![AI and Formation: How Does AI Shape Our Loves? [Silicon Spiritualities - Ep. 2] @thegospelcoalition](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j45x3ZVFFnA/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What happens when AI becomes good enough to simulate spiritual depth?
That question drives this episode with Michael Keller. Michael is lead pastor of Redeemer Lincoln Square in New York City, and he also brings a rare technical perspective to the conversation, having completed doctoral work in computational linguistics using early machine learning methods. In our discussion, he argues that AI can give us information, polish, and efficiency, but it cannot give us the one thing at the heart of Christian life: real relationship. It can help draft a prayer, but it cannot pray. It can mimic understanding, but it cannot know or love a person.
We talk about friction, formation, and the danger of outsourcing the very struggles through which God shapes us. Michael makes the striking point that AI offers the appearance of depth without the cost of it. That is true in ministry, in relationships, and even in our devotional lives. If prayer, preaching, and discipleship become frictionless, something essential is taken from us.
Again and again, Michael brings the conversation back to a richer Christian vision of the human person. We are more than our outputs. We are not defined by efficiency, performance, or the ability to process information. Michael joined me on Silicon Spiritualities to explore what AI can do for us, what it can never do, and why this cultural moment is forcing us to ask afresh what it really means to be human.
*Resources Mentioned:*
_Institutes of the Christian Religion_ by John Calvin - amazon.com/Institutes-Christian-Religion-John-Calvin/dp/1598561685?tag=thegospcoal-20
00:00 Welcome to Silicon Spiritualities
01:30 The AI-written prayer scenario
03:04 Knowledge is not the same as knowing a person
04:31 Why friction can form us
07:09 Can AI help with personal devotions?
09:58 AI, conflict, and the appearance of expertise
11:21 What AI is actually doing under the hood
13:11 Patterns, prediction, and personhood
14:18 “It feels like AI loves me back”
18:16 Where AI can help—and where it cannot
25:00 AI reveals our hunger for relationship
27:05 The image of God in an AI world
30:33 AI cannot take your identity
34:27 AI exposes the cracks in our cultural stories
38:30 Bible passages for thinking about AI
42:15 Why Michael does not use AI to write sermons
45:09 How AI catechizes us
47:28 A Christian counter-catechesis
52:03 What Michael hopes his church will learn
55:31 The sentence every AI tool should display
58:53 If you do not think about how to use AI, it will use you
1:00:06 One “inefficient” habit Michael is keeping
1:03:14 AI and the appearance of depth
1:06:52 Closing thoughts
———————
REGISTER for our 6-week cohort, Get Ready for the Age of AI - thegospelcoalition.org/cohort/getting-ready-for-age-of-ai-2026
PRE-ORDER The AI Apocalypse: A Survival Guide for Humanity - store.thegospelcoalition.org/product/9781956593211/the-ai-apocalypse-paperback
JOIN the conversation on Discord, along with other Silicon Spiritualities listeners - discord.gg/6FDsErApG8
Help The Gospel Coalition renew and unify the contemporary church in the ancient gospel: Donate today - tgc.org/together
#ai #formation #ethics #technology #christianity #altools #christianformation
What happens when AI becomes good enough to simulate spiritual depth?
That question drives this episode with Michael Keller. Michael is lead pastor of Redeemer Lincoln Square in New York City, and he also brings a rare technical perspective to the conversation, having completed doctoral work in computational linguistics using early machine learning methods. In our discussion, he argues that AI can give us information, polish, and efficiency, but it cannot give us the one thing at the heart of Christian life: real relationship. It can help draft a prayer, but it cannot pray. It can mimic understanding, but it cannot know or love a person.
We talk about friction, formation, and the danger of outsourcing the very struggles through which God shapes us. Michael makes the striking point that AI offers the appearance of depth without the cost of it. That is true in ministry, in relationships, and even in our devotional lives. If prayer, preaching, and discipleship become frictionless, something essential is taken from us.
Again and again, Michael brings the conversation back to a richer Christian vision of the human person. We are more than our outputs. We are not defined by efficiency, performance, or the ability to process information. Michael joined me on Silicon Spiritualities to explore what AI can do for us, what it can never do, and why this cultural moment is forcing us to ask afresh what it really means to be human.
*Resources Mentioned:*
_Institutes of the Christian Religion_ by John Calvin - amazon.com/Institutes-Christian-Religion-John-Calvin/dp/1598561685?tag=thegospcoal-20
00:00 Welcome to Silicon Spiritualities
01:30 The AI-written prayer scenario
03:04 Knowledge is not the same as knowing a person
04:31 Why friction can form us
07:09 Can AI help with personal devotions?
