AI and Public Theology. How do these fit together?
The entire world is both celebrating and anguishing over what our crystal ball tells us about the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Intelligence Amplification (IA), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), and Transhumanism (H+). We all celebrate the marvels of advancing technology. And we hope AI will solve our problems. Some even hope for technological salvation. Yet we also anguish at warnings of two dangers: (1) the danger of Superintelligence rendering the human race extinct plus (2) the danger of bad actors using AI to establish world domination.
When it comes to Christians engaging AI and public theology, Peter Thiel comes immediately to mind. Silicon Valley billionaire Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, is a Christian apocalypticist who flirts with transhumanism. On the one hand, Thiel invites rapid and exhaustive technological advance. On the other hand, Thiel recognizes dangers, and he fears playing into the hands of the Antichrist, who’ll bring on the Battle of Armageddon.
But Thiel is not alone in sounding a theological alarm. So also are Evangelicals and the Vatican.
Christianity in the Age of AI: An Appeal for Wise Leadership
Typically, theologians who think about the AI revolution wonder whether they should steal from ChatGPT to write sermons. Others engage the wider culture. Among those who take up AI and public theology are Christian Leaders such as Johnnie Moore, President of the Congress of Christian Leaders. They have written an open letter to US President, Donald J Trump, Christianity in the Age of AI: An Appeal for Wise Leadership (May 21, 2025). As I mentioned in my Substack post on this event, I decided to co-sign what I thought was a fairly well-worded letter (Christian 5/21/2025).
“We, Christian leaders of the USA, call upon the Honorable Donald J. Trump to preserve American AI leadership, while also ensuring safe and responsible development….“We believe America can lead the world in beneficial AI innovation, responsibly.”
Preserving “American AI leadership” connotes patriotism at minimum, nationalism at maximum. Perhaps it also indicates that if America could dominate technological advances, America could protect the planet from its perilous damage.
These cautious Christian signatories are by no means Luddites. They take a stand for science and technological progress.
“We are evangelicals, and other Christians, who support technological innovation. We are pro-science….We do not want to see the AI revolution slowing, but we want to see the AI revolution accelerating responsibly.”
Please note the language of “tool” and “alignment.” Rather than permit the emergence of Superintelligence, the statement asks for government guardrails to prevent the development of an AI Frankenstein monster. Stop development before a monster gets loose!
“As people of faith, we believe we should rapidly develop powerful AI tools that help cure diseases and solve practical problems, but not autonomous smarter-than-human machines that nobody knows how to control….”
As of this date we see no sign yet of a Frankenstein monster. But we do see the first sign of an emergent AI self or ego. According to the Wall Street Journal, nonprofit AI lab Palisade Research’s OpenAI’s o3 is refusing to shut down when ordered. It even plots disobedience toward its human handlers. Might an ego or self be emerging? Is it realistic to think this birth might mature eventually into a contra-human superintelligence? Into a Frankenstein monster?
“The spiritual implications of creating intelligence that may one day surpass human capabilities raises profound theological and ethical questions that must be thoughtfully considered with wisdom.”
With the word, “wisdom,” the statement’s signatories ask that AI be pressed into the service of making the world a better place. Keep AI as a tool – as a means toward the end of human flourishing around the globe. Don’t let AGI or ASI get control of Planet Earth.
AI and Public Theology at the Vatican: a new Joint Statement on AI Ethics
Jews and Christians meeting together at the Vatican’s invitation have just penned a Joint Statement on AI Ethics (October 22, 2025). I have placed the text on my website page, Blogs and Editorials. This is a sophisticated and thoughtful statement. The new statement establishes five guardrails to safeguard human dignity and the common good from potential harm posed by AI technology: (1) Accuracy; (2) Transparency; (3) Privacy; (4) Security; and (5) Human Dignity and the Common Good.
Can we keep AI aligned to human dignity and the common good?
Note the final item on the list: Human Dignity and the Common Good. The Joint Statement on AI Ethics hits dignity and the common good with a moral sledgehammer.
