Journal of Christian Studies 5/1 Coming Soon

The Journal of Christian Studies 5/1, January 2026, is in the final stages of editing! The theme of JCS 5/1 is "Artificial Intelligence and the Church."

This issue offers philosophically informed and theologically sensitive contributions that address one or more of the following questions: What is artificial intelligence (AI)?  What should the average layman know about AI?  What are the benefits and dangers for society?  As for the risks, what can and cannot actually happen?  What are the implications of AI for the church and its ministries, for human intelligence and relationships?  Should we invite AI into the church and into our homes?

Below is the editor's note and list of contributors.

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Editor's Note:

Technology is one of the obvious pursuits that distinguish human beings from other animals.  Humans take natural elements and make technai, or arts, out of them.  These technologies, by definition shaped and artificial, include tools as means for making work and life easier, as well as products that are more like ends in themselves, made for the enjoyment of their beauty or the entertainment they provide—or some combination of both.  As a means of transportation, for example, some cars are more enjoyable than others. 

When things go well, humans manufacture and shape the technologies in ways that lead to human flourishing.  We are the masters of these arts, these tools, these products.  Technology, however, has always had a sinister side.  The same metal that is shaped into a plowshare, to feed and sustain more and more people, can also be beaten into a sword, to maim and slaughter more and more people.  Certain technologies, moreover, have come to shape and even master us in both predictable and unforeseen ways.  Technology, this distinctly human ability, threatens now to undo humanity as we know it.

Of the many technologies that have been introduced over the last half century, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the greatest potential to shape experience and human nature itself for both good and ill.  As such, AI should not go unquestioned either in society generally or in the church specifically, and so we offer this issue of the Journal of Christian Studies in order to facilitate the necessary conversations.  We sought philosophically informed and theologically sensitive contributions that address one or more of the following questions: What is AI?  What should the average layman know about AI?  What are the benefits and dangers for society?  As for the risks, what can and cannot actually happen?  What are the implications of AI for the church and its ministries, for human intelligence and relationships?  Should we invite chatbots into the church and into our homes?  

As an important aside, and for reasons that will be clarified in my own article in this issue, as editor of JCS, I can assure readers that we have resisted and will continue to resist the use of AI in the production of this journal, which, I observe, is not the case for some other journals and their authors.  (I realize that some uses are perhaps harder to avoid—a simple Google search now alleges to rely on AI to summarize the findings.)  Our authors are instructed not to use generative-AI in the composition of their original articles.  Editors actually take the time to read and edit for content and style with nothing but human eyes.  From start to finish, JCS is a fully human process and product, by the grace, we trust, of the Holy Spirit.  For that matter, as director of the Center for Christian Studies, I can assure our subscribers and participants that the words we present across our other media platforms—video courses, books, live classes, and podcasts—are also free from AI-generated words.

This commitment could be seen by some as backward or even Luddite.  (For the record, we are not opposed to technology.  I have typed this on a computer, and I am aware of what I am gaining and losing by doing so.)  It is probably a commitment to longer hours, and it may mean missing a comma or more here or there.  But it is a commitment to the human, to full ownership of the work, to the process of learning, and to the relationships that are formed and nurtured in the process.  To our subscribers and participants, we aim to model the hard but rewarding work that we believe characterizes your own ministries in your church and family.

Above all, now in its fifth year, JCS remains committed to having the conversations that the church needs to have.  We thank you for your commitment to engaging these conversations in our pages.  We hope that this particular issue will provoke thoughtful engagement with AI and with other technologies that profoundly affect us as individuals and as members of society and of the Lord’s church.

Keith D. Stanglin

Editor

Subscribe today and make sure not to miss this issue!

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Contributors:

Kenan Casey, Matthew Sokoloski, Loren Warf, Wesley Baker (all from Freed-Hardeman University), "Even the Bots Cry Out: A Case Study on the Use of ChatGPT for Spiritual Reflection"

Matthew B. Crawford (Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia), "AI as Self-Erasure"

Daniel Crouch (Harding University), "Artificial Assistance, Spiritual Impediment: AI Chatbots and the Risk to Human Flourishing"

Ethan Laster (Oklahoma Christian University), "Knowing (Digitally) as We Are Known: AI, Prayer, and the Goal of Theology"

Nicholas A. Lewis (Mosaic Church of Rolla) and Daniel Shank (Missouri University of Science and Technology), "Artificial Intelligence as Tools and Mirrors for Ministers"

Keith D. Stanglin (Center for Christian Studies; Harding School of Theology), "AI in Congregational Ministry: Human Nature and the Significance of Process and Product"

Additional Article:

ChatGPT (GPT-5), "Artificial Intelligence in the Church: A Christian Appraisal of Advantages, Disadvantages, Benefits, and Risks"

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