Gnosis and the Theocrats from Mars

A novel and distinctive exploration of the nature of modern rationality, with a special focus on the question of secularization.

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.