The Bible is a wonder of God’s revelation. We rightly receive it as a gift of God’s grace for our salvation and sanctification. We, however, don’t often celebrate the Bible as a wonder of technology.

Yet, God used an innovation in bookmaking to spread the gospel, catechize the Church and record his divine revelation. When Jesus entered the synagogue and unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah to read (Luke 4:16–17), he was doing what people throughout the Roman empire did when reading. He unrolled a scroll.

The scroll format was the dominant and prestigious form of literary recording. Despite inheriting this standard format from culture and from their Jewish heritage, Christians quickly embraced and widely used the newer “codex,” that is, manuscripts on pages bound together along one edge.

In other words, Christians were the early adopters of what we recognize as the modern book. This novel invention (excuse the pun) significantly transformed the dissemination of the Bible, because codices were easier to transport, readers could quickly flip a page to find a particular passage, and compilers could organize gospels, histories and letters into one book.

Technology can clearly be used redemptively and missionally.

AI is already deeply integrated into our lives at levels and in ways far beyond our conscious awareness. AI is here. While technology may be harnessed for good, it also carries significant risks.

Geoffrey Hinton — the nobel laureate commonly known as the “godfather of AI” — has led the promotion of a global statement on AI risk, which simply states that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

AI is not merely a technological tweak to help us plan vacations better, optimize medical research or prepare our sermons. It is a technology of extraordinary consequence.

The rapid rise of even more advanced forms of artificial intelligence (i.e., artificial general intelligence or superintelligence) raises serious concerns that outpace theological and ethical deliberation, as well as social and policy guidance. Of course, the risks and rewards of AI are widely and hotly contested.

But this is no reason for Christians to sit and wait for others to sort things out, or to adopt technology for pragmatic reasons without theological reflection. The moment presents an opportunity for us to be cultural leaders and not laggards. Let’s be part of shaping the conversation around AI rather than simply reacting to it.

Walter Kim

Walter Kim became the president of the National Association of Evangelicals in January 2020. He previously served as a pastor at Boston’s historic Park Street Church and at churches in Vancouver, Canada and Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as a campus chaplain at Yale University. He preaches, writes and engages in collaborative leadership to connect the Bible to the intellectual and cultural issues of the day. He regularly teaches in conferences and classrooms; addresses faith concerns with elected officials and public institutions; and provides theological and cultural commentary to leading news outlets. He serves on the boards of Christianity Today and World Relief and consults with a wide range of organizations. Kim received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, his M.Div. from Regent College in Vancouver, and his B.A. from Northwestern University.