Shayne Looper: Chatbots coming to a pulpit near you?
In June, hundreds of people attended a service at St. Paul’s Church in Fuerth, Germany. Curiosity was high as people joined in a worship time planned almost entirely by artificial intelligence. Four young-looking avatars, two females and two males, directed music, read Scripture, led prayers and preached.
Attendees videoed the service, as if a celebrity were in the pulpit. Many spoke positively of the experience. Others were not so pleased. Some refused to join in the Lord’s prayer. U.S. News and World Report interviewed a young pastor who expressed surprise at the overall quality of the service yet felt that it lacked emotion and spirituality. Others reported that the sermon had “no soul.”
Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna, conceived of the idea of an AI planned and led service. Though he does not foresee AI taking the place of pastors and worship leaders, he does believe it can help in structuring services and preparing sermons. “Artificial intelligence will increasingly take over our lives, in all its facets, and that’s why it’s useful to learn to deal with it,” he said.
The role of AI in religion, something at least one Christian publisher is currently exploring, remains unclear. I do not believe an AI can do theology. However, a chatbot may be helpful to pastors looking for illustrations, literary quotes, or sermon titles. I suspect that AI will be useful in providing insights into raw linguistic data from biblical texts. But can a chatbot preach a good sermon?
That all depends on how one defines a good sermon. AI, I suspect, is capable of fashioning a sermon in the style of Martin Luther King Jr. It might mimic Dr. King’s cadence, his use of metaphors, and lyrical phrases. But a computer program cannot feel moral indignation. It cannot empathize with its hearers. It cannot hope.
Good sermons are always incarnational. The word of God comes through flesh and blood people to flesh and blood people, people who experience love and rejection, hope and fear. The eternal word of God becomes timely and relevant in the lives of real people with real problems, some who are happy, others who are sad, or shamed, or angry.
A chatbot does not experience sadness or joy, nor does it feel shame. It does not feel anything, Perhaps the word of God can be encoded in a chatbot, but it cannot be incarnated. For that, a human being is necessary.
Chatbots do not communicate with humans; they compile and present data. Communication requires communion, a sharing of life and of mind. Since a chatbot is not alive and is not rational, the kind of sharing humans experience is not possible, though it may be mimicked.
A good sermon comes from a preacher who has been personally impacted by the Scriptures. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “The Word of God is the sole foundation of all Christian proclamation.” Similarly, Karl Barth, arguably the 20th century’s most influential theologian, claimed, “The Word of God is not a human invention but a divine revelation. It breaks into our human existence and calls us to respond in faith and obedience.” The best sermons always come from a preacher whose existence has been broken into by God’s word.
A good sermon is not gauged by its entertainment value, though it may thoroughly capture a hearer’s attention. It does not depend on emotional appeal, though it may bring tears or laughter. It does not merely instruct; a lecture will do that just as well. A good sermon speaks.
Or rather, God speaks. He tells his good news through the preacher to his people. In a good sermon, the hearer encounters God himself for it is his voice he hears in, with, and under the words of the preacher.
Can God speak his word through a chatbot? The Bible records God speaking through a donkey, through dreams, and through angels. He could certainly speak through an AI. But I believe he prefers embodied persons to embedded codes, for “God, the scriptures say, “was manifested in the flesh.” He was not displayed on a monitor.
— Find this and other articles by Shayne Looper at shaynelooper.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Shayne Looper: Chatbots coming to a pulpit near you?
