The Digitalised Image of God: Artificial Intelligence, Liturgy and Ethics

Researcher: Dr Simeon Ximian Xu

Overview

This project aims to explore the extent to which religion and ethics can constructively have dialogue with artificial intelligence (AI) research by the interdisciplinary engagement between AI and the theological idea of the image of God.

Research Themes:

Project Description:

This proposed project aims to deal with two research questions. (1) To what extent and how can we describe AI as the image of the human being who is the image of God? (2) To what extent can such a description of AI benefit AI researchers in tackling ethical issues? In order to address these questions, I will first construct an ontological connection between the human being and AI with the conceptual apparatus of the image of God, bringing the question of artificial consciousness into the foreground. By doing so, it can be seen that religion and ethics are intertwined while engaging theologically with AI research. Following this, I will examine Christian liturgies and moral agency in relation to AI, exploring the question of artificial consciousness in relation to liturgical performances and moral agency. This project will show that, theologically speaking, although AI is ontologically different from the human being, it can be a companion of humankind and serves to extend human ethical actions to the others.

Research Outputs:

Monograph:

If the Image of God Can (Not) Be Digitalised: Artificial Intelligence, Liturgy, and Ethics. Routledge Science and Religion Series (in press).

Publications:

How Virtuous Can Artificial Intelligence Become? Exploring Artificial Moral Advisor in Light of the Thomistic Idea of Virtue. Perspectives on Science & Christian Faith: The Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 76, no.1 (2024 forthcoming).
Eschatology. In The Oxford Handbook of Digital Theology. Edited by Jonas Kurlberg, Alexander Chow, and Peter Phillips. Oxford: Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
Shall We Sanctify Ourselves with Biomedical Technology? A Reformed Appraisal of Moral Bioenhancement. Theology and Science (2024, forthcoming).
Reconsidering Interaction between AI and Religion According to the AI100 Reports. One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100), Stanford University (September 2023). 🔗
Give Us Dutch Neo-Calvinism: Retrieving and Reconsidering Dutch Neo-Calvinism in the Chinese Context. In Modern Chinese Theologies, Volume 2: Independent and Indigenous. Edited by Chloë Starr. 69–88. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2023.
Human Sustainability in the Age of Technology: A Theological Proposal on Technomoral Human Futures. Issues in Science and Theology: Global Sustainability. Edited by Michael Fuller, Mark Harris, Joanna Leidenhag and Anne Runehov. Cham: Springer, 2023. 🔗
A Theological Account of Artificial Moral Agency. Studies in Christian Ethics 36, no. 3 (2023): 642-659. 🔗
Theology as the Science of God: Herman Bavinck’s Wetenschappelijke Theology for the Modern World. Forschungen zur Reformierten Theologie. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022.
How to Make Sino-Reformed Theology Possible? Retrieving Abraham Kuyper’s Proto-Reformed Contextual Theology. Journal of Chinese Theology 8 (2022): 163–185
Confessing Faith: The Freedom of Conscience, Acting Confession and Confessional Allegiance. Horizons: The Journal of the College Theology Society 49, no. 2 (2022): 357–383 🔗
Gloriously Intertwined: A Bavinckian Account of the Single Organism of Dogmatics and Ethics. International Journal of Systematic Theology 24, no. 1 (2022): 80–99 🔗
Did Christ Have a Conscience? Revisiting the Debates on Christ’s (un)Fallen Humanity. Theological Studies 82, no. 4 (2021): 583–602 🔗

Knowledge Exchange:

Understanding AI from a Theological Perspective Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh. 🔗
AI Can Preach and Sing. So Why Can’t It Worship God? Christianity Today 🔗
3 Lessons for Chinese Churches from Herman Bavinck. Christianity Today 🔗
Theologie Herman Bavinck bevat drie lessen voor Chinese kerken. Reformatorisch Dagblad 🔗

Academic Talks:

AI and Christian Liturgy, presented by invitation at the whole school seminar The Digital in Theology and Religious Studies, hosted by the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, 17 January 2024.
Theology and AI: A Brief Introduction, presented by invitation at the conference Theology and AI’ hosted by Chinese Theological Seminary, Rome, Italy. 6 January 2023.
Virtually Virtuous AI and Human Moral Life: A Theological Exploration, presented at the conference Virtuous AI?: Cultural Evolution, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtue, hosted by Centre for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Graduate Theological Union. 24-26 July 2023.
When AI Ministers Come: Christian Pastoral Care and Responsibility, presented at AI and the Christian Churches, School of Divinity.
A Theological Account of Artificial Moral Agency, presented at Edinburgh Theological Seminary Research Seminar, January 2023.
Artificial Moral Agency: A Reformed Appraisal, presented at Bible and Christian Ethics the 2022 annual conference of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics in Cambridge.
Human Sustainability in the Age of Technology: A Theological Proposal on Technomoral Human Futures, presented at 19th European Society for the Study of Science and Theology Conference, May 2022.

Events Organisation:

Artificial Intelligence and the Christian Churches (Co-organised with Dr Michael Fuller), in partnership with the Church of Scotland’s Society, Religion and Technology, 23 February 2023.
Artificial Intelligence in Pastoral Care for the Christian Churches, 30 November 2022.

Grants: