(RNS) — This summer, Mark Andrew Jefferson, who was leading a teaching workshop at Princeton Theological Seminary, prompted ChatGPT to write a homily based on the Gospel of Luke’s parable of the good Samaritan. For good measure, he ordered the artificial intelligence engine to mimic the style of the late, legendary evangelist Billy Graham. When Jefferson showed the results to the students in his workshop, they were split on the possibilities of AI-generated sermons. Some were enthusiastic, others ambivalent but curious. Yet others were concerned about what it might spell for their future livelihood as preachers: As do many people in any number of vocations, they feared that AI will render humans dispensable.
“Students were excited because we helped them to do some of the work necessary, but also some of them were dismayed because some of them felt like technology was going to do their job for them,” said Jefferson, who teaches homiletics — the art of preaching — at Howard University’s School of Divinity and is CEO of a preaching and leadership consultancy called Maleko Global.
Across the United States, seminaries are contending with the possibilities of AI for clergy and churches. Many, such as United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia and Howard’s School of Divin …
