Conclusion

Abstract

The Conclusion completes the study by placing its findings in conversation with explorations in the humanities with regard to the “post-human” and “nonhuman.” The chapter notes that Christian descriptions of demonic corporeality reflect shifts and differences in early Christian anthropology insofar as they inversely correlate to articulations of the ideal human body. The early Christian body emerges, then, as a kind of “posthuman” (or, perhaps more appropriately, “prehuman”) entity, a being that is thoroughly enmeshed within its nonhuman cosmic environments—always evolving and materializing through the concomitant development of adjacent nonhuman entities, including demons. The chapter concludes by reflecting on how (ancient) history—the narratives humans tell themselves about themselves—has an enduring importance in informing how humans understand and interact with nonhuman others, and thus has much to contribute to contemporary ecological thought and practice.