Originally published and presented as the Tyndale Fellowship International Meeting in Derbyshire, UK on July 2, 2025. The abstract is provided below, and the full academic paper can be downloaded in PDF here: Tyndale Conference Paper 2025. I recorded a version of the presentation. This recording can be found on my YouTube page by clicking this link: Tyndale Conference Presentation.

Abstract

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and transhumanist technologies presents both remarkable opportunities and profound ethical challenges for humanity. This paper explores how a theologically grounded understanding of the imago Dei can serve as a guiding framework for engaging with these technologies in ways that uphold human dignity and promote flourishing. Drawing on classical and contemporary philosophical critiques, including Aristotle’s warnings against hubris and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reflections on relationality, this paper applies a theological framework to both AI and transhumanism, offering a critical yet constructive approach. Rather than simply rejecting these advancements, the theological framework emphasizes ethical boundaries that shape technology into tools that enhance human flourishing, while resisting tendencies towards idolatry and self-deification.

The narrative of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11) serves as a theological metaphor for technological hubris, illustrating the risks of seeking autonomy apart from divine purpose. By integrating insights from historical and continental philosophy, this paper adjudicates various arguments presented by transhumanism and technological optimism, emphasizing the need to ground technological progress within a framework that prioritizes relationality, moral agency, and human dignity. The constructive engagement proposed here envisions AI and related technologies as means to enhance human potential when they operate in alignment with the divine purpose embedded in the doctrine of the imago Dei. The goal is not to vilify technology, but to affirm its potential role in human flourishing, while maintaining vigilance against its misuse, thereby ensuring that human identity remains grounded in divine purpose rather than being reshaped by unchecked technological ambition.