Attached to Paper Session
Meeting Preference
This paper will give an appraisal of the complex interactions, extant and anticipated, between human and artificial intelligences as they relate to the practice of Christian spirituality. This exploration will be done through a contemplative perspective, giving attention to the teleos of many forms of Christian spirituality, the ability to cultivate an awareness of and receive the presence of God. To state it differently, faciliate, "the conscious experience of God's presence."1
How can this awareness, which necessarily involves the cultivation of self-awareness be enriched and encumbered by new AI related technologies? For example, is it possible to speed up contemplation? Or is the practice of contemplation necessarily a slow process that would be inhibited and not enhanced by technological augmentation?
20th century theologian Walter Wink’s theology of the powers will serve as a conversation partner and source of theological reflection in this work. Specifically, in understanding the nature of and influence of artificial intelligence and related technologies on a spiritually informed, sociological level. Wink draws upon New Testament language in considering the role of power in contemporary society.
He writes, “the principals and powers are the inner and outer aspects of any given manifestation of power” (5).2 An assessment of artificial intelligence in this vein, provides the Christian practitioner with language for understanding the increasingly visible and invisible role that article intelligence will play in the world and in their own life. Also, most forms of Christian spirituality unite the pursuit of contemplation with God with the pursuit of serving neighbor. Power, political, moral, or otherwise becomes a prime consideration for the contemplative when seeking to serve others.
The 14th century mystic Richard Rolle’s theology of the spiritual life, especially as he describes it in his treatise, The Form of Living will serve as a conversation partner on a personal level as it relates to the individual contemplative’s practice of prayer and the spiritual life. Rolle, in writing to a prospective contemplative, offers a traditional injunction to turn away from the outward world and its distractions from God. He writes, “At the outset, turn yourself absolutely to your Lord Jesus Christ. That turning to Jesus is nothing other than a turning from all the acquisitiveness and the gratification and preoccupations and the anxieties of worldly matters” (162).3 An assessment of the some of the ways AI related technologies will distract the practitioner of contemplation and ways they might facilitate contemplation will be explored.
Navigating Christian relationship with others, especially to the differentiated other -- the neighbor who is sociologically or substantially different -- has been at the heart of Christian moral and spiritual reflection since Jesus taught the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). Theological reflection and academic reflection in recent years, has given Chistian theology and spirituality, a greater appreciate and attention to the dynamics of embodiment.4 How being a particular kind of person, among a particular kind of people, within a given historical and cultural milieu shapes the project of Christian spirituality.5
Recent developments in artificial intelligence and anticipation of future developments have brought new complexities to these already complex and nuanced questions about embodiment and human dignity.6 The scribe’s prompt to Jesus, “But who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) is a question that can now be asked of artificial intelligence. The paper will reflect on the possibilities of acknowledging forms of artificial intelligence, as Biblical neighbors, and what this would mean for contemplative practice and more generally ongoing Christian engagement with AI.
Michael Burdett’s theology of technology will help to integrate insights Biblical reflection, as well as the work of Rolle, Wink and others into a provisional approach to contemplative practice in an era of artificial intelligence. Burdett writes, “the mediation between technology and humanity is distinct from other environments in that it is not regulated by anything else. The mediation is not reflected upon so that the thinking individual comes between the individual and technology, and furthermore, no culture exits that might preempt the technological milieu and act as an arbitrating force. It is distinct from all other environments in its discrete totality in dealing with humanity (150).7 The practice of discernment will become an even more essential practice of Christian spirituality in an era where technologies, enhanced by AI, will increasingly become the ordinary environment of human living. This paper will contribute to the ongoing appraisal of these developments as they relate to Christian spirituality, especially as a contemplative way of life and practice.
End Notes
1. Bernard McGinn. The Foundations of Mysticism: Orgins to the Fith Century. New York, NY: Crossroad, 1991. pp. 65.
2. Walter Wink. Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984. pp. 5.
3. Rosamund Allen. ed. Richard Rolle: The English Writings. New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1988.
4. Meredith McGuire. "Why Bodies Matter: A Sociological Reflection on Spirituality and Materiality." In Minding the Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality, edited by Mark S. Burrows and Elizabeth A Dreyer, 118-134. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005.
5. See for an example of theology and spiritual practice in a post-modern context: Elaine Graham: Transforming Practice: Pastoral Theology in an Age of Uncertainity. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1996. For an example of spiritual practice in an African American context see: Barbara L. Peacock: Soul Care in African American Practice. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2020. For examples of how the context of workplace and professional life shapes practice see: Laszlo Zsolnai and Bernadette Flanagan. eds. The Routledge International Handbook of Spirituality in Society and the Professions. London, UK: Routledge, 2019.
6. Noreen Herzfeld. The Artifice of Intelligence: Divine and Human Relationship in a Robotic Age. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2023.
7. Michael S. Burdett. Eschatology and The Technological Future. London, UK: Routledge, 2015.
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
Christian spirituality is inherently relational. As a discipline, Christian spirituality is devoted to the study and practice of being in relationship with God, oneself, others, and all of creation. The development of artificial intelligence and the anticipation of future, more advanced, artificial intelligences, raises questions about the practice and scope of Christian spirituality. This paper explores cautionary and constructive possibilities for partnerships between human beings and artificial intelligence. For example. how can the development of potential artificial consciousness expand the understanding of not only how, but who or what, may practice contemplative Christian spirituality? This appraisal draws upon several ideas and sources, including the 14th century mystic, Richard Rolle, Walter Wink’s social theology, Michael Burdett’s theology of technology, and the practice of contemplative prayer.