“You are correct: something is seriously wrong.” This manifesto is an urgent call to arms about the capacity of human attention and what is threatening it today.
I wrote a while ago about a biblical way to construe AI. It’s an analogy, and it goes like this. Just as God made humans to be his image in the world and exercise God’s loving power on his behalf, so we invent tools to take our own God-bearing image Read more
At a fresh reading, the account of the Magi visiting the Christ child in Matthew’s Gospel seems bizarre. Wise men from a faraway land observe such a significant star that they set out for Jerusalem with gifts for a prince. Urged on to Bethlehem by a quote from prophecy (Micah Read more
If you read the passages about wisdom in the Bible as I do, you probably have a sense of a vibrant, intriguing personality whose presence is to be found in all kinds of exciting places. She was there rejoicing at the Creator’s side as he made the Earth, unfurled the Read more
A guest post by Steve Bishop Twenty-five years after the death of Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck (1854–1921), his compatriot Arie B. W. M. Kok lamented that “Bavinck’s person and work no longer receives the appreciation he deserves from our current generation.” But in recent decades this tide has turned, and Read more
What is artificial intelligence? The rapid spread of ChatGPT and its competitors is accompanied by a widespread view that AI is an artificial form of intelligence. This phrase might seem innocuous, but I believe it’s both misguided and dangerous. We commonly take intelligence as an indicator of sentience, because until Read more
The revolution being brought about by generative artificial intelligence (“genAI”) is a profound one. The advent of writing tools like ChatGPT is having far-reaching impacts in many areas of the economy and our societies. Workers can now generate the text of emails, internal reports and even publications in seconds by Read more
As we enter the last few days of Advent, those with good memories may recall that this time last year my four-month-old daughter was starring in our church’s immersive Nativity scene, and I was led to reflect on the enormity of Jesus’s sacrifice in taking on the absolute powerlessness of Read more
A guest post by Mark Gilbert In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), two upstanding men, pillars of their community, cross the road to avoid a wounded man. In contrast, a hated outsider stops, takes pity on him, tends his wounds and pays for a hotel room. It’s Read more
What are universities for? There may be more answers to this question than there are academics in a typical philosophy department. And surely we do need different answers according to who asks the question. The challenge to justify the existence and importance of my academic activities has confronted me increasingly Read more