Have you wondered how other churches are responding to the challenge of AI in theological and pastoral settings? Marta Edebol, Chief Commercial Officer at UK based BBFC Technology–where she helps connect industry and government needs with AI product development–is completing her Master’s in Religious and Theological Studies at University College Stockholm on this very question. At February’s meeting of the AI and Theology working group Marta shared her research to date on her thesis, entitled “Artificial Intelligence and the Global Church: A Trinitarian Theological Perspective.” In her presentation she walked us through the ways in which various Christian denominations and church communities in different global contexts understand and respond to artificial intelligence, and how these perspectives can be interpreted through a Trinitarian theological framework. Her study of these communities is exploratory, and combines theological reflection with qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with respondents from multiple denominations.
The presentation highlighted key themes and questions emerging within the global Christian Church, as well as selected Trinitarian concepts relevant to these reflections. When considering how the global church should respond to AI, Edebol takes to heart Tomas Halik’s reminder that Christianity needs to be self-emptying, free from claims of power, and ready to serve all those in need.
She introduced us to the major statements on AI by world churches, noting the range of perspectives and varying comprehensiveness of action plans. Particularly impressive was the NIFEA consultation’s theological communique and action plan, titled “The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IF) and Artificial Intelligence: Impacts on Global Inequality and Faith-rooted Responses.”1 At the global level this document encourages ecumenical networks, so that individual communities are not re-inventing the wheel on policy; ecological integrity; engagements with governments and organizations. They want to empower local churches to engage AI in meaningful ways, but also encourage churches to be places of sanctuary and digital rest. The statement calls on governments to promote ethical AI governance, ensure data sovereignty, develop ecological safeguards, and to protect the rights of vulnerable people. They call on tech companies to include marginalized voices in design, work towards a reduction in ecological harm, and provide new technologies to the global south at no cost to help bridge wealth gaps.2 The document also draws attention to the need for growth and learning in community, noting the unique perspective of Orthodox theology: “The early churches embodied koinonia (Acts 2:42-47) –a shared life of justice, solidarity, and care. Orthodox theology names this relationality as perichoresis, the interpenetrating love of the Trinity.”3
Edebol addressed the ways in which AI technologies are shifting attitudes towards “body retail,” which she defines as the market for prosthetics, cyborgs, organ harvesting, gametes, and surrogacy. “When we normalize the body retail market and then introduce new technology into that market, what will that merger look like…especially when we are surrounded by values that are not driven by being as Christ-like as possible?”4 Edebol noted the growing AI-fueled contradiction that simultaneously promotes both hyper-individualism and a decrease in embodiment through avatars and digital presence in the post-device era. Anti-embodiment is encouraged through (1) the promotion of synthetic intelligence meant to supersede human intelligence, (2) a reduction in human dignity for commercial gain, (3) commodification of relationships, and (4) supplanting genuine human-to-human connections. For Edebol the individualistic, antiembodiment trajectory is “a tech driven worship of commercially driven ambition of the few. Not a worship of our God for all.”5
After summarizing the dangers of hyperindividualism and anti-embodiment in AI growth, Edebol introduced us to her Trinitarian theological framework with which she seeks to counter these two problematic impulses. Through a focus on the first person of the Trinity as Creator and co-Creator, the second person as a model of embodiment, humanness, personhood, and a eucharistic call to discipleship, and the Holy Spirit as a model of service, koinonia, worship, stewardship, and the transcendent made imminent, Edebol seeks to build an ethic of AI policy creation. Through her interviews with representatives of a number of churches on the topic of Trinitarian theology and AI, she has begun to craft a theological view that is informed by both “on-the-ground” experience of AI and faith, and rooted in an understanding of the Holy Trinity as radically relational.
