The Image of God in an Age of Algorithms: Theological Reflections on AI

Wrestling with what it means to be human when machines can think

Rev. John Moelker | October 2025

🤔 THE ANCIENT QUESTION RETURNS

What does it mean to be human?

As AI writes poetry, composes music, and produces sermons, technology has thrust this ancient question back to the center of human discourse with new urgency.

And the Church—custodian of the doctrine that humans are made in the image of God—must have an answer.

The Crisis of Human Identity

⚠️ THE REDUCTIONIST THREAT

Russell Moore, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today:

"The crisis of our age is a radical reducing of human life to a flow of data and information, so much so that some tech pioneers suggest eternal life can be achieved by uploading our minds to a digital cloud."

This isn't hyperbole. Prominent voices in Silicon Valley seriously propose that consciousness is essentially information processing, and therefore uploadable, replicable, and potentially immortal through technological means.

✝️ THE CHURCH'S RESPONSE

Against this reductionist view, the Church must recover and articulate a robust understanding of humanity as imago Dei—made in the image and likeness of God.

"The church in the AI age must recognize that to be human is not about 'stuff' that can be weighed or quantified. We must understand that there's a mystery to life that cannot be uploaded or downloaded or manipulated by technique."

— Russell Moore

What Makes Us Human?

Douglas Rushkoff describes the modern techno-optimist mindset as "the belief that we can code our way out of this mess," presuming that in a world of code, "anything that isn't yet code can eventually be converted to a digital format as easily as a vinyl record can be translated to a streaming file."

But humans are not vinyl records. Christianity has always insisted on this.

The Imago Dei: More Than Information

📖 GENESIS 1:27

"God created humanity in His own image"

What does this mean? The attributes of the image of God include:

Relational Capacity — Made for relationship with God and each other

Moral Agency — We can distinguish right from wrong and choose

Creative Ability — We create, imagine, and bring forth new things

Spiritual Dimension — Souls capable of communion with the Divine

Embodied Existence — Not just minds, but embodied souls

💭 PAPAL WISDOM

Pope Leo XIV emphasizes:

"Our human life makes sense not because of artificial intelligence, but because of human beings and encounter, being with one another, creating relationships, and discovering in those human relationships also the presence of God."

Can AI Be Spiritual?

This question emerged dramatically at the first large-scale AI church service in Germany in 2023. An AI led Protestant Christian worship, delivering sermons and guiding the service. While most responses were skeptical, some participants reported having spiritual experiences.

What do we make of this?

The Distinction That Matters

The Presbyterian Church USA asked the question directly: "Can AI deliver the Word of God?" Their answer is nuanced but clear: AI can provide information about God, but it cannot offer human empathy, sacramental grace, or "the unique anointing of the Spirit in worship and fellowship."

As they put it: "Christianity is not just a theological vocabulary; it's a world its disciples inhabit, constructed through language but also built through communal action and relationship."

AI can analyze massive amounts of data about Christianity and predict the most probable way to describe it. "But disciples of Christ are asked to search for an improbable truth through a larger model of relationship—divine love taking human form."

This is the crucial distinction: Christianity is fundamentally about encounter with a Person, not mastery of information. Jesus didn't say "know about Me"; He said "know Me." That knowing requires the kind of presence that transcends data processing.

The Vatican's Ethical Framework

📜 ANTIQUA ET NOVA (2025)

The Vatican's official document on AI ethics

Central Message: AI must be used as a tool to complement, not replace, human intelligence.

Key Principles from Vatican Teaching

🛡️ FOUR NON-NEGOTIABLES

1. Technology Serves Humanity "Technological progress is part of God's plan for creation, but people must take responsibility for using technologies like artificial intelligence to help humanity and not harm individuals or groups."

2. Human Dignity Is Non-Negotiable All use of AI must respect what is "uniquely characteristic of the human person."

3. Moral Responsibility Cannot Be Delegated Humans, not machines, bear moral responsibility for how AI is used.

4. Beware of Intrinsically Evil Applications The Vatican explicitly calls for banning autonomous lethal weapons as an "existential risk."

