As teachers prepare for the fall semester, questions surrounding artificial intelligence in the classroom are rising again. Should AI be incorporated into assessments and assignments? How should AI use be monitored? How should we respond if a student uses AI in their paper? I’ve come across a wide range of opinions about AI, both positive and negative, and I’ve never been a fan of the technology in academia. But I wonder if there are appropriate uses for it in other fields. Still, something about the technology seemed problematic to me beyond the potential for cheating and assessment design.
Midway through my summer reading, I was prompted to think about how to read the Bible in the context of Christian tradition, and to my surprise, this clarified my previous wariness of AI. Artificial intelligence profoundly upends the way Christians have talked about formation throughout church history. In other words, AI has un-Christian assumptions and calls into question formative practices.
Lectio Divina
The book that inspired this idea is Hans Boersma’s Through Love: Bible Readings from the Christian TraditionIn it, Boersma discusses the theological foundations and formative practices of Bible reading throughout the medieval church. What Boersma calls “sacred reading,” or lectio divina, is a way of reading Scripture that treats the Word of God as truly sacred. Sacred writings require a sacred reading. The third-century theologian Origen elaborates:
“Above all, devote yourself to the reading of Scripture, but devote yourself to it, for when we read the sacred things, we must be very careful not to say or think anything rash about it. And when you are devoted to reading the sacred texts with faith and an attitude pleasing to God, knock on that closed door, and it will be opened to you. It is not enough to just knock and seek, for the most necessary element is prayer in order to understand the Word of God” (Origen, Letter from Origen to Gregory 4).
It is important to note here that the key to understanding the Bible is not a comprehensive grasp of the historical background, nor a complete understanding of the original languages of the Bible. Mental trainingOf course, history and language are very important (as Origen himself said), but we must not forget that this text was written by God. Therefore, to understand it correctly, we must follow God in our reading, which means virtue. Moreover, we must be aware that this is a process of dedication, attention and prayer. You cannot unlock all the meaning of the Bible by reading one commentary. It takes time and effort.
Medieval Illustrations for Lectio Divina: Eating
Boersma includes many medieval authors in his work, including Hugh of St. Victor, Bonaventure, and Aelred of Rievaulx, but I want to focus on Pope Guigo II and Anselm of Canterbury, especially their discussion of lectio divina as the chewing and eating of food (Boersma, Pierced by love, Chapter 5. Gigó II was a 12th-century Carthusian monk.Number An 18th-century scholar who discussed lectio divina as a means to ascend to the gods. Monk’s LadderHe wrote: “Reading is like putting a whole meal into your mouth; meditation chews it; prayer brings out the flavor. Meditation is the sweetness that gives joy and exhilaration.” (Guigo II, Monk’s Ladder 3) At the heart of this concept of the Bible as a meal is processNow, meditation can only happen in stages – putting food in one’s mouth (reading), chewing its meaning (meditating) and noticing its taste (praying) – only then can the reader feel truly refreshed (meditation).
Similarly, Anselm of Canterbury, the famous theologian and bishop, uses the same words in his book on centuries. Meditations on Human Salvation.
“Shake off your aversions, subdue yourself, and stir up your minds to this end. Taste the goodness of your Saviour, burn with love for him, chew his words like a honeycomb, suck up its taste, which is sweeter than honey, and swallow its wholesome sweetness. Chew with thought, suck with understanding, swallow with love and delight. Chew with delight, suck with delight, swallow with delight.” (Anselm, Meditations on Human Salvation230).
For the bishop, lectio divina begins with chewing (rational inquiry and thought), progresses to inhaling (understanding, or grasping the reality of the passage), and ends with swallowing (rejoicing and revering the meaning). But it would be a mistake to think that this is an easy process, as if lectio divina were as easy as opening the pantry and grabbing a few Oreos. Anselm paints a different picture, inviting readers to “shake off any reluctance” and engage in the difficult process of interpreting Scripture, that is, to “make an effort with their hearts”. Prayer, meditation, and reading themselves are also slow practices that require mental and physical energy. Here Boersma summarizes Anselm: “Lectio divina involves hard work: one must take time to chew on the text itself; moreover, one should be happy to engage in this laborious activity of thinking about what the text means” (Boersma, Pierced by love100). Meditating on God’s Word requires great effort.
Efficiency is not always on our side.
Going back to our use of AI, we don’t just ask how or what Not just employment questions, why This raises the question: why are we so attracted to this technology? I think there are many reasons, but two are central: efficiency and comfort. It is much more efficient to have an AI compose an email or a paper for us than to painstakingly transcribe it word by word, or to read and research it ourselves. It is more comfortable to “outsource” all this work and focus on “important” things, leisure time, or more urgent tasks. In other words, AI is often developed and used to help us skip the usual processes of daily life, the very processes that hold us back.
But latent in this view is the assumption that these tasks have no educational value, as if we are not formed by the process of activity. Of course, this is not just a problem with AI. Many modern technologies have the same objective: to pursue efficiency for the sake of comfort. But if we take something like lectio divina seriously, we realize that the process itself is absolutely crucial and takes years. Is it “easier” to simply receive God’s revelation without doing any spiritual work? Of course. But traditionally we have not seen biblical interpretation that way. There is no infusion that skips the chewing, sucking, and swallowing and brings us the invigoration of contemplation. It is obtained through the process of eating. As Boersma argues, “Lectio divina is an exercise in patience: it resists the temptation to jump immediately into contemplation…Lectio divina is a slow, often painful process that takes seriously the sacramental character of God’s revelation” (Boersma, Pierced by love16).
I’m not saying that lectio divina is the same as writing an email, or that AI has no valuable uses. But in any discussion of AI, we must first ask ourselves: Does the task we’re trying to avoid with AI have educational value? Should we skip this process? Not all processes lead to positive formation, but Christians must (at a minimum) acknowledge that God created us to be shaped by habits and tasks. After all, we are embodied and create in time. We are not embodied … Life The process of sanctification. How the process works shape To grow, we must persevere in the daily practices that will make us better thinkers, people, and followers of Christ. In the Christian tradition, we might be wary of skipping the process, as AI often tempts us to do.
