Generative AI in Theological Education
Generative AI in Theological Education
9 principles for Christian educators
With the arrival of generative AI, educators are rethinking their approaches to teaching.
John Dyer recently proposed 9 principles for Christian educators. Dyer is assistant prof of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He has also written and researched a lot on technology. He’s brought those worlds together in his recent look at gen AI in Christian education. His principles certainly apply to higher ed, but may also be relevant for earlier educators as well.
Dyer’s 9 principles take a high level view of education and technology before diving deeper into AI specifically and it’s relevance across a number of domains.
Among the questions he seeks to answer are:
What is theological education?
Is technology good—and how does it affect humanity?
How does AI challenge us to rethink theological education?
He then explores AI in relationship to…
educational ethics
information acquisition
theological summarization
formational assignments
conversations and human relationships
With each principle, Dyer drives a stake in the ground around what he believes. At the same time, he places his belief in tension with some potential problems created by AI. He concludes each principle by proposing how we might move forward, in spite or because of those tensions.