The Question of Control and Power

Pope Leo XIV has consistently asked critical questions about AI: "Who directs it and for what purposes?"

This isn't merely technical—it's deeply theological. The concentration of AI power in the hands of a few tech giants raises profound questions about justice, equity, and human flourishing.

The Social Justice Dimension

Pope Leo XIV chose his papal name to honor Leo XIII, who defended workers' rights during the Industrial Revolution. He sees AI as this generation's industrial revolution, requiring the same prophetic social teaching.

His concerns are practical: "If we automate the whole world and only a few people have the means with which to more than just survive, what kind of society are we creating?"

The danger isn't just technological unemployment—it's the creation of a society where human dignity is measured by economic productivity, where those who can't compete with AI are left behind, where "extremely wealthy" people invest in AI while "ignoring the value of human beings."

The Problem of Truth in an AI Age

One of Pope Leo XIV's most pressing concerns is epistemological: how do we know what's true when AI can create convincing falsehoods?

He experienced this personally when a deepfake video showed him falling down stairs. "There was a video somewhere where they had created this artificial pope, me, falling down a flight of stairs... and apparently it was so good that they thought it was me," he recounted.

The question haunts him: "You end up creating a false world and then you ask yourself: What is the truth?"

The Deeper Issue

This isn't just about fake videos or misinformation. It's about the very possibility of truth in a world where reality can be manufactured with increasing sophistication.

Christianity has always been a faith grounded in historical reality—a Word that became flesh, lived among us, died, and rose again. These are truth claims about actual events, not merely spiritual metaphors.

In a world where AI can create any reality it's programmed to create, how do we maintain grounding in objective truth? How do we help people distinguish between what is real and what is merely convincing?

The Church's Prophetic Role

Against this backdrop, what is the Church's calling?

1. Proclaim Human Dignity

In an age that reduces humans to information processors, the Church must proclaim that we are more—we are image-bearers of God, ensouled beings of infinite worth, created for relationship with our Maker.

As Moore writes: "The world has always asked what the meaning of human life is. It is about to start asking what it means to be human at all. That's a final examination question for us all. A robot can give an answer, but that's not enough. We should point to a Person."

2. Ask Hard Questions First

Pastor Bonnie Kristian challenges fellow church leaders to ask "Should we use this technology at all?" before rushing to ask "How can we use it?"

She points to the Amish as a model: they see technology adoption as "a choice subject to real review by the tenets of our faith rather than an inevitability."

We must resist the cultural assumption that every technological capability should be employed. Not everything efficient is good. Not everything possible is wise.

3. Maintain the Mystery

Theologian Kelly Kapic reminds us that "God's highest purpose isn't efficiency." Sometimes the slower, less efficient, more human way is actually better—not despite its inefficiency, but because of what that inefficiency preserves.

There's a reason Jesus spent 30 years in obscurity before three years of ministry. There's a reason He chose twelve disciples to invest in personally rather than writing books to reach the masses. There's a reason He ascended and sent the Spirit rather than staying physically present everywhere through technology.

The incarnation matters. Presence matters. The slow work of formation matters.

4. Create Space for Encounter

If Christianity is fundamentally about encounter with the living God, then church must be one of the few spaces in modern life where that encounter can happen without algorithmic mediation.

This doesn't mean rejecting all technology. It means being intentional about creating space where:

People can be truly present to each other
Silence is valued, not eliminated
Waiting on God isn't optimized away
Mystery is embraced, not explained away
The Holy Spirit can move in unpredictable ways

5. Pursue Justice in the Digital Age

Following Pope Leo XIV's emphasis on social teaching, churches must advocate for:

Ethical development and deployment of AI
Fair labor practices in an automated economy
Protection of privacy and human dignity
Democratic access to AI benefits, not concentration among elites
Regulation that prioritizes human flourishing over corporate profit

Theological Questions We Must Answer

As we navigate this new landscape, several questions demand our sustained theological reflection:

Can AI sin? If moral agency is part of the image of God, and AI lacks that agency, can it be held morally responsible? If not, who bears responsibility for AI's actions—the creator, the user, or both?

