Panel: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION TODAY: TOPICS - METHODS - APPROACHES



155.5 - RELIGION AND THE CHALLENGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS

AUTHORS:
Ozioko J.U. (Pontifical Urbaniana University ~ Vatican City ~ Vatican City State (Holy See))
Text:
This paper explores how artificial intelligence reshapes foundational questions in the philosophy of religion. Rather than asking whether AI can "become" a religious subject, the paper examines how AI challenges and clarifies classical accounts of human rationality, personhood, and transcendence. Drawing on Augustine, Aquinas, phenomenology, and contemporary philosophy of mind, it argues that AI functions as a hermeneutical catalyst: it exposes the limits of reductive models of intelligence and invites a renewed articulation of what is uniquely human. The paper analyses whether AI can meaningfully simulate agency, moral responsibility, or religious experience, and considers how technological aspirations toward artificial persons reflect deeper theological desires for mastery, creation, and transcendence. By integrating metaphysical, phenomenological, and anthropological perspectives, the paper offers a constructive framework for understanding how religious thought can engage AI critically and creatively in an age of accelerating technological transformation.