Posthumanism, Cyborg Theory, and Theological Perspectives in Tim Foley's Electric Rosary

This article examines Tim Foley’s Electric Rosary through a framework grounded in posthumanist thought and Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory, interpreted through a theological lens. It explores the spiritual emergence of artificial beings by analysing transgressed boundaries, hybrid identities, and speculative possibilities for the sacred. Set in a near-future convent, the play follows Mary, a humanoid robot whose journey from machinic instrument to spiritually responsive subject unfolds through ritual, vision, and relational encounter. Drawing on theological insights of Paul Tillich, Søren Kierkegaard, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the analysis shows how Foley reimagines doctrines such as incarnation, sacrifice, and the Imago Dei through the figure of Mary—an entity composed of circuitry yet embedded in the embodied, social, and symbolic life of the convent. Within Haraway’s framework, Mary becomes a cyborgian theological icon, dissolving traditional separations of nature and artifice, mind and body, organic development and technological construction. Mary’s transformation shows that faith may arise even within fragmented and contradictory identities, thereby challenging anthropocentric boundaries of belief and opening space for new forms of spiritual agency. By situating Electric Rosary within debates on posthumanism, theology, and performance, the article demonstrates how contemporary drama provides a distinctive and necessary medium for reimagining subjectivity, belief, and the sacred in the context of artificial intelligence.