Developing a theology of artificial intelligence (AI) is challenging, both because AI itself is moving so quickly and because bringing the ancient world of the scriptures into conversation with our own time requires steady wisdom and fresh insight from the Holy Spirit. Proof texting and taking passages out of context will not offer the church the depth and sources it needs, and yet we must ground our theology in the scriptures.
Below are several individual passages I have found myself returning to when I teach or write on faith and technology, and I thought it might be helpful to put them together and refocus them on current questions about AI. There are certainly many more, especially in the opening chapters of scripture, but I have found these nine to be deep wells of insight where the horizons of the text and today meet quite helpfully. For each passage, I offer two paragraphs, one explaining a short summary of interpretation and a second with some practical implications for AI.
1. The Image of God (Gen 1:26-27)
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27-28)
The imago Dei is much discussed, but what exactly is it? Since Augustine’s time, theologians have tended to connect the image with the ability of the human mind (and/or soul) to reason. More recently, the concept of the image of God has been expanded, and it is often described in three categories: substantive (human nature and ability, often reason), functional (humans as representative rulers and stewards of creation), and relational (humans in a unique relationship with God and each other). A simplified alteration of this is capacity, calling, and community.
Interestingly, our own creations, especially AI, challenge all three categories. Even before today’s AI, computers were often able to handle reasoning tasks much better than humans, from basic math to winning at chess (substantive). Today’s AI models are also able to do complex tasks, which means that theoretically, they could manage the Garden more efficiently than humans ever have (functional). Humans are also forming relationships with chatbots and robots, again challenging and an aspect of the image (relational). Our goal, then, should be to encourage people to fully embrace the image, not accidentally ceding it to our creations.
2. God’s Likeness vs. Godlike-ness (Gen 3:4-5)
“Y’all will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when y’all eat from it y’all’s eyes will be opened, and y’all will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:4-5, YALL)
In the story of humanity’s fall, the serpent tempts Eve with a promise that should seem rather hollow. Why would creatures made in the “image and likeness of God” want to become “like God”? The offer is familiar enough to sound almost right, making its distortion into something sinister, subtle, and deceptive. We cannot fault the first couple for thinking this sounded at once like something God would want and yet also that God was holding them back.
Today our desires are warped, humans seem to perpetually desire to move beyond being in God’s likeness and to find something that will give us God-like levels of knowledge and power. In the age of AI, this desire has grown into an aspiration to completely transcend our human limitations, not merely restoring what we’ve lost or accelerating our work, but shifting into the transhumanist desire to claim agency over human nature. As we evaluate tools and their usage, we must keep this temptation before us.
3. Injustice at Scale (Lev 19:6)
Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. (Lev 19:6)
We often read Scripture as if its focus is solely on the morality of an action and the heart behind it. But this command goes beyond the action itself (cheating), and tells us that there is a relationship between our ethics and our creations. In fact, this relationship is so important that this command is repeated across the Hebrew scriptures, appearing in the Pentateuch (Lev 19:6; Deut 25:13-14), in wisdom literature (Prov 11:1; 16:11; 20:23) and in the prophets (Micah 6:11).
First, the passage shows us that tools and technology are always value-laden. This means that, by its design, a tool points its user in a particular direction, even if the user is unaware of its subtle push. Second, this command shows us that the scriptures are not solely focused on individual morality and tools used in one-on-one interactions, like swords. Instead, the biblical witness is also rightly concerned with tools designed to affect large groups of people, like a dishonest scale that could cheat an entire village. In the digital world, we speak of systems that “scale” and how such systems can cheat an entire country, affect elections, birthrate, suicide, truth, and so on. In the age of AI, this ethical injunction is an important reminder that God cares about our actions and our tool creation.
4. The Ethical Responsibility of Makers (Deut 22:8)
When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof. (Deut 22:8)
Today’s homes typically have a pitched roof, but homes in the ancient world were more box-like, with flat roofs. The rooftop would be used as another story, often for sleeping during the heat of the summer. Here in Deuteronomy, the Israelite building code says that a builder must make a short railing or border wall (a parapet, in architectural terms) to ensure safety for those on the roof (especially those who roll around in their sleep).
First, note that the command here is not framed as “if you have to build,” but rather, “when you build,” This assumes and encourages us to build things for human flourishing and cultivating God’s good world. At the same time, we can draw a general principle that makers have an ethical responsibility to think through the moral and immoral uses of their creations, as well as the unintentional consequences and accidental uses of them. To the best of our ability, we should strive to build in safety systems that prevent harm. This is especially true of the AI systems that are both powerful and unpredictable.
5. Alluring Idols (Isaiah 40, 44)
With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him? (40:18)
fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. (44:15)
He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!” (44:17)
They know nothing, they understand nothing; and their minds closed so they cannot understand. (44:18)
The first half of Isaiah contains warnings of coming judgment (1-35) and depicts the judgment that comes on Hezekiah (36-39). Chapter 40 shifts directions and begins to project hope in a coming messiah (who might just be divine!), interwoven with extended reflections on idolatry and images. Isaiah repeatedly contrasts God’s transcendence, power, and goodness with the weak, small, hand-made idols that Isreal has turned to. He goes on to say, if I were to paraphrase: “You take a block of wood and use half for fire and half for an idol. Doesn’t anyone see how crazy this is?”
