What Does It Mean to Be Human in the Age of AI?

With all the hype and speculation around artificial intelligence, its most profound effects have yet to be revealed. The bigger question is not just what AI is doing to our jobs but to our souls—our relationships with God and one another.

In Godlike Power, Russell Haitch cuts through the noise to tell the story of three core developments:



- the push to humanize machines, drawingus into emotional bonds with AIs;

- the drive to mechanize people, rooted in Enlightenment reason and the Industrial Revolution; and

- how God became human, so that humans could become more like God—and how techno-religion proposes a rival path to divinity.



These three stories offer contrasting religious visions. Haitch argues we are now confronted with two rival paths to divinity, and we must choose the right one. Godlike Power argues that the third story—the Christian story of real people becoming like God—offers the timeless and hopeful vision we need, allowing us to journey into the age of AI on a path that leads to life.

AI is the latest chapter in humanity's Promethean quest for godlike power. But it is also a story about our perennial quest for intimacy. Even as AI technology rapidly changes, Haitch argues we need wisdom—something more than superintelligence—to attain the power and love we long for.

With Godlike Power, you can wisely examine AI through a theological lens, enabling you to engage thoughtfully and responsibly with how AI is reshaping our understanding of identity, truth, and what it means to be human.



Russell Haitch (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is professor of theology and human science at Bethany Theological Seminary. His books include Eyes of the Heart: Seeing God in an Age of Science and From Exorcism to Ecstasy: EightViews of Baptism.



1. Unstoppable: AI Takes on a Life of Its Own



2. Boomers and Doomers: We Need to Weigh Both Material Gains and Spiritual Losses



3. Decisions Great and Small: Only You Can Prevent AI Calamities



4. Reading Reality: Data-driven Decisions Will Rely on AI, but Spirit-driven Believers Still Depend on God



5. The Trees in the Garden: AIs Are Built for Intelligence but Interacting with Them Calls for Wisdom



6. The Machine in the Garden: The Long Story of Mechanizing People Culminates in Techno-religion



7. A More Excellent Way: Love, not Intelligence, Is how Christians Become Divine



8. Model Companions: People and Machines Start a New Kind of Relationship



9. Truly Human: How the Risen Christ Transfigures Life into Love



10. Humanizing Machines: Five Ways AIs have Become More Humanlike



11. Humanizing People: Technology Pushes Us Toward Performance, but People are Created for Presence



12. Divinizing Humanity: AI Relationships Pull Us Toward Instrumentality, but People are Created for Intimacy