NASHVILLE (BP) – As artificial intelligence grows in its capabilities, so does the importance of Christians sifting through a growing number of books and other resources that are generated quickly through AI, but bring a host of issues for readers.
Pastor and writer Tim Challies addressed the topic within the backdrop of how it damages the Christian book market, particularly authors whose work is being hodgepodged together with others’ for an entirely different book.
There is also an obvious danger in the products themselves, though.
“Such books represent the commodification of information,” said Challies. “They are not created to better anyone’s life or convey sound doctrine. Rather, they are created to overwhelm the system with books that are low-effort, low-cost, and low-quality, so they can fool buyers and slurp market share away from books that would actually be far superior in every regard.”
The act crosses the line of plagiarism, certainly, with AI slop capable of covering topics in addition to systematic theology, the focus of Challies’ post.
Discussions of AI’s impact have become more common, including in seminary classrooms.
“When reading a book on Systematic Theology, or even an introduction to doctrine, the goal of the reader is to obtain truth and answers about subjects like God, Christianity, or the Church,” Madison Grace, provost and dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, told Baptist Press.
“The reader trusts the author. That trust comes from the assumption that the author is writing authoritatively,” he said. “Self-published and AI-generated works do not provide that same level of engagement and trust. Even if the work pulls from trusted resources, it does not guarantee accuracy in content nor the nuances by which an author presents the writing.
“In sum, it removes the actual process of research and writing from a book.”
Though AI can be useful in some ways, such as finding grammatical mistakes or searching through documents, “the process” that Grace pointed to remains the technology’s biggest gap.
“Interpreting Scripture, engaging with historic confessions and answering doctrinal questions should be undertaken by God’s people, who are empowered by God’s Spirit and recognized as accountable teachers serving the body of Christ,” said Adam Harwood, McFarland chair of Theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
When it comes to theology books, there are several concerns of AI-generated materials.
“Theology books have traditionally been authored by people who can be held accountable for their teachings,” Harwood said. “Scripture refers to teachers and church leaders as giving an account to God (James 3:1; Heb 13:17). AI software cannot give an account to God for its teachings.
“AI-generated theology books are [also] not trustworthy resources for discipleship and spiritual formation in the church and its academic institutions (such as colleges, universities, and seminaries) that train people for Christian ministry. These AI-generated theology books seem to have undergone no editorial review process, including academic peer review, to check for historical or factual errors or problematic interpretations of Scripture.”
Challies referenced an author named Blake Whiting, who apparently publishes up to 13 books a week on a range of complex topics. Whiting, of course, is not a real person.
The genesis of such materials “written” by authors like Whiting damages, if not outright negates, their legitimacy, Harwood added.
“These resources are implicated in deception because they represent a human author who does not exist,” he said.
“AI resources cannot present generic Christian theology because such a thing does not exist. Roman Catholics, Presbyterians and Baptists who write on the Lord’s Supper and baptism, for example, will provide different interpretations of Scripture and recommendations for church practices. People hold distinctive theological views, but AI isn’t a person, and it’s unclear what theological distinctives it would affirm when prompted to write on doctrines on which Christians differ.”
Grace noted that conversations over AI have appeared in classes, at faculty meetings and at every higher education conference he’s attended in recent years. Concerns exist over plagiarism and cheating. But perhaps even more important is for AI to not eliminate the intellectual labor that brings growth.
“We cannot let AI do the work for us,” he said. “Researching and writing about the Bible – in scholarship or from the pulpit – needs to arise from personal engagement with Scripture and a dependence on the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Biblical teaching in either the Church or the academy should come from this personal research of the Bible in its appropriate context within Christianity and our faith tradition. Utilizing AI as a shortcut undermines this process and can even inadvertently introduce unorthodox or heretical teachings.”
An overall point may be that never before has it been so important to graft discernment into academics.
“The slop is coming, and it’s coming fast,” Challies warned. “Just as we learned to filter spam in our inboxes and robocalls on our phones, we will need to learn to filter spam in our reading lists.”
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