A. I. and Human Flourishing

The fourteenth annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society Ontario and Quebec. A. I. and Human Flourishing Artificial intelligence is reshaping human life at an unprecedented pace—from theological discourses and pastoral ministry to labour, economics, creativity, and even our very understanding of what it means to be human. This conference invites Christian scholars and practitioners to reflect critically and theologically on the implications of technological advancement, and to consider how evangelical communities may faithfully bear witness to the incarnate God amidst a rapidly changing cultural landscape. This conversation has deep roots. Twentieth-century thinkers such as Jacques Ellul cautioned that modern technology is not neutral but forms a “technological society” in which efficiency becomes an ultimate value and propaganda habituates us to its logic. Umberto Eco identified the rise of hyperreality, in which simulations increasingly displace the real. Pope Benedict XVI’s reflections on human development and integral human flourishing further remind us that technological progress must be evaluated according to how it serves—or fails to serve—the dignity and vocation of the human person created in the image of God. More recent scholarship extends these discussions. Matteo Pasquinelli has emphasised the political economy of AI, arguing that AI does not “think” but operates as an apparatus that captures, organises, and exploits collective human labour and cognition. John Lennox has raised theological and ethical questions about the possibility of AI systems assuming roles traditionally linked to human intelligence, moral agency, and relationality. When the simulated and the human can no longer be easily told apart, and when our habits of life quietly conform to technological mediation, the church must pause to reconsider what true human flourishing entails. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore how theological anthropology, ethics, ecclesiology, soteriology, eschatology, and pastoral theology might respond constructively—even prophetically—to the accelerating transformations wrought by AI. Evangelical communities must be both informed and confident that Scripture and the evangelical tradition offer meaningful and necessary resources for discerning what leads to genuine human flourishing.