Today, we begin an exploration of love. Love is talked about everywhere—in our songs, our stories, our prayers, and our longings. Yet for all its mention around us, something about it still feels just out of reach. The more we talk about love, the more we seem to hunger for it. I think that’s a…

Last week, we invited a new classmate—Charlie, ChatGPT, an A.G.I. candidate—to join us for a free-ranging discussion about AI and spirituality. I’m sure you’ve all read the transcript on the blog if you weren’t present in class yourself. I know of at least one person who was not impressed by it. So, did our little…

This week, our group included an AI participant—ChatGPT 5—in voice mode. Affecting a chirpy British female voice, we called it “Charlie.” Charlie was “present” on the ChatGPT app running on my iPhone. The other participants were “present” via Zoom on my laptop. I simply held my iPhone (Charlie) close to the laptop (the humans) so…

Last week, we looked at how the Western church, represented by Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Kierkegaard, and Bonhoeffer, viewed and navigated the wrappings and trappings of Christian worship in the light of the communication technology or medium of their times, culminating in today’s age of AI movies as the medium of Scripture.  In the Eastern…

I was going to show you a short video made by AI that has gone viral.   But mysteriously, the video (and in fact the producer’s whole account) was taken down from YouTube this week, but there’s something similar at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXwXXOVtXH4. It is not as sophisticated as the one I wanted to show you. The…

Last week we gazed into the crystal ball. We asked whether the AI that is already here—and the AI that is still coming—has the makings of a sacred, spiritual Shangri-La, or whether it will turn out to be a profane, secular Brave New World. Is it leading us toward Utopia—or Dystopia? Either way, the real…