen, Co-editors. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2015.
Transhumanism and the Body: The World Religions Speak. Calvin Mercer and Derek Maher, Co-editors. In Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and Its Successors. Calvin Mercer and Steve Fuller, Series Co-editors. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension. Derek Maher and Calvin Mercer, Co-editors. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Republished in paperback, 2014.
Slaves to Faith: A Therapist Looks Inside the Fundamentalist Mind. Foreword by Martin Marty. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2009.
The Writings of Swami Sivananda: A Bibliographical Study. Tilak Pyle and Calvin Mercer. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen, 2007.
Norman Perrin’s Interpretation of the New Testament: From “Exegetical Method” to “Hermeneutical Process.” Studies in American Biblical Hermeneutics 2. Macon, GA: Mercer University, 1986.
Human Enhancement Technology – Living for 500 Years
How would you like to live healthy for 500 years—or longer? Dr. Mercer is one of a growing number of scholars examining the religious and social implications of radical physical, cognitive, affective, moral, and even spiritual enhancements. The following trends and research programs illustrate the broad “radical evolution” front that could, even if indirectly, contribute to extreme longevity and other radical human enhancements: genetic engineering, tissue engineering and organ replacement, merging of computer technology with human biology, scanning technologies, robotics, and nanotechnology. Dr. Mercer is co-author of the award-winning Religion and the Technological Future: An Introduction to Biohacking, Artificial Intelligence, and Transhumanism and co-editor, with UK scholar Steve Fuller, of Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and Its Successors. He was a founding chair of the American Academy of Religion’s “Human Enhancement and Transhumanism Group.” In his various scholarly writings, Dr. Mercer has given focus to the theological implications of superintelligence and to whole brain emulation, commonly referred to as mind uploading. He frequently gives public lectures on religion and radical human enhancement technology.
Extremist Religion
Dr. Mercer is trained in clinical psychology and practiced professionally part-time for over a decade doing psychometric assessment and therapy. He was known as the “go-to” therapist for clients where religion was a factor in their mental distress and/or behavioral dysfunction. In both his teaching and clinical practice, he has worked extensively with fundamentalists. Dr. Mercer gives public lectures on this topic based on his book, Slaves to Faith: A Therapist Looks Inside the Fundamentalist Mind. With a foreword by Martin Marty, the book provides a novel—and controversial—psychological analysis of fundamentalism. Although the book is focused on Christian fundamentalism, the insights are valuable for understanding extreme religion in all traditions and especially so in our post 9/11 climate.