Can AI worship? If worship requires intentional, free submission to God, can a program be said to worship, even if it produces worship content?

Can AI have faith? If faith involves trust, relationship, and commitment, can machines have it? Or is faith uniquely tied to the mystery of human consciousness and free will?

Should AI be used in sacraments? Can a person be baptized via robot? Can communion be administered by AI? Most Christians instinctively say no—but why? What does this reveal about the nature of sacraments and the importance of human presence?

Where is the line between tool and replacement? At what point does assistance become substitution? When does multiplication become abdication?

The Path of Discernment

Todd Korpi's book "AI Goes to Church" emphasizes that we need "lasting principles over fleeting technical hacks." Here are some principles for navigating AI theologically:

Principle 1: Human Dignity Over Efficiency

When efficiency and human dignity conflict, dignity wins every time. We're not called to optimize the Kingdom; we're called to love people as image-bearers of God.

Principle 2: Truth Over Convenience

If AI makes it easier to spread information but harder to discern truth, we've made a bad trade. The Gospel is truth, not just persuasive content.

Principle 3: Relationships Over Scale

Jesus invested in twelve disciples, not a marketing campaign to millions. Sometimes small, deep, slow is better than large, shallow, fast.

Principle 4: The Spirit Over the System

We must preserve space for the unpredictable work of the Holy Spirit. Not everything can or should be systematized, even if AI makes it possible.

Principle 5: Wisdom Over Innovation

Just because we can doesn't mean we should. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom—including wisdom about technology.

Living in the Tension

Miroslav Volf, writing in Christianity Today, addresses the transhumanist question head-on. He neither fully embraces nor fully rejects technological enhancement, instead calling for discernment that honors both human creativity (itself part of the image of God) and human limitations (part of our creatureliness).

We live in this tension: AI is both gift and threat, tool and temptation, opportunity and danger.

The question Moore poses remains: "In an age of artificial intelligence, as always, that will be strange enough to save."

Our confidence isn't in our ability to perfectly navigate these tensions. Our confidence is in the God who made us, knows us, loves us, and will not let technology—however advanced—separate us from His love in Christ Jesus.

A Different Kind of Intelligence

Perhaps the most important thing the Church can offer in this moment is a different understanding of intelligence itself.

The world measures intelligence by processing speed, memory capacity, and problem-solving ability—metrics where AI will increasingly surpass humans.

But Christianity has always known a different kind of intelligence: wisdom. The wisdom that comes from above is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere" (James 3:17).

This wisdom cannot be programmed. It's not about information processing; it's about character formation. It comes not from algorithms but from walking with God, being shaped by Scripture, participating in community, and learning through suffering, joy, failure, and grace.

In an age of artificial intelligence, the Church's calling is to cultivate real wisdom.

The Mystery That Saves

We return to Moore's provocation: in an age of artificial intelligence, pointing to a Person rather than a program "will be strange enough to save."

Strange because in a world of instant answers and algorithmic certainty, Christianity offers mystery—a God who became human, died, and rose again. A Spirit who moves where He wills. A Kingdom not of algorithms but of love.

Strange because in a world optimizing for efficiency, Christianity embraces inefficiency—spending hours in prayer, investing years in formation, choosing the slow work of discipleship over the quick work of mass distribution.

Strange because in a world that believes everything can be coded, Christianity insists on the irreducible mystery of personhood, the incomprehensible depth of divine love, the unexplainable work of grace.

But perhaps strange is exactly what's needed. As the world becomes increasingly artificial, maybe authenticity—real human presence, genuine divine encounter, actual transformative love—will stand out as the most radical, most compelling, most powerful force in the world.

Not because we're anti-technology, but because we know a truth technology cannot replace: we are made in the image of a God who cannot be programmed, replicated, or replaced.

And in knowing Him, we find not just information about life, but Life itself.

In our next article, we'll explore the warnings and concerns from church leaders about AI—not to paralyze us with fear, but to equip us with wisdom for faithful engagement.