09:58 AI, conflict, and the appearance of expertise
11:21 What AI is actually doing under the hood
13:11 Patterns, prediction, and personhood
14:18 “It feels like AI loves me back”
18:16 Where AI can help—and where it cannot
25:00 AI reveals our hunger for relationship
27:05 The image of God in an AI world
30:33 AI cannot take your identity
34:27 AI exposes the cracks in our cultural stories
38:30 Bible passages for thinking about AI
42:15 Why Michael does not use AI to write sermons
45:09 How AI catechizes us
47:28 A Christian counter-catechesis
52:03 What Michael hopes his church will learn
55:31 The sentence every AI tool should display
58:53 If you do not think about how to use AI, it will use you
1:00:06 One “inefficient” habit Michael is keeping
1:03:14 AI and the appearance of depth
1:06:52 Closing thoughts
———————
REGISTER for our 6-week cohort, Get Ready for the Age of AI - thegospelcoalition.org/cohort/getting-ready-for-age-of-ai-2026
PRE-ORDER The AI Apocalypse: A Survival Guide for Humanity - store.thegospelcoalition.org/product/9781956593211/the-ai-apocalypse-paperback
JOIN the conversation on Discord, along with other Silicon Spiritualities listeners - discord.gg/6FDsErApG8
Help The Gospel Coalition renew and unify the contemporary church in the ancient gospel: Donate today - tgc.org/together
#ai #formation #ethics #technology #christianity #altools #christianformation
![AI and Formation: How Does AI Shape Our Loves? [Silicon Spiritualities - Ep. 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j45x3ZVFFnA/mqdefault.jpg "AI and Formation: How Does AI Shape Our Loves? [Silicon Spiritualities - Ep. 2]
What happens when AI becomes good enough to simulate spiritual depth?
That question drives this episode with Michael Keller. Michael is lead pastor of Redeemer Lincoln Square in New York City, and he also brings a rare technical perspective to the conversation, having completed doctoral work in computational linguistics using early machine learning methods. In our discussion, he argues that AI can give us information, polish, and efficiency, but it cannot give us the one thing at the heart of Christian life: real relationship. It can help draft a prayer, but it cannot pray. It can mimic understanding, but it cannot know or love a person.
We talk about friction, formation, and the danger of outsourcing the very struggles through which God shapes us. Michael makes the striking point that AI offers the appearance of depth without the cost of it. That is true in ministry, in relationships, and even in our devotional lives. If prayer, preaching, and discipleship become frictionless, something essential is taken from us.
Again and again, Michael brings the conversation back to a richer Christian vision of the human person. We are more than our outputs. We are not defined by efficiency, performance, or the ability to process information. Michael joined me on Silicon Spiritualities to explore what AI can do for us, what it can never do, and why this cultural moment is forcing us to ask afresh what it really means to be human.
*Resources Mentioned:*
_Institutes of the Christian Religion_ by John Calvin - https://www.amazon.com/Institutes-Christian-Religion-John-Calvin/dp/1598561685?tag=thegospcoal-20
00:00 Welcome to Silicon Spiritualities
01:30 The AI-written prayer scenario
03:04 Knowledge is not the same as knowing a person
04:31 Why friction can form us
07:09 Can AI help with personal devotions?
09:58 AI, conflict, and the appearance of expertise
11:21 What AI is actually doing under the hood
13:11 Patterns, prediction, and personhood
14:18 “It feels like AI loves me back”
18:16 Where AI can help—and where it cannot
25:00 AI reveals our hunger for relationship
27:05 The image of God in an AI world
30:33 AI cannot take your identity
34:27 AI exposes the cracks in our cultural stories
38:30 Bible passages for thinking about AI
42:15 Why Michael does not use AI to write sermons
45:09 How AI catechizes us
47:28 A Christian counter-catechesis
52:03 What Michael hopes his church will learn
55:31 The sentence every AI tool should display
58:53 If you do not think about how to use AI, it will use you
1:00:06 One “inefficient” habit Michael is keeping
1:03:14 AI and the appearance of depth
1:06:52 Closing thoughts
———————
REGISTER for our 6-week cohort, Get Ready for the Age of AI - https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/cohort/getting-ready-for-age-of-ai-2026/
PRE-ORDER The AI Apocalypse: A Survival Guide for Humanity - https://store.thegospelcoalition.org/product/9781956593211/the-ai-apocalypse-paperback
JOIN the conversation on Discord, along with other Silicon Spiritualities listeners - https://discord.gg/6FDsErApG8
Help The Gospel Coalition renew and unify the contemporary church in the ancient gospel: Donate today - https://www.tgc.org/together
#ai #formation #ethics #technology #christianity #altools #christianformation")
![AI and Aging: The Grace of Limits [Silicon Spiritualities - Ep. 6]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mLtGyCNt97c/mqdefault.jpg "AI and Aging: The Grace of Limits [Silicon Spiritualities - Ep. 6]
What happens when a machine offers to give you back someone you love?