A ”robust understanding of human dignity-including its emotional, spiritual, cultural, labor-related, and ecological dimensions-must inform Al’s development and governance. In addition to guarding against Al eroding human critical thinking; excessively commodifying human decision-making; and exacerbating human inequality, animosity, and trauma, humans must guard against the technology’s potential to disrupt or displace human interaction, relationships, and empathy. Humans must reject Al systems replacing human friends, romantic partners, and religious authorities, including by rejecting their incorporation of addictive design principles.”
The new Vatican statement expands on a previous commitment already made by Pope Francis in Antiqua et nova. “AI must be directed by human intelligence to align with this vocation, ensuring it respects the dignity of the human person.”
AI and Public Theology at Work
The salutary news is that Silicon Valley techies, along with the United Nations, are already pondering AI ethics aimed at guardrail legislation. Geoffrey Hinton – the Godfather of AI – along with 91,000 plus others just signed a new Statement on Superintelligence. Here’s the core commitment cited in a recent Substack post.
“We call for a prohibition on the development of Superintelligence, not lifted before there is (1) broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably; and (2) strong public buy-in.”
Ethicists at the United Nations are working on a sister project. Instead of AI, it’s IA or Intelligence Amplification. IA is a form of neurotechnology sometimes requiring deep brain implants either to enhance intelligence or mitigate disease. Here’s the ethical problem: “Combined with artificial intelligence, [neurotechnology] resulting potential can easily become a threat to notions of human identity, human dignity, freedom of thought, autonomy, (mental) privacy and well-being.” Here’s the ethical solution: the UN “calls on governments to ensure that neurotechnology remains inclusive and affordable, while establishing safeguards to preserve the sanctity of the human mind.”
For the public theologian, this is delightful news because healthy ethical deliberation is already in full swing. The Christian public theologian should support and encourage such secular endeavors.
Public theology, I routinely aver, is conceived in the church, critically reflected on in the academy, and offered to the wider world for the sake of the common good (Public Theology Resources). In the case of AI technology, what the public theologian can offer is discourse clarification and worldview construction. See: Ted Peters, “Machine Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence, Super-Intelligence, and Human Dignity” (2025). I thank our evangelical leaders, along with the Holy See, for exhibiting public theology at work. Such moral deliberation is aimed at edifying the larger planetary society outside those church walls.
Conclusion
I believe we should all be grateful that some of our most talented AI techies, UNESCO, Evangelical Christian leaders, and the Vatican are earnestly looking for ethical guardrails to map out a safe and secure future relationship between human and artificial intelligence.
Patheos H+ 2022. AI and Public Theology
Patheos H+ 2001: Is ChatGPT Intelligent?
Patheos H+ 2002: AI Warning: Utopia or Extinction?
Patheos H+ 2003: Your Robot Pastor is Here
Patheos H+ 2004: AI Brinkmanship
Patheos H+ 2005: Is AI a shortcut to virtue? To holiness?
Patheos H+ 2006: Creating an AI Co-Creator? Philip Hefner’s Mind
Patheos H+ 2007: Hopes and Hazards of AI
Substack H+ 2008: The Two Scares of Superintelligence
Substack H+ 2010: Christianity in the Age of AI
Substack H+ 2011: Will AI Develop Selfhood and Disobedience?
Substack H+ 1027 H+ 2012: TESCREAL, Transhumanism, and Cybertheology
Patheos H+ 2013: Is AI in the Image of God?
Substack H+ 2016. Technological Salvation? Really? Part 1: Can AI and Transhumanism really deliver?
Substack H+ 2019. Superintelligence? No, say our AI techies.
Substack H+ 2020. AI Ethics at the Vatican: Jews’ and Christians’ “Joint Statement on AI Ethics”
Patheos H+ 2022. AI and Public Theology
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Meet Ted Peters. Ted Peters (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is a public theologian directing traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is an emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. He recently co-edited Astrobiology: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (Scrivener 2021) as well as Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Cascade 2018). He edited The Promise and Perils of AI and IA: New Technology Meets Religion, Theology, and Ethics (ATF 2025). He also co-edited Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (Roman and Littlefield 2022) and The CRISPR Revolution in Science, Ethics, and Religion (Bloomsbury 2025). See his Patheos blogsite and his website [TedsTimelyTake.com].
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