Throughout Christian history, technologies have shaped how individuals engage in spiritual reflection—from the codex and the printing press to contemporary digital media. Scholars of digital religion such as Heidi Campbell note that new technological environments often reshape religious practice and authority. Large language models may represent the next stage in this development.
This paper examines the emergence of AI-mediated tools designed to facilitate spiritual reflection through structured dialogue. Rather than delivering doctrinal instruction, these systems function as conversational partners that ask reflective questions, identify patterns across entries, and generate summaries that help individuals articulate what they believe, doubt, or are still exploring. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of “technologies of the self,” the paper argues that AI may represent a new form of religious technology that assists individuals in examining and narrating their own spiritual lives.
By exploring AI as a reflective companion rather than a religious authority, this paper considers how such tools may reshape spiritual direction, faith exploration, and contemporary religious practice.