That question opens this episode with Autumn Ridenour. We begin with the idea of a “granny bot”: a chatbot built from a dead relative’s messages, voice notes, and emails. It sounds comforting at first, but Autumn helps us see why such technologies do not really preserve communion. They risk replacing grief, memory, and creaturely acceptance with a digital imitation of presence.
Dr. Autumn Ridenour is a Christian ethicist at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the author of books on Sabbath, aging, and the moral challenges of the digital world. She brings biblical depth and Augustinian insight to some of the hardest questions raised by AI. In our conversation, she argues that the digital age tempts us to resist human limits rather than receive them. But dependence, embodiment, and finitude are not defects to be engineered away. They are part of what it means to be creatures before God.
We also talk about Babel, transhumanism, aging, and the difference between simulation and real relationship. Again and again, Autumn points beyond Silicon Valley’s promises to the richer Christian hope of face-to-face communion with God and one another. She joined me on Silicon Spiritualities to explore what AI reveals about our deepest longings, and why no machine can finally satisfy them.
*Resources Mentioned:*
_Sabbath Rest_ as Vocation by Autumn Ridenour - https://www.amazon.com/Sabbath-Rest-Vocation-Enquiries-Theological/dp/0567692884?tag=thegospcoal-20
_Restlessness and Belonging_ by Autumn Ridenour - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1481319744?tag=thegospcoal-20
_A Grief Observed_ by C.S. Lewis - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060652381?tag=thegospcoal-20
00:00 Welcome to Silicon Spiritualities
01:04 The “granny bot” scenario
02:10 Grief, hope, and the reality of death
03:15 Why recreating loved ones with AI is dangerous
05:33 Memory, communion, and faith
07:54 Remembering someone vs. projecting them through AI
11:21 AI as a new Babel
12:00 Babel, power, confusion, and fragmentation
17:41 AI and the concentration of power
20:54 Restless curiosity vs. restful wisdom
23:10 How algorithms train us to keep browsing
25:56 AI is shaping our habits
26:42 Bible passages for thinking about AI
27:16 Sabbath, Genesis, Hebrews, and human limits
27:44 Psalm 115 and the danger of idols
30:29 Romans 12 and the renewing of the mind
32:53 Are we becoming like the machines we made?
34:04 Human limits and the middle voice
35:34 The good of creaturely limits
38:51 AI, chaos, and the loss of boundedness
41:21 Are limits always bad?
42:50 Transhumanism and the desire to exceed the body
43:58 We live on borrowed breath
46:41 The danger of total independence
47:19 AI, parenting, and the “super caregiver” question
50:39 Why caregiving should not be outsourced
53:36 The middle voice: receiving and responding
59:01 Why the real matters in the age of AI
1:00:41 Can AI participate in the middle voice?
1:02:13 AI relationships and narcissism
1:03:52 Aging as vocation
1:05:00 Aging, loss, and growth
1:07:29 Care, cure, and the limits of medicine
1:09:05 The hope of seeing God face to face
1:13:20 AI as an opportunity for the church
1:15:58 Two closing questions
1:16:21 The inefficient habit Autumn is keeping
1:17:37 What AI reveals about Autumn’s heart
———————
PREORDER The AI Apocalypse: A Survival Guide for Humanity, featuring Ridenour, Watkin, Brett McCracken, and many others, such as Ben Sasse and Alan Noble - https://store.thegospelcoalition.org/product/9781956593211/the-ai-apocalypse-paperback
JOIN the conversation on Discord, along with other Silicon Spiritualities listeners.
Help The Gospel Coalition renew and unify the contemporary church in the ancient gospel: Donate today - https://www.tgc.org/together
#ai #formation #ethics #technology #christianity #altools #christianformation")
