Artificial Theologians
What does it take to be a theologian? Or better yet, what is a true theologian? ChatGPT answered this question: a true theologian is “someone whose thinking about God is shaped by reverence, truthfulness, humility, and love—and whose life is slowly conformed to the reality they seek to understand.” Given how AI LLMs work, with the uncanny ability to sound both personal and profound, it is no surprise that many are turning to AI chatbots for theological growth and insight. The pull to AI to aid in study or answer questions is nearly irresistible.
However, the TGC AI Christian Benchmark demonstrates that AI is generally not a reliable source for theological truth. AI and its usefulness for theology is a cutting-edge issue for seminaries around the world. There may be some limited benefits of AI as a tool for study, such as functioning like a search engine and helping with things like proofreading or citations. But caution is needed on multiple fronts. Just one example is that recent studies suggest that the use of AI could diminish problem-solving and learning skills.
For baking, the integrity of the ingredients is essential for the taste and quality. Most people can tell the difference between a cake made with artificial substitutes and one made with real, natural ingredients. Similarly, over-reliance on artificial intelligence in theology, even with helpful prompts and guardrails, can produce artificial theologians. It takes discipline to avoid artificial substitutes. Theology is based on a relationship with God. The theologian is shaped through the slow process of prayer, meditation, and suffering — a process that AI cannot replicate or replace.
Artificial Intelligence
In theology, there is always the danger of artificiality. The temptation to be an artificial theologian is not new. An artificial theologian may have conceptual knowledge and insight but does not allow the subject of study (God and the Bible) to fully transform them. AI amplifies this temptation. AI can give the appearance of knowledge and skill, while leaving out the process of discipline and discovery — essential ingredients for growth.
We have another word for artificiality in a Christian walk or ministry: hypocrisy. Theological knowledge and skill overly dependent on AI are truly artificial. There is a danger of becoming like the fig tree that was full of leaves but had no figs (Mark 11:13). It may look nice on the outside, but it has no life-giving fruit. At worst, artificiality is a mirage of spiritual vitality. Paul describes this hypocrisy as “the appearance of godliness, while denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:5). “The appearance of godliness” is an artificial display of knowledge and depth without the relationship with the God who is the source of true life.
Theology is not merely an intellectual exercise. If it was, then perhaps the dangers of AI in theology would not be so insidious. True theology involves a relationship with the living God. It is rightly thinking and articulating truth based on God’s revelation and is carried out in the context of a covenant relationship of faith, hope, and love. But AI operates outside this context. At best, it can only imitate this covenant relationship. To be a theologian in the true sense of the term is to be marked by an intimate and transformative knowledge of the holiness of the God who has revealed himself in the gospel.
What is the true purpose of AI? What should it be used for? This is not just a functional question, like asking, “what can AI be used for?” AI can be used relationally; but ethically, it should not be used for that purpose. It should go without saying that a relationship with AI bots in any way is theologically problematic. But its insufficiency for relationships goes beyond that. AI is an insufficient tool for deepening relationships, especially our relationship with God.
Imagine, for a moment, that I asked AI to write a love letter to my wife. I feed in two decades of relationship details, and AI then curates a perfect love letter that embodies my love for her. At the bottom right of the letter, it may even generate a little sketched photo of us holding hands and looking at a sunset.
While the product may be full of meaning and significance, it is still artificial. The effect of the letter would be immediately dampened if I told her that it was produced by AI. She would recognize it for what it is. It may initially look like something that took time and effort, but it is kitschy—a substitute for the real thought and effort that a true love letter requires.
Artificial Intelligence may trick us into thinking we have written a stunning love letter. Likewise, AI can trick us into thinking we produced something profound about God and his word. It would be deceptive, to others and perhaps even ourselves, to present this as though it were the product of our own meditation and wrestling. This is one of the reasons why the use of AI in generating papers, theological artistic expression, poems, sermons, prayers, or songs is ethically wrong. It always contains an artificial ingredient— a substitute for my own reflecting, wrestling, creating, and worshiping. Our mouths should speak the truths that have gripped our hearts (Luke 6:45), not the product of AI.
A Real Theologian
What does it take to be a theologian of sincerity and truth?
Martin Luther lived in a very different world than we do. But what it means to be a theologian now is no different from the 16thCentury. Luther said that a true theologian is marked — not merely by information — by the ingredients of prayer, reflection, and suffering.
1. Prayer
A theologian’s natural position is on their knees in prayerful belief. Luther implores, “Kneel down in your little room and pray to God with real humility and earnestness, that he through his dear Son may give you His Holy Spirit, who will enlighten you, lead you, and give you understanding.” A prayer of repentance, dependence, and faith is the starting point and end point of all real theology.
2. Reflection
To be a theologian requires sustained meditation on God’s revelation. David is an example of someone who “boasts he will talk, meditate, speak, sing, hear, read, by day and night and always, about nothing except God’s word and commandments.” This goes beyond intellectualism and mere data. This process of slow reflection and meditation is the way God, by his Spirit, impresses the words of Scripture into our hearts and lives.
3. Suffering
The real theologian suffers by believing in the gospel, taking up the cross, and following Christ. Real theology meets real flesh-and-bone life. Jesus bids the real theologian to come and die. This ingredient is surprising to us who often think of theologians as polished intellectuals. Luther says that suffering “is the touchstone which teaches you not only to know and understand, but also experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s word is, wisdom beyond wisdom.”
Taste the Real Ingredients
The three ingredients that make a true theologian — prayer, reflection, and suffering — are beyond the reach of advanced AI models. No matter how developed AI becomes in the coming decades, it will never be able to generate these things. That is because to pray, reflect, and suffer as a true theologian is only possible for a redeemed human made in the image of God in covenant relation with him.
This type of theology is an invitation to something good, true, and beautiful. It is a summons to life in Christ that is abundant and real. It is prayerfully sitting in the presence of God and seeking his glory revealed in Jesus Christ (Ps. 27:8; 2 Cor. 4:4). As we do this, we become theologians of sincerity, who are real and approved in the sight of God (2 Cor. 2:17). Compared to the real ingredients, the artificial loses its appeal.