AI and how it will affect our Christian lives
Even though I am a committed Anglican, I was very pleased to read last week that the first teaching document that Pope Leo has issued is very much applicable for the whole of our Global Christian community to learn and be nourished by.
Pope Leo is an Augustinian monk, as indeed was Martin Luther. In the writings of St Augustine, a distinction is made between ‘two cities: the earthly lead by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; and the heavenly lead by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of our conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, “Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of my head” (Psalm 3:3). — Augustine, The City of God, Book 14, Chapter 28
Pope Leo is quick to point out that AI is not inherently a bad development, but it can be put to good and very bad use. We can use it to construct a Babel or for rebuilding Jerusalem.
He writes “We must the avoid the Babel Syndrome, namely the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a unity that neutralises difference and the presence that a single language – even a digital one – can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance. The risk of dehumanisation – of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means – is an ancient and ever new temptation that today takes on a technical guise.
Pope Leo does not oppose the development of AI, he is positive about the potential and the good that technological innovation can bring to the world, but he is keen to ‘disarm AI’ to make sure it does not become a weapon of oppression in the hands of unelected powerful elite.
Bernhard Schunemann
7 June 2026
