Pub Theology 11/18/25 -- Jesus ex machina
Artificial intelligence (AI for the uninitiated) seems to be worming its way into more and more aspects of our daily lives. Or at least AI hype seems to be.
In high schools and colleges we have students using AI to do their homework, in the working world job-seekers are using AI to write and submit job applications while businesses use AI to read and evaluate those applications. Folks are using AI to plan their vacation itineraries, set fitness goals and create workout plans, write recipes, give them relationship advice, to take the place of therapists, and even as stand-ins for real world friends, confidants, or romantic partners. And now it's come for our churches.
Some years back in one of our pre-pandemic conversations, we talked about the role of technology in our faith lives, but at that time the most exotic application we had run across was a "virtual reality Jesus experience" that purported to let users walk alongside Jesus and the disciples through the Gospel narrative. That sounded pretty lame to all of us, including our resident VR enthusiast at the time. Let's just say the technology has ... moved forward ... since then.
Where VR Jesus offered a chance to walk with Jesus, new AI-based apps will let you talk with the Son of God, or at least a chatbot version of the Savior. The Text with Jesus app lets users ask questions of and converse with not just Jesus, but other biblical figures, from apostles to prophets. Apparently the premium version will unlock the ability to chat with Satan too.
Other AI-powered faith resources are out there too, including EpiscoBot, created for The Episcopal Church by TryTank, a research institute associated with the church's Virginia Theological Seminary. This draws on church resources and teaching to respond to faith-based and spiritual queries. For Roman Catholics, apps like One Day Confession and Confession -- Catholic (you can find them in the Apple App Store) help the faithful confession and spiritual reflection. And a California megachurch pastor has created an AI chatbot version of himself to provide one-on-one spiritual guidance, all for the low, low cost of $49 a month. We're not providing a link to that one.
What to make of all this? That's the topic of our conversation this week. To help you think about the issues, here's a link to an article just published in the UK-based web magazine UnHerd, written by a friend of mine, a priest in the Church of England. In it the Rev. Gerry Lynch writes that despite the perils and pitfalls, "Some churches will nonetheless become tempted by the AI hype. They should heed the lessons learnt during the pandemic, when online services and “virtual church” were presented as a God-sent means of Christian revival instead of a regrettable necessity in extreme circumstances." And here's another story on one experiment in having an AI Jesus hear confession at a Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland.
Join us for the discussion this Tuesday evening, Nov. 18, starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion. Word on the street has it that we may even reach out directly, or via text at least, with Jesus himself and see what the Redeemer of Mankind has to say.