I like to refer to this as, “Reversing the Image of God.” We were created to worship God and make things but there is an ongoing temptation to worship things and remake God. With our ever-present phones, we use the same glowing screen to consume worthless content or the words of God. The wooden blocks of our ancestors could likewise be used for a number of purposes. In the age of AI, it can be tempting to see these statistical models as having true wisdom, but we must remember that they are mere blocks of silicon. They are useful tools, to be sure, have the potential to become alluring idols (AI), perhaps more than any of our previous creations.
6. Humans Growth and Becoming (Luke 2:52)
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:52)
This passage shows that even Jesus himself, the one who is both fully God and fully human, needed to grow. We know intuitively that humans grow physically, and Luke makes it clear that Jesus follows this normal process (Luke 2:40, 52). But Luke is also reminding us that it’s normal for a human to grow in wisdom. No one, not even the God-man, can immediately do everything. By submitting himself to human weakness (Phil 2), Jesus needs to ask questions to gain understanding (Luke 2:46). What must it have been like to see this child learning through play, experimentation, and what we might normally call “trial and error,” yet apart from the kind of moral error we are accustomed to?
As wonderful and exciting as our AI tools are, they present the opportunity to avoid this kind of growth in our own development. Today, we can generate wise-sounding words without growing in wisdom, just as we can look up the length of a marathon without becoming a runner. Becoming a runner, like becoming wise, requires sustained effort over time. This is what it means to be fully human. Thankfully Jesus modeled this for us, and as we seek to become like him, we too must embrace our human limitations and need to grow.
7. Short Term Gain (Luke 4:3)
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:3)
The temptation of Jesus starts off innocently. Later, when Satan takes Jesus to a high place, shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and says, “If you worship me, it will all be yours” (4:7), we know that is a lie and a temptation to sin. But what about the bread? Why couldn’t Jesus have made himself some food after 40 days of fasting?
The answer seems to be that the commonality among all three temptations is to get something good (food, power, influence) by an inappropriate process and at an unhealthy accelerated timeframe. This is the same offer that often comes with our technology. Certainly, there are accelerations that are unmitigated goods, like the speed of an ambulance. But in many domains of life, from relationships to commerce to learning, new technologies promise ends without considering means, and results without effort or becoming. More than ever with AI, we must be careful not take shortcuts that are immoral or deformative.
8. Mediated and Face-to-Face (2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:13-14)
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete. (2 John 1:12)
This passage has become a classic go-to for pastors, theologians, and critics discussing technology. In both 2 and 3 John, the elder employs a contrast between the communication technology of his day (“paper and ink” in 2 John, “pen and ink” in 3 John) and “face-to-face” which he links to complete joy. I don’t take John as saying that face-to-face is always better than mediated communication. Rather, in-person is an essential baseline (Heb 10:25), but for specific kinds of communication we need wisdom to know the risks and benefits of our mediated tools (1 Cor 5:9; 2 Cor 2:3–4; 2 Pet 3:15).
I’ve been on the lookout for any uses of this passage regarding previous technology, such as the printing press (1500s), telegraphs (1800s), or telephone (1900s), but it doesn’t appear that this passage starts being used until the shift from technologies that extend “information transfer” (telecoms) toward those that approximate “fellowship” (presence), such as television and later the internet. The shift toward today’s chatbots and tomorrow’s robots push this even further. Will we ever experience the “complete joy” of being face-to-face with a friend when we become accustomed to cheery robots and AIs?
9. The End of Work (Rev 18:21-22)
With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down,
never to be found again.
Musicians and trumpeters will never be heard in you again.
No worker of any trade will ever be found in you again. (Revelation 18:21-22)
Revelation begins by addressing the seven churches (1-3), then it introduces the visually powerful imagery of seals (4-8), trumpets (8-11), the dragon (12-14), and the bowls of wrath (15-16). In chapters 17-19, the fall of Babylon finally comes, and while some of it depicts “violent” judgment, this passage is perhaps even more haunting. Here judgment is not beasts and fire, but a loss of human ability, purpose, and dignity. The deeper horror of Babylon’s fall is that it shows us a humanity without artists and musicians, shipbuilders and technologists, makers and cultivators of the earth.
In some ways, this sounds like what several studies have shown happens when people become overly reliant on generative AI. Their productivity initially goes up, but over time their ability to think critically goes down as does the diversity and uniqueness of what they make. Instead of being violently conquered like Babylon, there is a possibility we could be giving up our humanity willingly if unwittingly.
AI is Here!
My goal in arranging these passages is not to present AI as evil, or to argue that we should therefore refuse it. Instead, I believe we are called to be faithful stewards of this time and with these technologies.
I am increasingly convinced that the more powerful the technology, the greater the need for discipline and discernment. This applies not just in moral usage, but in recognizing how powerfully formative (and deformative) they can be. But we cannot do this without the wisdom of God’s word.
AI presents a new challenge to our role and position as image bearers. It offers enormous potential while also challenging our sense of sense of work and vocation. It displays the amazing creative capacities of humanity, while also disrupting our sense of responsibility to each other. As we continue to make and create, I hope these passages are a helpful starting point for doing so with wisdom and care.
Bonus verses!
10. Joy at Work (Eccl. 2:24-26)
A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
11. The Power of Words (John 1:1-3, 14)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Views and opinions expressed by authors and editors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of AI and Faith or any of its leadership.
