Machines for Making Gods

…Machines for Making Gods is a wonderful addition of Mormonism into the anthropology of Christianity and a compelling demonstration of why scholars of religion should take Mormon theology seriously.– “Mormon Studies Review”Machines for Making Gods is intriguing because the subject matter is so unique–Mormons who embrace cryonics, the singularity, technology, and human enhancement. For those interested in either Mormonism or transhumanism, this is worth a read.– “Choice Reviews”Bialecki takes readers through a fascinating world in a thrilling ethnographic investigation of how and why the Mormon Transhumanist Association flourishes. A brilliant tracing of the complicated kinship between religion and transhumanism, this book is more than a dive into one subgroup but rather a sophisticated theoretical analysis of conditions that make such a group possible.—Taylor Petrey, author of Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern MormonismJon Bialecki’s Machines for Making New Gods is a major work of scholarship–truly impressive in its scope, range, and depth. There’s simply no other book like it, so creative is its composition and canvas. It will force us to reconsider a lot of literature in anthropology and well beyond–on Christianity, on secularity, on media, on matter, and, perhaps above all, on the very boundaries of life.—Matthew Engelke, author of How to Think Like an AnthropologistJon Bialecki’s Machines for Making Gods: Mormonism, Transhumanism, and Worlds without End is a readable and engaging exploration of a subject that will likely surprise people by its very existence.– “H-Net Reviews”

Jon Bialecki is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of A Diagram for Fire: Miracles and Variation in an American Charismatic Movement, which won the Sharon Stephens Prize and was a finalist for the Clifford Geertz Prize.