AI isn’t just integrated into your search engine. Hospitals are beginning to use it as a diagnostic tool. Cedarville University just implemented ChatGPT (Edu) campus-wide. Shaw University Divinity School (SUDS) announced the launch of a new EdD program in “AI and Moral Agency.” The first cohort of 12 “bi-vocational and pastoral leaders” begins spring of 2027.
“Artificial intelligence is already shaping decisions in healthcare, criminal justice, hiring, and public policy. Those decisions raise questions of fairness and accountability that technical fields alone cannot resolve,” Dean of SUDS Dr. Mark Harden said. “That is exactly the kind of question theological and moral traditions have spent centuries working on – and exactly the gap this program is meant to fill.”
I asked Drs. Davis and Madueme, both of whom have done work in ethics, to get their perspective. Within three minutes, the concept of ordered affections was already on the table.
“The choice of AI reinforces some unhealthy loves, like a love of convenience over craft and immediacy over struggle,” Davis said. “It reinforces vices I’m already worried about.”
With technology, there is a concept of “cognitive offloading,” where knowledge and memory work are archived on paper or in computer memory.
Madueme asked, “what… happen[s] to us as human beings when … we’re no longer grappling with these things ourselves, say like as Christians we’re no longer pursuing Christ and seeking to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him and so on, but we’re offloading to AI?”
He went on to say, “This is an implication of being made in the image of God. This is how God has made us, and why would we want to offload all of that to this entity that actually doesn’t think, doesn’t really reason morally or ethically at all, actually?”
Does the process of learning necessarily involve relationship? Struggle? The question becomes one of convenience. AI democratizes information, conclusions, and insight to those without access to higher education.
“All things being equal, AI, if you ask the question properly, it’s going to have an answer that’s better than you, than your guess.” Madueme said. “It’s like having a mediocre Bible professor or something.”
Davis called it “an education unto meh.”
I called Shaw University to try and get some clarification on the program, and I got a robot voice telling me, “This call may be recorded and assisted by Artificial Intelligence. How may I help you?”
(In fairness to Shaw, the Associate Dean called me the next day to follow up.)