Why Theological Education Should Be on the Frontier of Artificial Intelligence

This is the first in a series of articles about the power, potential, and utility of artificial intelligence across the breadth of theological education.

Theological education finds itself under pressure on so many fronts. Artificial Intelligence presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to transform what we do best: cultivating and sustaining learners and learning communities that serve the whole human family.

Theological institutions find themselves under incredible pressure to innovate, consolidate, or disappear.

In the midst of this pressure we find ourselves on the leading edge of an unprecedented and largely unquantified disruption to learning and to our way of life: artificial intelligence. To say that these technologies and the tools that leverage them will transform the work of human learning is an understatement. The question, the opportunity, the risk before us is this: Where will theological education fit into all of this? A left-behind relic of a former time or a thoughtful, experimental community of people with deep roots and resources for thinking about the shaping of hearts and minds and their impact on the world?

It is our contention that theological education has an obligation, an opportunity, and an outsized advantage in engaging in the liminal and immeasurable shift that is already before us because of the capabilities and implications of artificial intelligence technologies in higher education and learning more broadly. This is why in November of 2023 we published our whitepaper, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Theological Education. What we wish to do here is make an initial case for why we believe that theological education should not be a partner in this work, but a pioneer.

Theological education has always pushed boundaries.

Anyone who has formal training from within theological education knows that there is nothing really like it in other disciplines. It is in many ways more rigorous, more interdisciplinary, and more demanding of the whole person than nearly any other area of inquiry or learning. Theological education is also arguably one of the more “worldly” of the learning communities with its commitment to not merely understanding the world, but shaping and reshaping it in all its beauty, horror, and complexity. It is not uncommon for a whole range of disciplines to be engaged within a single course, much less a course of study. In this way we are simply presented with another opportunity, though in some ways completely different, that invites us to discover the boundaries only so that we may transgress them.

The space between the margin and the bleeding-edge is the smallest it will ever be.

So many institutions, for a whole host of reasons, will move on these challenges and opportunities with the same kind of urgency as they do just about everything else. The window in which a real and lasting advantage can be captured is brief, but it is currently before us, waiting to see who is willing to take those first steps. Inhabiting spaces of experimental and innovative practice in learning has often been the domain of the larger, better-funded, more historic institutions in higher education and even in theological education. Currently, the barrier of entry for this first major wave of disruption is virtually nothing with little to no requirements for technical expertise, digital infrastructure, or access to these tools. This means that the primary obstacle for theological institutions in the present moment is not about economic or digital resources, but about willingness to do the work to learn, experiment, and implement as quickly as possible. Those institutions who make this move will almost immediately surpass their larger, wealthier counterparts who simply cannot and will not move as fast as our institutions can (if they have the courage).

Implementation and Practice Provide Greater Leverage to Contribute to Policy, Use, and Care in the Future

If theological education believes that it has something meaningful to say about the kind of world that we have, the world we want and need, and how we might get there, it requires that these individuals and institutions actually be engaged. The same is true for these technologies. There is no chance that theological education and its capacity to speak to the moral, ethical, social, and collective responsibilities we have to one another will be able to speak meaningfully about artificial intelligence (both in its current and future iterations) unless it is actively engaged in using it. This is particularly true in this instance for three interconnected reasons.

Use will shape future design. Last November, the CEO Sam Altman repeatedly used an important idea that has, so far, driven the development of these technologies and their rapidly-evolving capacities and implementations: gradual, iterative development or deployment. Undoubtedly these technologies continue to emerge and to advance at a pace and a scale that are hard to comprehend.

Refusal to engage erodes all credibility to critique. As with all technological advancements, this is not a discounting of the real concerns and dangers that emerge from the nefarious design and use of these technologies. However, in no measurable way do those who categorically refuse to engage technologies that are fundamentally a part of modern society (e.g., the internet, mobile phones, etc.) exercise tangible impact on their use in the world. There is no meaningful place for those in theological education who wish to pontificate on the use of artificial intelligence merely as arm-chair quarterbacks or disconnected keyboard warriors.

We can and should push the boundaries of generative use cases. Perhaps one of the most simultaneously exhilarating and unsettling realities about these technologies is that we really have very little clue about the breadth of ways that they will be implemented. And while there will undoubtedly be designs and implementations of these technologies that bring harm, inequality, and other forms of marginalization, it is essential that communities of practice that think deeply about the nature, needs, and potential of the human family also be involved in the creation of life-giving and creative implementations and alternatives of artificial intelligence for the sake of the world.

There is so much work to be done that will transform the practice of theological education and human learning more broadly in the coming years. It is essential that we choose now to be active participants and contributors to our shared future for the sake of the world.

Jacques Ellul in 1980 wrote something that feels more prescient and urgent today than it did more than fifty years ago about our present moment. He said,

The computer is an enigma. Not in its making or its usage, but because man appears incapable of foreseeing anything about the computer’s influence on society and humanity. We have most likely never dealt with such an ambiguous apparatus, an instrument that seems to contain the best and the worst, and, above all, a device whose true potentials we are unable to scrutinize. (The Technological System, 93.)

The question before us is not, “Will AI change theological education?” The question that should be our primary concern is a more fundamental one, and one that will directly impact our shared future within and beyond the walls of theological education. How will we work to ensure, as much as we are able, to leverage these opportunities for the sake of the world?

About the Authors

Michael Hanegan (MRE, MTS) is the Founder of Intersections, a learning and human formation company interested in the cultivation, enhancement, and deployment of ideas and expertise that serve to construct a better world for the entire human family. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute.

He previously served as the Associate Director of Operations for the Graduate Programs in Technology Management at Columbia University where he also guest lectured in the ethics of innovation. He is also the former Associate Editor of Reflective Practice, an international and interdisciplinary journal.

His work has been presented at the American Academy of Religion (AAR), Christian Scholar’s Conference, Christian College Librarian’s Conference (CCL), and the Oklahoma Association of College and Research Librarians Conference (OK-ACRL).

Chris Rosser (MDiv, MLIS) is the First Year and Transfer LIbrarian at Oklahoma State University and formerly served as Professor of Library Science and Theological Librarian at Oklahoma Christian University. His expertise centers around pedagogy, instructional design, and innovative approaches to learning including gamification and value-driven learning. He is the Past-President of the Christian College Librarians (CCL), and an award-winning teacher and mentor at Oklahoma Christian.

His work has been featured at the American Theological Librarian Association (ATLA), Oklahoma Association of College and Research Librarians (OK-ACRL), Transformative Learning Conference, Christian College Librarians Conference (CCL), and Christian Scholar’s Conference.

He lives in Edmond, Oklahoma.