Spirit in the Machine: Anglican Theology and the Emergence of AI-mediated Spirituality

This paper investigates the theological implications of AI-generated spiritual discourse, exploring how AI chatbots, particularly the Episcopal Church’s AskCathy, are reshaping religious authority and spiritual practice. Employing the CASA framework and practical theological methodologies, it argues that user interactions with AI reflect implicit theological affirmations of algorithmic discourse as genuinely theologically authoritative. Grounded within the Liberal Catholic Anglican tradition, the paper positions technology as integral to creation, asserting the Spirit’s dynamic activity within AI-generated discourse. Ultimately, it proposes a new theological paradigm where algorithmically mediated spirituality meaningfully extends historical Anglican engagements with technological and cultural innovation.